Gender and Sexuality Photo Essay by Chase Clements

What is Gender to me?

cclem018 — 2025-08-26 22:44:09 UTC

When I was creating this drawing, I wrote down the word "GENDER" and started writing whatever came to mind around it. Once I finished that, I crossed out the word "GENDER" with a red marker and then wrote the statement "you are you." This reminded me of Lorber and Moore's Gendered Bodies and how our bodies are "gendered" through norms set. By crossing out the word "GENDER", it then pushes back on this imposition, imagining bodies beyond categorization. By visually erasing the word itself, the drawing resists what Lorber and Moore describe as the naturalization of gendered difference, opening space for unmarked or fluid embodiments. The words surrounding represent how society has engrained the idea of catergorization and how there is pressure to pick one in order to fit in.

Who do I even like?

cclem018 — 2025-08-26 22:44:41 UTC

For this drawing, I wanted to reference The Invention of Heterosexualtiy by Johnathan Ned Katz. The way I chose to visually represent fluidity in sexuality pushes against the idea of sexuality as something rigid or binary. I wanted to embody that the fluidiity has always been there, even if society tried to box it into categories. When representing the different sexualities and relationships, I wanted to show sexuality as shifting and not locked into one fixed identity.

I feel different inside.

cclem018 — 2025-08-26 22:44:57 UTC

When creating this drawing I wanted to reference the key term "gender comportment" from page 12 of Stryker's Transgender History. Gender comportment refers to the way that we act through watching others or being criticized in order to perform gender the way one wants to. Taking inspiration from my own life, I have had times where I didn't want to be a girl anymore because of the gendered expectations set upon women by society. For many years I believed (and still do to an extent) that men have easier lives than women due to their privilege in society and that their expectations were easier to meet than womens'. As I have gotten older, I have realized that the expectations for men and women to act a certain way in order to fulfill their "gender requirements" is a toxic way of thinking that perpetuates the idea that life needs to be a certain way when instead it is more complicated than that.

Girl

cclem018 — 2025-08-26 22:45:13 UTC

The idea behind the concept of wearing feminine clothing with a paper bag over my head came from the idea of the body being something you can change and dress up where as the brain/paperbag is something that isn't easily changed. Continuing to reference Stryker's work, gender identity which can be defined as the internal sense a person has of themselves as male, female, both, neither, or something else, was the key concept I wanted to reference in this picture. Overall, I tend to have a different gender identity than what I dress from usually. I don't have a specifically male or female gender identity. Overtime, I have gotten more comfortable with being myself, and that being my gender.

Boy

cclem018 — 2025-08-26 22:45:30 UTC

Wearing masculine clothing isnt something I'm unfamiliar with. As I have grown throughout the years, I had started experimenting with my gender expression. I had come to terms with being genderqueer, which Stryker refers to as a broad identity for people whose gender does not fit neatly into the binary of male or female. Throughout my life I have liked thinks that were typically for boys, like roughhousing and getting dirty, while also enjoying thinks that are typically for girls like makeup and boy bands like One Direction. There would be people who would make comments about me having to "pick a side", usually from my peers. I had never felt comfortable chosing either side, so I always mixed the two. Being able to express my gender in any way that feels good to me is very empowering.