Sam Smith doesn't want to be a man or a woman. There are more and more supporters of "gender-queer" identity, will gender categories disappear altogether?
It is the clash of two worlds - the virtual (or media) and the one we actually live in - that can be literally devastating. This is evidenced by the growing percentage of people struggling with depression, the increasing numbers of those suffering from eating disorders, and the growing interest in aesthetic surgery. Add to all this the pressure to identify fully with only one role - male or female - and some may find themselves at an impasse. Popular British singer Sam Smith has spoken openly about all this. In fact, he hasn't been happy with his body since childhood and even underwent liposuction at the age of 12. He makes no secret of the fact that he doesn't feel 100% male, so he refers to himself as more of a non-binary genderqueer person...
Theory to start with
In the case of the terms "non-binary" and "genderqueer", first of all, it is important to clarify what their nature is. As human beings, we are all shaped by our environment, and this is also true in the case of gender, i.e. so-called social gender. It is practically a "box" that determines whether we outwardly express ourselves as women or men. This social gender may or may not correspond to biological gender. In such a case - when there is a mismatch between biological sex and gender - we are talking about transsexualism, which is now usually addressed hormonally and by surgical sex reassignment. It is in such a case that many also refer to themselves as non-binary. The term genderqueer, however, goes a little further, rejecting gender categories and continually transgressing their boundaries. Thus, people who identify as genderqueer are making a non-normative expression of themselves, regardless of lived practice. And it is with this model that Sam Smith is in line.
"If you are non-binary and genderqueer, gender is irrelevant to you..."
As the singer said in a 2017 interview, "When I was 17, I was obsessed with Boy George and Marilyn. There was even a time in my life when I didn't own a single piece of men's clothing. I longed to wear makeup, stick-on eyelashes, leggings, Martens and huge fur coats all the time, even to school. I did that for almost two and a half years. Of course I was the target of criticism and ridicule, but there were those who respected me."
The truth is, however, that various alternative identity models are becoming more and more common in society. According to a 2016 survey, nearly 3% of teens refuse to identify with the categories "female" and "male" and identify as genderqueer, genderfluid, or at the very least express some insecurity about who they feel they are.
And according to Smith, anyone who chooses to identify with the genderqueer model is actually a special creature. "I'm not a man or a woman. I think I'm somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Non-binary and genderqueer means you don't identify by gender, you're just you," he summarized. Yet it was this coming to terms with himself that brought Smith not only a chance to come to terms with who he is (he even reportedly considered undergoing a sex change), but also a resolution to his appearance and weight issues. As the singer admitted, he underwent liposuction in his breast area at the age of 12, as it had become significantly enlarged due to high levels of estrogen, a female hormone.
Gender-fluid generation?
And Sam Smith is certainly not the only one who views conventional gender stereotypes with a certain amount of scepticism. As a survey of American millennials indicated, as many as half of them agree that gender is not limited to just two categories, male and female. Indeed, various institutions are already beginning to adapt to this new trend, with some American universities even moving away from referring to male and female students as "he" or "she".
However, if one wanted to add in the same breath that this is a "fashionable wave", one might be surprised to learn that descriptions of gender-differentiated people already appear in the 18th and 19th centuries. What, then, is behind the current increase in people who refuse to identify with traditional gender categories? According to sociologists, the answer is simple - these social transformations are closely tied to growing activism, science and media attention, as people gradually come to realize that identity is much more complex than the categories "woman" and "man" can offer. And so they want to challenge these traditional models and share their stories publicly as well. Pop culture reflects this state of affairs; for example, Netflix has certainly attracted attention with the series Transparent, whose protagonist is a successful man in his fifties, a father of a family, who decides to turn into a woman.
Simply put, some people really can live other lives than just as women and men. Even various online dating sites are already adapting to these changes, expanding the classic gender menu with options such as transgender, non-binary, genderfluid or genderqueer. In general, the Internet has become a great platform for disseminating information that previously penetrated the traditional media very slowly. De facto, everyone can find answers to their questions, and support can also be found by the loved ones or families of people who identify outside the two usual categories. Even today, their journey is by no means easy - according to a study conducted in the USA, up to 41% of people with an undefined gender identity have attempted suicide, compared to 1.6% in the general population. In the case of transgender people, the figure is 30.3% of adolescents aged 12-22.
While there is, of course, no way to predict how the population of non-normatively identifying people will continue to expand, at least according to the statistical data, it is safe to say that society is changing. And one of the concomitant phenomena is the realisation that dividing people into women and men is simply no longer enough.
