For Women’s History Month, Genspect honors female Gender Rebels!

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Slideshow and article by  Jo, Alex Arendt, and two anonymous mothers.

Throughout history, there have been many accounts of women who defied the gender roles and stereotypes that were culturally assigned to their sex. For Women’s History Month, Genspect has collaborated with Jo from @genderebeljo to create a slideshow celebrating some of these “Gender Rebels.”

Jo, a proud butch lesbian in the UK, posts photos and descriptions of gender rebels on Instagram and Twitter, where she caught our attention. We spoke with Jo and asked her what motivates her to do this. Jo explained that she was spurred by a podcast in which Dr. Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist, described her work on gender identity disorder in children. Dr. Bradley described many masculine girls and feminine boys presenting at the gender clinic who believed that something was wrong with them. “(Bradley) suggested that these kids needed to see gender-nonconforming role models and to hear their stories,” says Jo. “l decided to start collecting these stories and tell mine. I wanted to show that there is a long, wonderful history of fascinating gender rebels, those who don’t let society dictate to them what they can or can’t do based on their biological sex. They challenge and break gender roles and stereotypes and march to the beat of their own drum.”

For many decades, gender nonconformity has been linked to homo/bisexuality, neurodiversity, creativity, and giftedness. Lately, however, it seems these well-documented associations are being forgotten. Whereas in the past, gender nonconformity was often seen as an indication that someone may be same-sex attracted, artistic, rebellious, fiercely independent, and/or just plain old eccentric, it is now interpreted as an indication that someone may not  “identify” with her sex! This shift is actively narrowing the bandwidth of what girlhood – and womanhood- can look like. 

These days, young women and girls are being bombarded on social media 24/7 with role models pushing an exaggerated – even distorted – model of femininity. It seems that “tomboys” are now  “transboys” and “androgynous” is now “non-binary.” New labels are one thing… but medical interventions which accompany them is quite another. We need alternative role models that neither deny their sex nor medicalize their healthy bodies. “We can embrace our gender nonconformity and our biological sex,” reminds Jo. 

It’s also very concerning that many gender-defiant women who made history are now often being posthumously “transed” by people with a contemporary political agenda. Historical women who disguised themselves as men did so not because they had an “innate gender identity” but because it was the only way for them survive at that time. Hatshepsut, for example, called herself a “king” and wore a beard because that’s what pharaohs did – not because she was “LBGTQ.”  Likewise, Joan of Arc was not “gender dysphoric”; she dressed as a man to do battle and protect her virginity. Not only is it inappropriate to apply the recent Western concept of “gender identity” to historical women (“There is no way to know if any of them would have identified as trans,”  states Jo), but it also erases their lived experiences resisting sex-based oppression, sexism, and homophobia.

This Women’s History Month, Genspect honors all of the female gender rebels of the past, present, and future. We see you – and we will do what we can to give you visibility!