18
LGBTQ Lessons (Not) learned: Dominant Gender Ideology as a
Basis for Transphobic and Homophobic Violence
Gerald Walton, Lakehead University
In September 2011, the Institute for Canadian Values ran an advertisement177 in the National Post asking that children not be ‘exposed’ to discussions in school about LGBTQ issues. Children’s identities as boys and girls, the Institute reasoned, would be “corrupted.” The Institute presumptuously speaks for all Canadians’ values, but the ad says something significant about the investment we collectively have made in gender. Put bluntly, gender is an ideological force, meaning that the practices by which people indicate to others that they are boys or men, or girls or women, is socially significant and highly regulated. Rather than being fixed and static, gender norms and expectations are dynamic and powerfully shaped through processes of normalization, indoctrination, regulation, and, at times, resistance.
As a concept, gender is hard to pin down but predictable patterns in how gender tends to play out in society can nevertheless be identified. Gender is not simply about two discrete categories of ‘boys’ and ‘men’ (that are presumed to accompany maleness), and ‘girls’ and ‘women’ (that are presumed to accompany femaleness) and the supposed differences between girls and boys, and women and men. Significantly, gender is also about learning and relearning the codes, norms, and expectations of what it means to be a boy, man, girl, or woman, in accordance with cultural, ethnic, and historically specific contexts, and how such codes are reinforced and regulated. Gender, then, provides a framework by which ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ are created.
Children and youth learn the lessons of gender from the day they are born. For most babies, gendering begins with the normative provision of pink blankets for females and blue ones for males. Such gendering continues in most families and is reinforced in schools as children and youth interact with each other and with teachers and administrators. Gender insiders and outsiders are constructed in accordance with those who fall within the scope of ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ gender presentations and those who do not. It is the former group, the gender typical, who is socially privileged on the basis of being gender normative. The latter group, on the other hand, is routinely dismissed as inferior, stigmatized through fear and shaming, and targeted with violence of exclusion if not verbal and physical assault on the basis of being gender atypical.
It is not the case that humans can be so easily dichotomized between insiders and outsiders; many of us are simultaneously insiders and outsiders in different ways and at different times. In general, however, gender outsiders – as atypical – clearly indicate that when people stretch the boundaries of normative gender presentations and expectations, negative reactions from others, ranging from teasing and bullying to verbal and physical violence, are predictable consequences. Transgender activist and scholar Kate Bornstein178 refers to “gender outlaws”179 to indicate that there are indeed rules of gender presentation (clothing, physical and vocal mannerisms, interests, occupations and so on) that adversely affect those who are not gender typical. As gender theorist Judith Butler180 famously points out, norms become norms only through repeated practices that collectively and over time create social convention, foster continual scrutiny, and, when warranted, incite correction. Gender “performativity”181 is that which has become normative and thus not readily noticed by the “performers.” In other words, most people barely even notice the ways that they present their gender every day.
Norms and expectations of gender presentation can also be linked to norms and expectations of sexuality. Sexual orientation is often attributed to individuals on the basis of gender presentation because of widespread assumptions about sexual orientation on the basis of mannerisms, clothing, and ways of moving and talking. Among children, for instance, masculine girls may get taunted with ‘dyke’ regardless of being a lesbian or not, and feminine boys may get called ‘queer’ or ‘fag’ regardless of actual sexual orientation. More cogently, such taunting is likely to target boys and girls who defy their prescribed and normative gender role, namely, masculinity for boys and femininity for girls. Viviane Namaste182 offers the term ‘genderbashing’183 to describe what actually happens during so-called ‘gaybashings’ which tend to target gender transgressors rather than actual gay men and lesbians.
The rules of gender are highly evident in the reactions of others towards students who break them. The term ‘sissy’184 is a usual verbal weapon that targets gender atypical boys. Such boys are perceived as threatening to other boys, that somehow they will infect them with (what are perceived as) their feminine afflictions. To maintain masculinity of other boys, sissies must be rejected or expunged through bullying, ostracism, and violence. In 2008, such panic took a deadly turn when 15 year- old Lawrence King185 was shot to death in Oxnard, California by a male peer because Lawrence King liked feminine jewellery, clothing, and makeup. The King case, as well as other less extreme but daily practices of genderbashing, signifies to all other boys what could happen to them if they do not live up to the social expectations of what it means to act like a ‘real’ boy. In short, violence towards those deemed sissies maintains gender boundaries and highlights how normalcy is constructed and regulated.
177 Salerno, R. (2011, September 29). National Post Apologizes for Running Transphobic Ad. Xtra! Retrieved from http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/National_Post_apologizes_for_running_transphobic_ad-10837.aspx
178 Bornstein, K. (n.d.). It Gets Better [Blog Entry]. Retrieved from http://katebornstein.typepad.com/
179 Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. New York: Routledge.
180 The European Graduate School. (2010). Judith Butler-Biography. Retrieved from http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith- butler/biography/
181 Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
182 Concordia University Arts and Science. (2012). Dr. Viviane Namaste. Retrieved from http:// artsandscience.concordia.ca/research/researchchairs/concordiaresearchchairs/drvivianenamaste/
183 Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (Eds.). (2006). The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.
184 Bergling, T. (2002). Sissyphobia: Gay Men & Effeminate Behaviour. Binghamton: Haworth Press.
185 Cathcart, R. (2008, February 23). Boy’s Killing, Labeled a Hate Crime, Stuns a Town. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23oxnard.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1321884101- PIwrhGNQw44ujCG9hQpQhQ
By comparison to sissies, tomboys186 are generally seen as socially acceptable but only until puberty after which most tomboys, according to Harriet Bradley187, are expected to act and look like gender normative girls. For many parents, gender non-conforming behaviour and interests of their children raise the fear that they will grow up to be gay or lesbian. Medically, gender non-normative people, including children, are sometimes diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder188 (GID), more commonly referred to as gender dysphoria189 which is a diagnostic category of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders190 (DSM). Such ‘dysphoria’ is used to describe people who experience a high and consistent degree of anxiety and unhappiness about their gender identity.
Despite strong social sanction for gender non-conformity, supported by such medicalization, being a sissy or tomboy does not have to be viewed as a condition in need of treatment. Perhaps the ‘problem’ is not gender atypicality at all, but the dominant gender schema191 by which some people are included and considered ‘normal’ and others are excluded and considered gendered ‘freaks.’ Thus, being a feminine boy is widely equated with being weak, which is anathema to normalized ideas about masculinity,192 boyhood, and manhood. Masculine girls tend to incite fears in others that she is or will be a mannish lesbian. Such fears are social prejudices, not just individual ones.
In 2010, Dan Savage and Terry Miller193 launched the It Gets Better194 campaign in response to media attention on several suicides of young gay men195 and those perceived as gay. From what began as one video196 that offered to message to gender and sexuality minority youth that life does get better after high school, the It Gets Better channel on youtube.com has amassed over twenty-two thousand videos, including one from United States President Barack Obama.197 The campaign was widely celebrated. Critics, however, pointed out that gender atypical children and youth, as well as those who are lesbian or gay, should not have to wait198 for their situations to ‘get better.’ For instance, in response to the 300 suicides of youth in Canada in 2011,199 Rick Mercer200 emphatically challenged all LGBTQ adults in one of his weekly Rick’s Rants to come out and be visible so that LGBTQ youth have role models and can see through such modelling, and thus not only will their situations improve over time, but they can be better now.
186 Craig, T. & LaCroix, J. (2011). Tomboy as Protective Identity. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 15 (4). Retrieved from http:// www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10894160.2011.532030
187 Bradley, H. (2007). Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
188 Gender Identity Disorder. (2010, February 18). Retrieved on January 1, 2012 from PubMed Health http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002495/
189 Canadian Psychological Association. (2012). Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Adults. Retrieved from http:// www.cpa.ca/psychologyfactsheets/genderdysphoria/
190 AllPsych Online. (2003). Psychiatric Disorders. Retrieved from
http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html
191 Devor, A.H. (1996). How Many Sexes? How Many Genders? When Two are not Enough. Retrieved from http:// web.uvic.ca/~ahdevor/HowMany/HowMany.html
192 Martino, W. & Frank, B. (2006). The Tyranny of Surveillance: Male Teachers and the Policing of Masculinities in a Single Sex School. Gender and Education, 18 (1), 17-33.
193 Dan Savage. (January 1, 2012). Retrieved January 1, 2012 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Savage
194 It Gets Better Project. (2011). Home. Retrieved from http://www.itgetsbetter.org/
195 An Important Message-From Ellem DeGeneres. (2010, September 30). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_B-hVWQnjjM
196 Itgetsbetterproject. (2010, September 21). It Gets Better: Dan and Terry. It Gets Better Project. Retrieved from http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcVQlo
197 The White House Washington. (2010, October 21). President Obama: It Gets Better. The White House Washington.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g
Facilitating school safety requires curriculum and policy that is inclusive of gender atypical children and youth. National surveys from GLSEN201 in the United States and Egale202 in Canada indicate that gender atypical youth are more likely to be the target of harassment and bullying than their gender typical counterparts.
Some targeted youth demonstrate resilience and resistance in the face of unsafe learning environments. However, it should not be left up to students alone to protect themselves or enact social change in schools. Violence against gender difference should be named in policy203 because homophobia proliferates among children and youth – and sometimes among administrators and teachers. Doing so is not only morally and ethically necessary, but also legally astute to foster cultures in schools that support the actual diversity of students. Increasingly, victims of bullying and their parents are taking teachers and administrators to court204 for lack of effective policies and practices on creating safe learning environments for LGBTQ youth and those so perceived.
Depicting curriculum and policies in schools that address violence against gender atypicality as “corrupting children,” as the Institute for Canadian Values did through The National Post, is not only a bigotry disguised as ‘values’ that operates among religious fundamentalists. Such fears are also evident less obviously in daily experiences of children and youth who are constantly in emotional and physical danger in schools through no fault of their own. It behoves educators and parents to consider gender not as a simplistic duality but as a complex set of social arrangements that creates divisions between insider and outsider, often expressed through forms of violence such as bullying and genderbashing. To insist upon maintaining the dominant gender ideology means to not really care about safety in schools after all, despite claims to the contrary.
198 Wells, K. (2010, October 25). Beyond Homophobia: We need to Make it Better. [Blog Entry]. Retrieved from http:// blog.fedcan.ca/2010/10/25/beyond-homophobia-we-need-to-make-it-better/
199 Rick Mercer Report. Rick’s Rant-Teen Suicide. (2011, October 25). Rick Mercer Report. Retrieved from http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNAZHKIw
200 Rick Mercer. (2011). RickMercer.com. Retrieved from http://www.rickmercer.com/
201 Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. (2012). 2009 National School Climate Survey: Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT Student Experience Harassment in School. Retrieved from http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/ 2624.html
202 Egale Canada. (2011). Youth Speak Up about Homophobia and Transphobia. Retrieved from http://www.egale.ca/? item=1401
203 Walton, G. (2010). The Problem Trap: Implications of Policy Archaeology Methodology for Anti-Bullying Policies.
Journal of Education Studies, 25(2). Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680930903428630
204 Findlay, S. (2011, September 14). Bullying Victims are Taking Schools to Court. MacLeans.ca. Retrieved from http:// www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/14/taking-schools-to-court/