Page 42 - Fyne Times Spring 2014
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SPRING 2014
42
The first statement ever made about us is
whether we are a boy or a girl. From the
moment the midwife makes this statement,
our lives travel in one of two very different
directions. One involves blue, the other
pink. One involves the pronoun ‘he’, the
other ‘she’. As we grow, we are spoken to
in different ways, expected to like different
things and have very different expectations
placed upon us. But what if neither of these
roles feels right?
Feeling like you are neither a man or
woman is not a new thing and was even
around at the time of Plato’s
Symposium and evidence shows
androgyny appeared in a myth that
Aristophanes tells his audience.
Today, the concept of not fitting
a clear gender role is a concept
the LGBT communityare quite
comfortable with. However,
mainstream society is still very much
segregated into ‘male’ and ‘female’
without much room for manoeuvre.
“The term ‘genderqueer’ resonates
much more strongly with me and
that’s how I personally identify.” Comments
Sam. Living in the heart of London, Sam is
one of a growing number who choose not to
follow their typical gender role and instead
express the gender they feel. “I have always
struggled to feel clear about exactly how I
relate to gender and what my own identity
is. Genderqueer is the closest I have come
to feeling ‘comfortable’ with some kind of
terminology that relates to me.”
“Where I possibly can, I wear guy’s clothes
and use neutral pronouns. That’s how I feel
Queering Gender –
Non-Binary Identities
credit: Abby Chicken Photography
Max Walker: blue-eyed boy or girl next door?
To the outside world, Max Walker is a golden boy: a loving son and brother, the
perfect student, captain of the football team and every girl’s dream boyfriend. But
Max was born intersex - neither fully boy nor fully girl. Now something terrible
has happened to him, the consequences of which have left him questioning
his true identity. Can the people around him - his girlfriend, his classmates, his
ambitious parents - accept him for who he is? Or will Max’s secret life tear his
world apart?
Abigail Tarttelin’s first novel, Flick, was heralded as a slow-burn cult classic by
GQ magazine. She is still only in her mid-twenties but is the Books Editor for
Phoenix fashion magazine, blogs for the Huffington Post and acts in films including the
French/English festival favourite Taxi Rider. And in 2013 she was selected by the Evening
Standard as one of London’s hottest 25 Under 25 in their Power 1000. She lives in London
and is currently working on her third novel.
Connect with her on Twitter at
.
com/abigailsbrain at her website
or on Instagram
.
com/civilizedanimal
