Writing Assignment #1 (512 Words)
“I’m one of one. I’m number one. I’m the only one.” “No one else in this world can think like me” (ALIEN SUPERSTAR Song by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter). In a world where we are all different, we need to find common ground to relate to one another. Gender provides this shared link. Gender, assigned at birth, seems to be how first establish human connection. In middle school, boys would sit together and talk about video games and action figures. And the girls would sit together and talk about makeup and dolls. But how can you be “one of one” when you are constantly given labels to make you similar to one another? In a society where boys and girls sit segregated in the lunchroom, it forces kids to fit into a group. However, gender is socially constructed. You are not assigned a gender at birth; society believes you are a particular gender based on your genitalia.
So when society sees me, they see a male because most of the time, my gender expression fits society’s norms for a person whose sex is male. Unfortunately, I can’t just get away with male passing. Society sees me as a Black male, a dark-skin, black male. Unlike gender, which is malleable, race is not. While race is also a social construction, race is assigned to you based on your skin color. If you are dark-skinned, you are not caucasian; you are not privileged. Throughout history, dark-skinned back men have been seen as savage, dangerous, violent, and less than human. In 1776 and 2023, we say that all men are equal. Although progress has been made towards equality between black Americans and their white counterparts, we aren’t equivalent. In the study, The Mark of a Criminal Record, Devah Pager found that when applying for jobs, White people with a criminal record got more callbacks than black Americans without criminal records. I will live my entire life being black. But I change what gender society perceives me as.
I am Non-Binary. I exist outside of male or female. My pronouns are They / Them. TikTok influencer Soladarling stated, “My pronouns are like an approximation. It’s language that can never contain all of who I am. so when I say my pronouns, are they them I’m just letting you know I would like for you to acknowledge the fact that I am not a man or a woman. You cannot misgender me because my gender is something that is personal and beautiful… it’s unique it’s unprecedented.” When I first heard this, I knew this was the best explanation of my gender. At the time, I couldn’t describe to someone what it meant to be Non-Binary. But now, being Non-Binary is a way for me to tell people. I am not normal. My gender isn’t rigid. I may wear a tracksuit one day and wear a dress the next. I may wear sneakers one day and high heels the next. So, in the words of The Iconic Queen B herself, “I’m one of one.” Carter Vaughn is “the only one.”
Sources:
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/04/03/race-criminal-background-and-employment/
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/pager/files/pager_ajs.pdf
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqjfuImNKL5/?img_index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aT9pAGQo8
https://music.apple.com/ag/song/alien-superstar/1630005848
I really appreciate this explanation of your description of your gender identity (nonbinary or "enby")--I'd love to read/hear more about how this interacts with your racial identity--maybe you can discuss in your full paper!
ReplyDeleteI love your incorporation of Beyonce into your essay and making it personal! It's so you!! I also found it interesting how gender and race are intertwined and it just goes to show that society loves "just because you look like x, y, and z... you're x, y, and z" but it's so not true. We are so unique in different ways that what we look at externally shouldn't define our internal selves. Good job Carter!
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