Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 42
July - September - 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. Pp 22-38
DOI https://doi.org/10.31876/er.v6i42.823
Non-binary identities in a cisheteronormalized world
Identidades no binarias en un mundo cisheteronormado
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador*
Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina*
Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar*
Mayra Vicario Chávez*
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen*
Received: October 09, 2021
Approved: March 23, 2022
* Student of psychology degree, Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana Xochimilco
2203053401@alumnos.xoc.uam.mx, https://orcid. org/ 0000-0001-
7591-6038
* Student of psychology degree, Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana Xochimilco
2193027086@alumnos.xoc.uam.mx, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
1085-3731
* Undergraduate student in psychology, Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana Xochimilco 2203016239@alumnos.xoc.uam.mx,
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-0978-453X
* Undergraduate student in psychology, Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana Xochimilco, 2203052806@alumnos.xoc.uam.mx,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8008-2047
* PhD in Sociology, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Xochimilco, mazamora@correo.xoc.uam.mx, https://orcid.org/0000-
0001-9016-5404
Abstract
What is non-binary identity? Nowadays, it is increasingly common
to come across words, meanings and identities that we do not
know or do not understand what they refer to. Therefore, this
research presents the results of a series of 3 in-depth qualitative
interviews conducted with non-binary people in Mexico City in
April 2022, who reflect on their identity and experiences in a
society that questions and denies their feelings. For this purpose,
a qualitative methodology was proposed that used a bricolage
technique that included the codification of meaning and
interpretation of meanings based on the processes of
constitution of subjectivity and culturally inscribed gender
identity.
Keyword:
Non-binary gender, Gender, Subjectivity,
Heteronormativity, Social Psychology.
Cite this:
Flores, Y., Hernández, L., Rodríguez,
A., Vicario, M., Zamora, M. (2022).
Non-binary identities in a
cisheteronormalized world. Espirales.
Revista Multidisciplinaria de
investigación científica, 6(42), 22-38
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 42
July - September - 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 22-38
23
Introduction
This research is the result of a modular investigation of the V trimester of the Psychology
degree program at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco in Mexico
City. As part of the curricular and formative activities, research is conducted over three
months around a problem-axis that seeks to articulate a series of theoretical and
methodological discussions. Throughout module V called "Subject and Culture", we
reflect on the processes of symbolic nature that -we suppose- constitute the subject and
inscribe him/her in culture (Fernández, 2021), paying special attention to identity
processes, discursive plots coming from the family, sexuality, gender and other
institutions that constitute subjectivity.
Through these discussions, we were able to investigate and understand the different
processes of crossing and inscription of the subject by culture (Fernández, 2021; Lamas,
2013; Benveniste, 1988), an implication that is not always problematized. An example
of this is gender, a concept that has been widely studied but is still often confused with
sex or sexuality. In other words, sex is the material basis for the construction of gender,
that is, the "ideas, representations, practices and social prescriptions that a culture
develops from the anatomical difference between women and men, to symbolize and
socially construct what is 'proper' to men (the masculine) and 'proper' to women (the
feminine)" (Lamas, 2000, p. 2).
As an effect, gender and sexuality are phenomena that historically have been
naturalized, that is, they are conceived as given, eternal and that we hardly question
(Foucault, 2010; 2007; Lamas, 2013).
In this sense, the mere existence of people who question their sexuality or the
correspondence between their sex and socially constructed gender, are often seen as
rare, problematic and even abnormal (Foucault, 2007).
Resumen
¿Qué es la identidad no binaria? En la actualidad, es cada vez
más frecuente encontrarnos con palabras, acepciones e
identidades que desconocemos o que no comprendemos a qué
se refieren. Por ello, la presente investigación presenta los
resultados de una serie de 3 entrevistas cualitativas a
profundidad realizadas a personas no binarias en la Ciudad de
México en el mes de abril de 2022, que reflexionan sobre su
identidad y experiencias en una sociedad que cuestiona y niega
su sentir. Para ello, se propuso una metodología cualitativa que
utilizó una técnica de bricolaje que incluyó la codificación del
sentido y de interpretación de significados a partir de los
procesos de constitución de la subjetividad y de identidad de
género inscrita culturalmente.
Palabras clave:
Género no binario, Género, Subjetividad,
Heteronormatividad, Psicología Social.
Non-binary identities in a cisheteronormalized world
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An example of this is the recent movement of non-binary people, people who do not
identify themselves within the binary genders, either feminine or masculine; subjects
who appeal to question the normative sex-gender system; subjects who demand to be
recognized and to be named in a certain way, particularly with the use of the "e".
In different academic and everyday spaces, there have been a series of debates
regarding inclusive language and the use of the "e" to include those people who do
not identify with the feminine and masculine pronouns. However, inclusive language
has provoked endless discomfort and debates about the "correct" use of Spanish and
the strict application of morphosyntactic rules. As the main advocate, the Real Academia
de la Lengua Española (2020) has declared and published a report on the use of
inclusive language stating that, the interpretations of inclusive language will refer to
only two interpretations:
1) One, restrictive, in which express references to women are made only
through words of feminine gender [...], or, in any case, with terms that
avoid the generic use of the masculine (the Spanish population, the
Spanish people, the Spanish people).
2) Another, broader one, in which terms in the masculine include in their
reference men and women when the context makes it sufficiently clear
that this is so, as happens in the expression el nivel de vida de los
españoles (RAE, 2020, p. 26).
This statement is problematic for several reasons. First, it ignores the fact that the
symbolic universe is expressed through language (Benveniste, 1988). Secondly,
language is constituted by binarisms that clearly reflect the social norm that is
constituted on the basis of only two possibilities: the feminine and the masculine (Lamas,
2013). In this sense, as Laura Abratte asserts "There is a historical insistence on
naturalizing linguistic uses and avoiding reflection" (cited in Toledo, 2019, para. 7). In
other words, even when grammatically the masculine terms supposedly "include"
women, in reality there is an invisibilization of the feminine based on their supposed
inclusion with pronouns, adjectives or nouns in masculine (Suardiaz, 2002).
This implication leads us to wonder, on the one hand, about those subjects who escape
a binary symbolic reality, such as the intersexual fan, and on the other hand, those
subjects who subjectively are not located in either of the two fields -gender-, or who are
located in both simultaneously -binary and fluid gender-.
In the words of Amelia Valcárcel and Sabina Berman:
Language is our instrument for naming the world. What language does
not name does not cease to exist, but it is absent from our account of
what the world is.
The world does not cease to change and neither does language cease to
modify our account of the world.
What happens when the language contains rules that hinder its agility to
relate to the world that has changed (2022, para. 1).
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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Therefore, we consider that it is of utmost importance to make visible and reflect on
those genders that defy social norms, since historically, our society has tended to
pathologize and make invisible everything that is different from the norm. That is,
everything that does not conform to certain norms must be corrected, redirected,
oriented, treated (Foucault, 2010), or, failing that, it is hidden, ignored, it is pretended
that it does not exist.
Thus, under these discussions, it was decided to conduct an investigation on how a
subject who identifies as non-binary gender is subjectively constructed. To carry out this
research, three in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with people who identify
themselves as non-binary in the month of April 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico. For the
analysis of information, a bricolage technique was used (Kvale, 2008), which included a
meaning coding technique, where the information emanating from the interview was
systematized and coded into theoretical categories and then analyzed through the
meaning interpretation technique.
As a theoretical foundation, the arguments of Marta Lamas (2010; 2013) and Judith
Bulter (2007) on the category of gender were recovered. Ana María Fernández (2021)
on the processes of constitution of subjectivity and culturally inscribed gender identity.
Daniel Inclán (2018) and Francesca Poggi (2018) to discuss forms of gender violence as
a structural and symbolic phenomenon. Authors to be presented and developed in the
discussion section.
It should be noted that, as part of the theoretical discussion, feminine, masculine and
inclusive pronouns will be considered, so that in different sections of this paper we will
refer to subjects with the endings /as, /os and /es. In the results section, we describe
the experiences of the subjects who identify themselves as non-binary, which clearly
show the complexity of feeling outside the binary norms, ranging from having suffered
various forms of violence and discrimination at school and family; the importance of
group and collective support, which are fundamental for the work on themselves; and
the way in which they understand gender stereotypes and why they feel comfortable in
both genders.
Finally, conclusions are presented that point to the importance of disseminating the
variety of gender expressions in different channels, in order to promote and encourage
a more inclusive society for everyone.
Materials and methods
The reflections developed in the research work are located within the field of
subjectivity. We consider that this is an important task to build a space in which the
experience of the subjects within a collectivity can be reflected. That is, to approach
from the analysis the complexities and challenges of human experience, culture and
society, so that the construction of gender identity can be known, understood and
rethought (Baz, 1999; Fernández, 2021).
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In order to do so, it will be necessary to recognize the subjects in their historicity, in their
otherness, in a who they are being; that, through theorization, the development of a
qualitative research and the use of in-depth interviews, it is possible to apprehend
certain aspects of subjectivity. Thus, our interest in developing research with a
qualitative approach stems from our curiosity to explore and learn about the subjects'
own behavior and experience. Therefore, the phenomenological study is one of the
main approaches for qualitative research. Thus, this discipline finds its place in
understanding and interpreting the subjective phenomena of the self (Babu, 2019).
In the qualitative field there are several methods through which we can do research,
one of them is the interview. It is important to start from the fact, on the one hand, that
the interview as a research device has to be questioned, and also, that the interview
situation can be an example of human occurrence and of the theoretical and ethical
implications of social intervention. On the other hand, the interview as a research
technique illustrates what is typically an intervening situation in which the interviewer is
an active part of the process, where he/she is the main instrument. Hence the
importance of knowing how to place oneself in the situation, the purposes pursued and
its limitations (Baz, 1999).
The expression "in-depth interviews" is used to refer to this qualitative research
method. Taylor and Bogdan (1987, p. 101) mention:
By in-depth qualitative interviews we mean repeated face-to-face
encounters between the researcher and the informants, encounters
aimed at understanding the informants' perspectives on their lives,
experiences or situations, as expressed in their own words. In-depth
interviews follow the model of a conversation between equals, rather
than a formal exchange of questions and answers. [...] The researcher
himself is the instrument of the research, not an interview protocol or
form.
To conduct the interviews, an interview guide was prepared based on the theoretical
categories: gender, gender identity, violence and family. Three interviews were
conducted: the first one was conducted on April 3, 2022 and lasted 45 minutes. The
second interview was conducted on April 9, 2022 and lasted 1 hour and 44 minutes.
The third interview was conducted on April 10, 2022 and lasted 1 hour and 13 minutes.
The interviewees gave their consent to be recorded and to use their information for
academic purposes.
Once the interviews were conducted, the audio was transcribed and a bricolage
technique was selected for the analysis of the material emanating from the three
interviews.
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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[The term bricolage refers to the mixing of technical discourses in which
the interpreter moves freely between different analytical techniques. This
eclectic way of generating meaning-through a multiplicity of methods
and ad hoc conceptual approaches-is a common mode of interview
analysis. In contrast to systematic analytic methods, such as
categorization and conversation analysis, bricolage involves a free
interaction of techniques during analysis (Kavale, 2008, p. 158).
Thus, bricolage consisted of a combination of a meaning coding technique and a
meaning interpretation technique (Kvale, 2008). With the first technique, a coding and
categorization of the transcripts was carried out. First, a group reading was done to
allow us to have an overview of the material obtained; the previous reading allowed us
to identify discursive threads, as well as the location of signifiers that "insisted" in the
discourses of the interviewees; the categories of gender, stereotypes, sex, family and
gender violence were considered and assigned a color that clearly distinguished them
from each other; finally, another group reading was done to identify and link categories
in the same discourse thread. Subsequently, those reiterative signifiers and extracts
from the transcripts that condensed the experience of the subjects were taken. Those
excerpts that make possible the interpretation of the experience through the theoretical
categories were selected. For the purposes of this article, a synthesis of the analysis
carried out using the techniques mentioned above is presented.
Results
Based on the theoretical categories: gender, sex, gender stereotypes and gender
violence, the interviews were analyzed. In the material collected, three discursive
threads were found that were reiterative in the three interviews: peer groups, feeling
"in the middle" and gender violence. In the first discursive thread 1) Peer groups: we
consider that these became spaces in which they could meet, get to know and
understand each other. These spaces were constituted by therapeutic sessions and
accompaniment, where on the one hand, they shared in a group their experiences of
"feeling "in the middle" and could affirm themselves, and on the other hand, there was
some resistance to seeing and feeling themselves reflected in others.
In other words, group dynamics does not only refer to some processes of identification
among peers (de Brasi, Lorenzo, Lucato, 1985), as would be the case of some of the
people who attended, but there were also processes of discomfort and confusion in the
identification process itself, which could be interpreted as "resistance".
These peer group spaces were constituted by acquaintances from the LGBTTTIQ+
community and friends, as well as psychotherapeutic processes. Within these spaces,
the interviewees point out the importance of socializing the daily experience of feeling
identified in a symbolic reality different from the binary and heteronormative one. For
example, having the possibility of naming themselves and being named with a neutral
pronoun marked by the "e".
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From this analysis, the role of socialization of experience becomes evident in terms that
Hugo Moreno (2017) points out as horizontal relations of sociality, which imply the
collectivity of knowledge, rules, norms and experiences among peers, which are
different from the verticality of socialization with other groups and other spaces, mainly
conformed by adults. However, we could think that in this case, this verticality of
socialization would undoubtedly be the heteronormative space that demands speaking
with a pre-established binary language (feminine and masculine) and that ends up
making invisible the experience of non-binary identification.
The second discursive thread 2) Feeling "in the middle": the feeling of doubt since
childhood arising from not identifying with either of the two traditionally established
genders (male and female) is recognized, since during the interviews the conflicts
experienced due to not feeling comfortable with the gender their body represents are
mentioned.
This sensation should not be underestimated, due to the constitutive role of subjectivity
played by the primary identification processes within the family that begin with the
"attribution, isolation or labeling of gender", which is inscribed first through the clinical
institution by means of the doctors who identify the sex of the baby, and at the same
time, of the family that, based on this first criterion of gender identification, will
determine its place, role and function in the family nucleus (Dio Bleichmar, 1989, p. 38).
In this sense, feeling "in the middle" of the binary assignment culturally produces
psychic and social conflicts in the subject, as he/she does not know and cannot identify
"clearly" according to heteronormativity and binarism. Finally, the third discursive
thread, 3) Gender violence: the repression of gender expression inside and outside the
family nucleus through the use of verbal, physical and psychological violence
(considering that two of the people interviewed were born as male and one person as
female). In other words, the family, as a primordial institution in the inscription and
reproduction of social norms (Lévi-Strauss, 1975; Dio Bleichmar, 1989), becomes the
one in charge of pointing out to the subject that he/she must identify as cisgender, that
is, that there is a correspondence between his/her anatomical sex and all his/her
biological secondary sexual characteristics, with the sociohistorical construction of
masculine and feminine gender.
In the narratives, the interviewees elaborate the different family strategies to "re-
channel" them to the cisgender path, which involved violent symbolic structures.
Likewise, after the family's failed attempts, social orthopedics (Foucault, 2007) was left
to other spaces and institutions such as school and society.
With this type of interventions, the interviewees insisted on the relevance of making
their experiences visible, in order to problematize and question these "should be"-the
cisgender and heteronormative social norm-which, being institutionalized (Castoriadis,
2013), ends up being naturalized and reproduces the binary social imaginary as the only
existing possibility.
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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Likewise, it was possible to identify the close relationship between gender and sexuality,
since even before the interviewees named themselves as non-binary, their families
assumed them to be homosexual due to the lack of knowledge about non-binary
gender; that is, the family pigeonholed them into a sexual identity before they formed
their gender identity. It could even be said that the interviewees themselves presented
this confusion at the beginning of their sexual discovery. Likewise, these stories allow
us to reflect on how, despite sexual diversity, there is a reduction to two possibilities:
gay and lesbian, making any other possibility invisible.
On the other hand, most of the time the interviewees name themselves in masculine
and neuter; and speak of their feminine side only as an expression of gender that they
only express in social environments in which they feel more confident, however, they
make use of the three pronouns with the objective of making them visible and being
inclusive in this part of their non-binary. The conversion of pronouns is done in a natural
way and they did not present difficulties in using non-binary language.
As already mentioned, femininity is expressed only in places where they feel more
comfortable since their childhood development is strongly marked by the stereotypes
that mark a binary society, they make mention saying that they had to be girls or boys
and establish themselves in this gender role; where they have been asked to be, behave,
dress, look, etc. In a certain way to fit into a pre-established social mold, where there is
no neutral point. These binary stereotypes are strongly rooted in society marking and
controlling behavioral patterns (Dio Bleichmar, 1989; Lamas, 2013); it can be noticed
mainly within the play in childhoods where boys must dress in blue or similar colors and
girls in pink. It also makes mention of the rules of academic institutions where girls
should go on one side and boys on the other, that is where they did not know where to
place themselves. In this way, gender stereotypes are not reduced only to gender, but
are intertwined with other expressions such as sex, sexuality, identity, roles.
Similarly, it is worth mentioning that the stereotype has also been instituted within the
non-binary spectrum by pigeonholing it as androgynous (neutral) which reduces the
capacity for gender expression. On the other hand, we emphasize that what is
considered feminine, masculine or neutral depends on the society in which the subject
is found. We could recognize in their narratives, the constant of "women's clothes" and
"men's clothes" which again invites us to question the way in which society has
implanted limiting beliefs, stereotypes, forms and binary lifestyles. Therefore, it
prevents or at least limits the possibility of trying new things and can easily fall into an
interpretation of "grotesque" or simply "frowned upon" that gender diversity.
Thus, it is important to highlight that as subjects, we are traversed by the culture that
inclines us to a "this is how it should be", "this is how it always was", "it is natural that
this is how it should be", all this crossed by the social imaginary (Castoriadis, 2013)
which forces us to be part of it through social institutions, such as family, schools,
gender, etc. This inscription is done through implicit ways, such as everyday language,
Non-binary identities in a cisheteronormalized world
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which is governed by the binary, and if we do not follow it or assume it, the subject can
be annulled, made invisible and even transgressed. In this sense, the social imaginary
envelops us through social institutions with their respective norms and stereotypes,
hoping to build a certain subject within a collective subjectivity that must comply with
the "normal".
As a result of this process, those who do not follow the pre-established and implicitly
agreed upon norms are subjected to various forms of violence. Through the interviews
it was possible to identify some forms of violence towards non-binary identities: verbal
aggression in response, that is, by saying words to them - hurtful words and jokes -,
elaborating discourses of rejection and discrimination, or even through silence or
resistance to naming them with the neutral pronoun or the one they have been told is
the one they feel comfortable with.
In the opinion of the interviewees, these actions only perpetuated the cycle of violence,
and led them to seek more information to find out who they were and if there were
more people who, like them, did not feel comfortable within this binariety.
On the other hand, while these forms of violence may encourage some information
seeking or "educating" about gender diversity and identities, this educational work can
be an exhausting task, they say:
You don't have to educate all the people [...] It's not your duty (Excerpt
from interview transcript).
During the interviews, the frustration at a certain point of wanting to educate everyone
is notorious. Although at the beginning of the formation of a non-binary identity there
is enthusiasm for its dissemination, as they face the violence sustained by the binary
social imaginary, the feeling diminishes and becomes frustration and anger not only
with society but also with themselves for not understanding at the time that the
educational and dissemination work does not depend solely on one person. However,
we insist on the fact that the development of a certain social imaginary does not prevent
it from being changed.
Institutions have the quality of hiding before our eyes, turning historical-social
constructions that appear to be natural and eternal (Castoriadis, 2013). An example of
this is gender, which is presented to us as a biological fact and not as a:
set of ideas, representations, practices and social prescriptions that a
culture develops from the anatomical difference between women and
men, to symbolize and socially construct what is "proper" to men (the
masculine) and "proper" to women (the feminine) (Lamas, 2000, p. 2).
With this we can affirm that the term "gender" alludes only to a social construction and
that such creation is formed in relation to biological sex; two sexes are going to be
equal to two genders (feminine-masculine) which leads to a naturalized gender binarism
(sex/gender system) (Lamas, 2013).
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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Being a social construct, it will have variations from one culture to another. Each culture
selects the aspects that it considers feminine and masculine, and even varies within the
same society in relation to social class, ethnic group, historical context, etc. Thus, each
culture will establish social norms of what is considered feminine and masculine, which
will be manifested through clothing, gender stereotypes, prescriptions and social roles
and, of course, through language (Lamas, 2013).
In the words of Marta Lamas (2013):
[...] Our male-female dichotomy is, more than a biological reality, a
symbolic or cultural reality. This dichotomy is reinforced by the fact that
almost all societies speak and think binarily, and thus elaborate their
representations (p. 340).
Likewise, we consider it important to explain what Judith Butler (2007) mentions. First,
she states that gender is the result of a process through which people receive cultural
meanings, but we also innovate them. With this idea, Butler (2007) points out that
gender, besides being a social construct, has a variability of forms in each context and
therefore, has a reinterpretative capacity. With this, we consider that it is thanks to this
reinterpretation that the range of existing genders has been opened and made visible
and that little by little it has destabilized the naturalized binarism.
In this sense, the conformation and identification of subjects who assume themselves to
be "non-binary" implies the movement and dynamism of culture, that is, it is not a static
and immovable social fact.
In this way, the proposal of queer theory takes on potency, insofar as:
[...] rejects the idea of being able to classify people in static and general
categories, such as sex, gender identity and sexual orientation, as it
considers this to be something imposed by a vision of compulsory
heterosexuality (Henríquez, 2011, cited by Vázquez, 2020, pp. 9- 10).
In other words, queer theory aims to denaturalize gender binarism and, therefore, not
to take feminine or masculine and heteronormativity for granted (Vázquez, 2020). An
objective that aims to question the norms instituted on the basis of a heteronormative
binary thinking, which on many occasions can lead to behaviors and expressions of
intolerance and violence towards those practices and people who challenge the
established "reality" (Álvarez, April 22, 2022; Actualidad, September 28, 2021).
As developed by Daniel Inclán (2018), violence requires a reason and an objective that
is limited by a specific time and space. Thus, although it may sometimes seem absurd,
all types of violence are grounded in a social fact, structure, symbolism or difference.
Likewise, the author points out that, being a process where physical, symbolic, cognitive
and affective force is mixed, it generates differences between people and from which
"principles of identity and externality (an us and a them) are established" (Inclán, 2018,
p. 3).
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Thus, Daniel Inclán (2018) proposes six categories in which violence intervenes:
systemic, social, gender, ethnic, epistemic and revolutionary. On gender violence, he
mentions that in the case of women and men, the peculiarity of violence lies not so
much in the acts, but in the construction of an artificial hierarchy between the two sexes.
In this case, we could think of this hierarchy in terms of inequality between "The Same"
-binary gender- and "The Other" -dissident gender identities, sex-gender diversities-.
Many of the acts in some cases are not merely instrumental, but are responsible for
strengthening and giving continuity to a discursive order and a social aesthetic. These
violent acts are never an act of individuals, as they arise from and participate in a
collective imaginary or collective form (Inclán, 2018).
Daniel Inclán (2018, p. 13) mentions:
[...] Gender violence is accompanied by subtle, almost unconnected acts,
such as the didactics of cruelty and perversion, in which pedagogical
strategies are constructed to teach how to violate bodies and organize
them into two poles: the masculine [...] the feminine or feminized. The
discursive order and its criteria of truth are fundamental in this field; in
many cases it responds to a long history of artificial construction of
hierarchies.
In the same vein, Francesca Poggi (2018) in her essay on the concept of gender-based
violence and its relevance to law defines gender-based violence as:
Gender-based violence is the general term used to capture violence that
occurs as a result of normative expectations about the roles associated
with each gender, along with unequal power relations between the two
genders, in a specific society (p. 294).
In this sense, gender violence is intertwined with other forms of violence: systemic and
symbolic. An example of this is the resistance to the use of inclusive language.
On the one hand, the purist arguments of language, as well as the unreflective
application of the use of language, make visible a symbolic violence, on the one hand,
by making invisible those subjects who decide to identify themselves in one, neither or
both binary forms.
On the other hand, it is elucidated what violence is transversal to other forms, for
example of systemic violence, which, demands from the subjects a series of "coherent
and congruent" behaviors of the sociocultural system of which one is part (Inclán, 2018,
p. 6).
Daniel Inclán mentions a key point: "all material culture [has a] biplanar logic: it is at the
same time material and semantic" (2018, p. 6). So in this dimension of violence, the
subject is inscribed in its meanings-objective and subjective-in order to maintain the
order of things. In the case of binary gender, by questioning the given "order of things",
it will seek to redirect the subject immediately, deploying violence on different scales
to correct the supposed "deviation" to ensure the reproduction of the existing cultural
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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33
system, in that case, binary, through cisgender correspondence, binary language and
the disqualification and infantilization of their experiences. As if it were a "phase" that
will be overcome or that it will be enough for them to meet "that special person" who
will make them feel "truly" men or women.
Therefore, gender studies and queer theory must continue to expand discussions on
those categories that tend to be naturalized and essentialized, such as gender and sex,
but also sexuality, gender stereotypes, sexual orientation and desire, or the diversity of
behavioral forms and expressions that go beyond the heteronorma.
Conclusions
We understand that gender identity is a construction that begins before our birth with
language, as meaning and signifier that is assumed and reproduced on the basis of a
heteronormative binary thinking (Fernández, 2021; Butler, 2007). Thus, it becomes a
process for which there is "no" space when it comes to gender diversity. Norms and
institutions are strong pillars that run through us - subject us - and, even when on very
particular occasions there is a desire to "be inclusive", insufficient, unequal and hostile
devices are maintained in the face of differences.
Likewise, we find that the family plays an important role in the shaping of gender since,
in addition to being the first means of socialization, it is an institution of the social
imaginary that reproduces binary gender and heterosexuality (Lévi-Strauss, 1975; Dio
Bleichmar, 1989; Lamas, 2013). In this sense, non-binary persons, from a young age,
when identifying their difference, are appealed by the institution of gender -cis-
heteronormative-, which is inscribed through adults and parents. In this process, there
is a tendency to annul the other, to interpret the "difference" as just a stage they are
going through, downplaying the importance of their feelings.
We make the clarification that as a work team, we consider that difference must stop
being linked to the negative and that historically it has been taken for granted that
difference must be discriminated, stigmatized and, as a last resort, eliminated. Why do
we see "The Other" as negative? Since when has this been the case? These are
questions that require more time and research, however, reproducing difference as "the
bad" only limits and invisibilizes the diversity that is emerging.
We note how society's binarism restricts gender expression and hinders the ability to
identify the gender with which you feel comfortable. Although a large part of society
lives within the comfort provided by gender binarism, there is a part of the population
that lives a conflict for not identifying with the feminine or masculine. Therefore, limiting
the expression to two poles is represented in all areas: health, activities, school,
clothing, etc., in addition to the fact that the stereotype, the "should be", is so
embedded that although it is beginning to be questioned, it has not caused a radical
change. This research was carried out during 10 weeks of work that coincides with the
day of trans visibility in Mexico (March 28) and the day of lesbian visibility in Mexico
(April 26). Undoubtedly, this context favored the way to reach people who lent their
Non-binary identities in a cisheteronormalized world
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experience as support for this research, as well as access to information regarding the
LGBTTTIQ+ community.
However, despite all the laws and commemorative days that have been established,
gender violence continues to be repeated, with this we are not trying to downplay the
importance of the great advances that have been achieved in the legal framework, but
we try to highlight that if we do not change the way of thinking and seeing, to the non-
binary, there is no sense in these advances. In that sense, we express that, it is not
necessary to understand or accept people to respect their identity, but what we cannot
continue, are the cycles of aggression that represses and violates their gender
expression and consequently their rights. That is, beyond independence and autonomy.
On the other hand, the present research put into play our way of writing (us), thinking
(us) and speaking (us). Addressing the issue of non-binary gender opened a panorama
that problematizes and makes gender binarism visible to us and that hopefully can
reflect a change in our way of seeing this binary society in order to expand this vision
to future generations.
Writing the paper helped us to elucidate our own naturalized binarism, since it was only
after reviewing it that we noticed that, despite being only women team members, we
found ourselves writing in masculine, a situation that necessarily led us to question not
only the institution of gender, but also the scientific and academic institution that
demands -implicitly and explicitly- a certain form of writing. Similarly, when analyzing
the discursive content of the interviews, we asked ourselves, "How should we write and
refer to these people now? This was undoubtedly a challenge for all of us.
We believe that in addition to academic learning, there was also a great deal of personal
learning. The members of the team had knowledge of the LGBTTTIQ+ community but
we did not know enough about non-binary gender, therefore, this research broadened
our view of non-binary people. We had the opportunity to get closer to people who
identify with this gender, to hear and know from their own voice both life stories and
experiences. This allowed us to delve even deeper into the topic, to gather information
and knowledge necessary to achieve the research, but also to gain knowledge in our
own way. The work not only allowed us to practice curiosity, to question our context
and knowledge, but also our own position in the face of inequalities and identity
construction.
With this work we experienced a whole problematization not only of the use of pronouns
but also of the use of "e". Listening to the interviewees make the change of pronouns
so naturally and in several words that do not refer to gender (for example objects) led
us to question to what extent this inclusion with the "e" can make the "a" invisible.
Nevertheless, we position ourselves along the same lines as Emmanuel Theumer who
states that:
Inclusion through language can, in the best of cases, be a will of inclusion,
a horizon in successive expansion", she says. And she explains:
"Language is finite and cannot contain the experiences of gender; on the
Yunue Esperanza Flores Amador, Leilani Yeray Hernández Medina, Ana Rodríguez Cuéllar, Mayra Vicario Chávez,
Mayleth Alejandra Zamora Echegollen
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contrary, it has been and is a technology of gender government in the
sense of contributing to the maintenance and naturalization of a
bicategorization of gender. I like to think of the use of the x or the e as
exercises of destabilization of a genericized language, as fissures in the
ontological security produced by that language. For some reason it
provokes anger, laughter, stumbling blocks, discomfort. A way of
assuming that we are thrown into culture (quoted in Florencia Alcaraz,
December 18, 2018, para. 16).
Another challenge we had was to stop pigeonholing sexualities and identities, taking
into account that we seek non-exclusion and we deal with a topic that demands non-
classification... At the time of analyzing the information, we experienced a whole
process of reflection on what is said and how the interviewees identify themselves, which
implied the fall of prejudices and stereotypes we had. Confronting our positions,
prejudices, limiting beliefs, stereotypes, the "should be! It was quite an adventure, we
were involved in circumstances in which our opinion or feeling could not be perceived
by the interviewee, as it could hinder the communication of the interview. The fact of
being in front of a person of whom we have a social preconception, either feminine or
masculine, and he/she asks you to speak to him/her in a pronoun totally contrary to
what you see, was the watershed to question an entire society and a rigid binary thinking
that has been interwoven throughout history.
In this sense, it is worth asking the question: Is there such a thing as a "correct" gender?
..........................................................................................................
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