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As a non-binary person, it is easy for me to question societal expecations and challenge gender norms. Being AFAB, I understand the negative effects of toxic masculinity. However, my brother is cisgender and hetereosexual, and may not see how his identity contributes to societal structures.  I like to teach my brother how to be more comfortable in his sexuality and gender by showing him that masculinity is not something that comes from behavior, but from within. In these photos, I have braided his hair in two (albeit mishapen) French braids. Through this, I demonstrate that the art of styling hair or bonding over hairstyles is not exclusive to women.

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As a South Asian AFAB person, I have firsthand experienced the struggles of navigating the beauty standards discussed in the video “Asian American Women Share Struggles With Beauty Standards”. Growing up, I’d hear my relatives coo over my older cousin because of her fair skin. I never got this “respect” because I had brown skin. My mother would berate my for my “messy” hair, which was my curly hair becoming frizzy due to lack of knowledge of how to take care of my curl pattern. She’d make me brush it out and wear it in slicked back hairstyle with coconut oil. My entire family would poke fun at my stomach rolls, despite me being a healthy weight. My mother would say, “If you just lose a little weight, you’ll look good”, resulting in a distorted perception of what I really looked like. Over time, I have gained the understanding that the color and shape of my body is simply that — physical attributes. Now, I wear my natural curls, I wear crop tops and revealing clothes despite my stomach rolls showing, and I love how my skin looks, especially when it is tanned. This photoshoot shows me embracing my natural body. It is also the first time I’ve worn a sports bra out in public, something I’ve always been afraid to do.

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My initital encounters with the word feminism were associated with white women free bleeding, manspreading, and growing out their armpit hair. These actions were celebrated as a ground bbreaking defeiance against the patriarchy. As I grew older, I realized it was easier for white women to challenge the patriarchy compared to women of color. In “Combahee River Collective 1981 A Black Feminist Statement”, the concept of intersectionality in feminism movements is highlighted. When white women experience just sexism, but women of color experience both sexism and racism, it becomes difficult to confront the patriarchy in a way that addresses the concerns of all individuals. Phenotypic differences between white women and women of color, such as course body hair, hyperpigmentation, and darker skin, are used to hypermasculinize women of color, subjecting them to higher higher beauty standards to compensate for the perceived lack of femininity. While white women can celebrate features of their body that allow them to break the boundaries of sex and gender, women of color are demonized. Caster Semanya, a Black South African runner, challenged regulations that aimed to change her naturally higher testosterone levels to lower ones (“Caster Semenya Is Being Forced to Alter Her Body to Make Slower Runners Feel Secure in Their Womanhood"). Meanwhile, Michael Phelps is allowed to compete despite having a lung capacity twice that of an an average male (De Bellefonds). These situations show how women of color face unique challenges in all sectors of life. Women of color, like Semenya, are the true pioneers of the feminist movement because their fight includes intersectionality. My display of feminism comes from my understanding of the struggles that South Asian women go through. South Asian women tend to have thicker, darker body hair, which makes them the butt of far too many jokes. I actively choose to not shave my legs, arms, or facial hair to show that my femininity cannot be questioned. In this photo, I purposely emphasized my facial hair to demonstrate that despite showing the traits of an average cis man, my connection to my femininity remains.

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The way I express my masculinity is through a satirical lens. I enjoy occasionally dressing up from time to time as a stereotypical playboy who embodies toxic masculinity. I draw on a beard, wear baggy clothes and a chain, and listen to popular music amongst hyper masculine men. This approach allows me to explore my masculine side without judgement, as I use it to mock the toxic mindsets that some men hold. It is healing to temporarily hold the role of men who have made me or other women around me uncomfortable because it feels like taking control of toxic masculinity one mockery at a time. In this particular photo, my friend and I were both playing male roles in a musical. Our characters were toxic gangsters, so we had fun satirizing hyper masculine men.

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As the paper “The Five Sexes, Revisited” explores, there is an inherent perception of binary sex among intersex individuals. Despite acknowledging the spectrum of biological sex, doctors often assign an intersex infant as only male or female based on personal judgement. The decision for an intersex person to receive surgery can depend entirely on the size of their genitals. For example, an intersex baby with an unusally large clitoris might undergo procedures to transform it into a penis, while a baby with a very small penis might have it turned to a vagina. These scenarios underscore how abritary biological sex is in relation to social understandings of sex and gender. When genitalia is used as a criterion of assigning gender, but is also subject to a medical provider’s preference, the label of “male” and “female” no longer apply.  In this photo, I am posed as a Barbie doll. Barbie dolls do not have genitalia, yet they are the gender that they say they are. I show how sex and gender can be expressed separately.

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“Asian American Women Share Struggles with Beauty Standards.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEeGLzGgRm4&t=3s.

“Caster Semenya Is Being Forced to Alter Her Body to Make Slower Runners Feel Secure in Their Womanhood.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 1 May 2019, www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/caster-semenya-being-forced-alter-her-body-make-slower-runners-ncna1000896.

Combahee River Collective 1981 A Black Feminist Statement

De Bellefonds, Colleen. “Why Michael Phelps Has the Perfect Body for Swimming.” Biography.Com, www.biography.com/athletes/michael-phelp-perfect-body-swimming. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Fausto-Sterling, Dr. Anne, The Five Sexes, Revisited, The Sciences, July/August, Page(s): 18-23, 2000.

Kessler, Suzanne J. “The medical construction of Gender: Case Management of Intersexed Infants.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 16, no. 1, Oct. 1990, pp. 3–26, https://doi.org/10.1086/494643.