Phase 1: Context Research + Experts Summary

Background Summary

As someone who is nonbinary, I began this project with my father as an exploration into the roots of gender and identity to enhance our understanding of the topics. I developed a set of questions, identified, recruited, and interviewed 5 experts on gender and identity to see what the current theories in academia are. Statements that include “we” reflect thinking that my father and I did.

The experts we spoke with are people who are studying or have studied a wide range of topics including:

• Feminist theory
• Gender and sexuality studies
• Narrative Theory in Religion
• Trans and Religious Studies 
• Queer Theory
• Social Justice (specifically studying Power and Race relations)
• Student development theory

For the first phase of my project on gender and identity, we did some secondary research and read lots of articles. Then, we decided it was time to talk to some experts. We found five. We asked them some questions, all outlining our main questions of, What is identity? What is gender? and how do they overlap? These questions are important because identity is such an integral part of who we are. It is most certainly not simple, so I will not try to explain its vastness here, maybe later on. It is sufficient to say that Gender is a part of identity; this is important because it was what I wanted to know more about by the end of this project. 

As a nonbinary person, I wanted to explore the relatively new field of gender and queer theory. In this summary of what we have learned, I am writing about where the experts’ thoughts were similar and overlapping, and a bit about where they differentiate. I wanted to know what the experts thought about gender and identity and how they agree or not, and also understand the current thinking about these topics. This is a vastly large subject area, so a few terms might be beneficial to go over: 

Cisgender: identifying with the gender a person was assigned at birth

Transgender: identifying as a different gender than a person was assigned at birth

Nonbinary: identifying as neither or both female and/or male.

Agency versus structure: an (unanswered) argument in the humanities branch of study debating whether the world shapes you, or you are free to choose and build your own identity. For example... 

Agency versus Structure

In our expert interviews, we found that some of the common ideas included the humanities argument of Agency versus Structure. It is an unfinished argument, with many intelligent thinkers writing and disagreeing about it in several different ways. The main question is whether an individual can determine and create their identity on their own, or do the structures - that is the culture and people and norms all around them - force or convince them into an identity. A point made by one of the experts is that this argument is a very Western idea. This structure has both helped people avoid killing each other by normalizing kindness and social rules. It has also hindered humanity’s progress by forcing people into pre-existing boxes. Norms have come and gone, and evolve slowly over time. But they inform a great many things in our day-to-day life, our behaviors, and even our values. Like nowadays, people aren't seen as strange for not being a part of a religious community, which was socially unheard of not that long ago. Like most things, there are positive sides and negative sides to the structures that guide our society. 

The same is true for the agency side of the argument. Agency, which is the theory that people choose and create their own identities, can be both positive and negative. On the positive side, people can be who they want to be without the fear of being perceived as strange. On the negative side, if everyone wanted to make up their own language (of identity), no one would be able to understand each other.

In my opinion, there is a certain amount of agency and structure determining everyone’s identity, just in different ratios. I believe there are different levels of customization that can describe how people manage or build their identities. These include what we can call: template, settings, and maker. 

1. The template kind of identity is just taking what the world around you gives and accepting that. It is heavily structure-oriented. 
2. The second level we call settings, and we see it as more 50%/50%. It is like making settings for what you want to allow to shape you and what you ignore as just part of the system. It’s like customizing your identity, only from a longer preset list of setting options as on a smartphone. 
3. The third level is that of the maker. These brave souls mostly build their identity from “scratch.” They are often seen as outlandish or highly original largely because they take the time to create their own norms.

Thinking about these three types raises some important questions.

• What if there is no such thing as agency? 
• What if some people just seem to be making up their own norms and are really just taking from what is given to them? 
• What if the maker, that artist of identity really has no choice in the matter, and is acting from some deeper norm that drives them to deviate from the existing norms yet may still actually emanate from a structural place? 

Humanity, as a whole, has thousands of years of thinking that the world is made up of mostly binary choices. That's thousands of years of thinking the answer is either yes or no to something. There is male and there is female. But what about nonbinary people who identify as neither or both? There is a lot to change about that strand of thinking, and it certainly will not be easy, with so much momentum saying otherwise, but it must be done. Most of the world is in reality shades of gray, not black and white, and people deserve to have their identities respected. The world is complicated, so we should not try to simplify it, just eat it in smaller bites. 

Even though I told you about how norms are bad, here's another way to think about it! There is power in maintaining norms because they give you an expectation to reach for. However, keep in mind that norms are often created by those who have the power in order to keep it, or as one of our experts, NL, said, “More problematic hierarchical norms come from dominant people with power, wanting to preserve their power and creating norms to make that happen.” 

So now that we know where these norms come from, are they good or bad? Well, a lot of the experts agree that they came from places of privilege and power, and norms can be restricting. So I think it's safe to say that norms can be harmful and we should carefully consider their impact. However, another expert, AK, believes that identity absolutely changes over time. As this happens, AK thinks that this cumulatively “...trickles up into reshaping the systems and the social coercion that presses down and shapes people in these more restrictive ways…” To paraphrase that, peoples’ changing ideas and identities change the culture around them. Why do you think people are now more accepting of LGBTQ+ people than they were previously? This is part of that process of change. Culture and individuals are not the same as they were. But wait, norms were (and still are) also a way to keep control over an oppressed group. Think racism and misogyny. Norms -unfortunately- can also teach people in power, (straight white people and men in these examples) that they can get away with acting like they are better than others whom they are oppressing. It can happen consciously or operate beneath the surface. That is a way privilege factors into this equation. 

We can be many things to many people at the same time and identity is not just one adjective of many. Intersectionality, or salience - the idea that you are multiple identities based on the context you are in, is an important idea to touch upon. If you are a black transgender woman, it is impossible to separate the two parts of your identity; together they make up who you are. But, most of the time, you aren't exactly the same person around everyone you meet. You are code-switching, which is the changing of your behavior to fit into various contexts. Now, how do you remain authentic when you have to fit in? There is a tension there, and that is the tension between being authentic and acculturating. Acculturation is the process of becoming more like those around you. Like for example, if there is a Mexican family living in Texas, the grandparents might speak mostly Spanish, but the grandchildren might be less proficient in Spanish and want to “be more American” by speaking more English. 

Our experts mostly agree on one thing: the process of identity-forming and expressing an identity in the first place moves and changes over time. That means we believe that the agency vs structure discussion is in reality a dynamic force, including both poles. It is more porous and fluid a process informed by an individual need for creative identity formation as well as society restricting that expression. So - it’s messy. This can be a big problem with Western thought, which seems to mostly seek to dominate with rigidity, assert control, and isolate in order to describe just about everything it attempts.

What is Identity?

Identity is who you are. When you think of what makes you yourself, what words come to mind? What do you like to do? What are some values that make up the lines you cannot cross? Where did you grow up? What is your gender? How about your ethnicity? Who are your heroes? All of this and more makes up who you are. You are shaped by those with whom you surround yourself with. If you like to swim, you probably have several friends who swim as well. Maybe you have some swimming posters on your wall? 

The creation of identity is not linear. The expression of identity is one thing; for example, a person can feel or be something with or without expression of it. Meaning, a closeted lesbian is still a lesbian even if she is not acting on that part of herself. Identity is also highly intertwined with affordances and privileges. For example, people living in an urban setting may have vastly different viewpoints and opportunities in life than those in rural settings based on experiences and exposure. We make assumptions based on our experiences. If you are living in a small town with a very religious, closed-minded upbringing, you may make assumptions and not know how to treat people who are different from you with respect simply because you have never experienced that reality before.

A philosopher in the 1970s named Amelie Rorty described identity as a multiple layered concept, deepening our ability to understand what constitutes an identity and colliding everyday concepts such as how we consider a self legally and how property fits into the mix.  

L

This article theorizes that there are 7 layers to an identity: Characters, Figures, Persons, Selves, Individuals, Presences, and Souls. According to the article, agency appears at about the level of Persons, with the beginning of choice-making. The article delves into the connections of the legal world, in property and how we ascribe responsibility to “selves.” There is a grey area differentiating Individuals, Selves, and Persons to us, though it seems related to how much free will and autonomy is assumed and ascribed by society. Not all people may dwell at the same levels in different parts of their lives. 

Let’s take an example from a TV series as an example. The show is called Dark Matter. In the future, 6 Characters awake onboard a spacecraft with no memory of their previous selves. They also awaken or boot up a service Android, whose main function is to manage and pilot the ship. The android has a “glitch” in her programming, which makes her slowly assume more human-like qualities (and less of a machine). She starts out as a factory issued android, merely at the Character level, a mix of nuts and bolts, operating as a set of commands and directives or in our world, traits. Eventually, she has to fight for the crew, who come to think of her as part of the family or tribe. She begins to feel, and learn and taste, and even has a dream while on her charging stand. She evolves and begins to question the nature of her existence. At that point, we might consider her to reach the level of an individual, capable of making choices and having rights and conscience, even if the society in her time of the narrative would likely not give her those rights, and might even seek to destroy or at the least wipe her memory drives.

How is Identity Formed? 

Now, at this point, you might be asking how identity is formed. This is where the argument of agency versus structure comes in. This is where ideas oppose. Now, here are just a few ideas about how identity is formed that seemed pretty neutral, so I’ll try not to be biased to one side of agency versus structure. Identity is a process, both external and internal. You aren’t born the same person that you are when you die. Norms can give you labels and behaviors to better understand yourself and others around you. They can help you fit into certain corners of the human universe. Now, to combine both agency and structure, your values and things you care about are determined by your social context and your identity. In other words, the way people explore the world depends on both who they were born and raised as, and the route they choose to take. 

There is a French theory by Pierre Bourdieu and it is called Habitus. Habitus is a concept of how social forces become momentum, and develop into our collective and individual sense of identity. We found out about this theory from JS, one of the experts we talked to. Another thing he shared with us is that people to whom we relate can heavily influence and shape our understanding and ideas of who we are. Now that is an idea that is very much in line, (if in miniature) with the argument side of structure. But it also applies to people who we look up to, or role models, per se. While saying this, I think it is vitally important to note a contradicting idea from another one of the people we talked to. Identity can also be a creative act (but it doesn't have to be). Individuals get to decide how they present themselves to the world, through hair, clothes, makeup, and other aspects of appearance.

Next up, we will look at a model one of our experts wrote about. In the paper Gender Identity Development Theory: Critiques and New Perspectives, Carson Williams wrote a piece about how gender identity is created - actually that's how we found him. His model explored the idea that there are four stages - foreclosed cisgender identity, gender moratorium, gender diffusion, and commitment to gender identity. Someone who is foreclosed has not questioned what they were told about who they were and identify as. Someone who is in the stage of gender moratorium is busy exploring who they are and are not committing to any labels. It's just about exploration. Someone who is in the stage of gender diffusion is neither exploring nor committing to any labels. And lastly, there is the stage of gender commitment. These people have explored and found labels that describe them. Below is the model that Williams used to explain his ideas in the article. While interviewing him, we found that his ideas were an attempt to build and criticize a semi-famous model that was created for sexual orientation, by James Marcia. 

o

After seeing this model, and to make more sense of it, we altered it, pictured below. They are arranged slightly differently. Williams’ model seems like it's in a flow or process, but when we talked to him, he said it wasn't meant to infer such linearity, and in fact, there are bi-directional arrows. We simply made this nonlinear detail more obvious, by spreading out the sections into a 2 x 2 grid. So while looking at this, you can think about how much movement happens in a period of time, and how this model can be applied to many facets of one’s life, simultaneously. Someone who grew up Christian could stay Christian and stay in the foreclosed section for their whole life, for example. Or someone else could grow up an atheist and explore all kinds of religions, putting them into the Moratorium category. There are so many ways to apply this model to your life. And you are most likely in different places for different aspects of your identity at any given time. 

This model is more of an agency-based model and doesn't really relate to structure. So now we are wondering how a structure-based model might be made. Ok, so how does self-esteem factor in here? Well, if you know what's out there and have found who you are and committed to something, then you are identity-achieved. We’ve explored Identity in some detail, now let’s figure out how Gender fits into it all. 

Gender is huge.

Gender is complicated. Gender is a spectrum, typically described by 3 parts:

• Sexual anatomy is in reality a spectrum, and that is not exactly common knowledge. It is commonly known as what is between your legs, however, people can be born with genetic differences leaving them with genitals or biology that do not fit within what we consider ‘binary.’ This is called intersex. 
• Gender identity is also not binary. More people than ever before are coming out and describing themselves as nonbinary. They are in touch with themselves enough to know that their gender doesn’t fit in any boxes, so they see themselves as nonbinary. 
• Gender expression is not necessarily binary and there are loads of examples to prove this, including people who identify as male and present as female. They are still male, but allow themselves to wear dresses, behave more femininely, etc. 

Gender is so very complicated, but some people argue that there is no such thing as gender, considering it a social construct. The concept and very idea of transgender exists because the gender binary idea exists. With the growth of trans visibility, people are feeling more open to exploring who they are and not just accepting the narrative they are given.

 History and Gender Tropes

Gender has quite a history, but it’s hard to see that a lot of the time because history is so straight-washed. I think it’s important to pay attention to who is writing what you are reading and to be aware of any bias they have. Anyway, with that, let's explore where gender norms come from. Why is domination so intertwined with masculinity? How about if I told you that those ideas are theorized, and probably come from the idea of empire-building and before that, ideals of knighthood. Some believe that the idea of what it means to be a man became all about extending out and claiming land while women become equatable to land and subordination! Then, these tropes spread across the world through forces of colonization. Nowadays, what is expected of women versus men or even nonbinary people, (yes, they are not a new idea) is generally pretty similar. That is a quick explanation of where gender norms, sexism, and misogyny come from.

Self-esteem

What is self-esteem and why are we including it here? I think one of our experts summed it up pretty well. 

“Self-esteem is an equilibrium between individual internal and external expression…” -CW. 

Yet, self-esteem is also having the confidence to be yourself and to share yourself with the world. Another idea to note here is that resilience and self-esteem are related. The ability to pick yourself back up after a tough time is certainly related to self-esteem or self-confidence. Now, for something else, a person’s proximity to and comfort with their identity is highly related to their self-esteem. People feel more confident being themselves, rather than someone else -that is unless you're an actor- but in most cases, you aren't. 

Individuality

Humans tend to be very myopic and shortsighted - that’s why mindfulness is critically important. We tend to collectively focus only on what is in front of us, which makes it quite hard to see the big picture of the world, or of the past and future of this world we are making together. The task of the visionary is to implode and push beyond this myopic, binary thinking. Even though we have many thousands of years of habit, focusing on the black and white of the world, the visionary always has an important job to do. They make the gray of the world more visible and pull us all into new realities, new possibilities. Now, in terms of minorities, or marginal people, “There will never be categories that are uncontested” - the idea of being gay has not been negatively thought of in many cultures until fairly recently and remains variable depending on the local norms and tolerance levels. There has long been punishment for resisting pre-set categories and norms and for being different. When we think about the trope of the artist being bullied at school for not liking sports, that is also an example of this. 

The world is irresolvably vast and complex so there will not always be answers to the big questions pondered by academics. However, when we think about this dilemma, having mindfulness can be just as important.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

This is an important idea for thinkers to keep in their heads: living the important questions. Exploring is better than knowing the answer all the time. Also, this last point is going to be pretty cliche, but authenticity and genuineness is a journey, not a destination. Be patient with your journey through life, and don't forget to enjoy it. 

Overall, I found that Rilke’s quote is important to keep in mind as I was working on this part of the project. We were so lucky to have found a lot of intelligent people to talk to about this and I think that I found some of the right questions to live by and keep close to me. I think I found a fair amount of questions and answers to keep me satisfied. 

In this summary, I talked about the agency versus structure argument, I talked about gender and identity and self-esteem, and a few theories surrounding all of that. We still have many unanswered questions, and we are learning to live in them. One of these questions for me is, how does gender identity relate to choice-making? As we look forward to a future where tolerance is the norm, and freedom a value, it makes me wonder: what does a ‘promised land’ of nonbinary existence look like? 

We are so very thankful to those we learned so much from, and are currently planning our second phase of this research project. Where we hope to learn even more.

Jexa Edinberg 

Ric Edinberg