As anyone who’s turned on the TV or opened Twitter in the past 6 months knows, “gender” is the new buzzword, the new culture war. Drag queens are “indoctrinating children'' by wearing sparkly outfits and being good at dancing, while J.K. Rowling insists that she is being silenced due to her controversial views on trans women (via social media posts to her 14 million followers). And while I’m sure we’re all having so much fun debating (for the 18-billionth time) who is or isn’t allowed to use which bathroom–because clearly transgender teenagers pose a greater threat to public education than trivial matters such as gun violence or budget cuts—this is not what we will be discussing in this issue. As we begin Women’s History Month, we want to complicate how we think of gender, because anytime someone insists upon simple definitions and easy fixes for questions like “what is a woman?” they are usually wrong.
A person’s experience with gender is deeply personal and unique to each person. Jasmine Wang opens this issue with an ephemeral, playful reflection in the form of “10 Things I Love About Being a Woman.” Miriella Jiffar focuses on how her hair, once long and now short, holds special meaning to her in “Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown.” As Fleabag once said, “Hair is everything. “We wish it wasn't so we could actually think about something else occasionally. But it is.” Moving from the personal to the paternal, we have a play on Vogue’s “72 Questions” series, where Cheyenne Butler asks her mom 25 questions about everything from haircuts to Taco Bell. “25 Questions with My Mom” offers a humorous look at one mother’s insights into pop culture and life. Going one generation further back, Hailey Robbins gives an emotional, deeply personal account of her grandmother’s life and experiences in scientific fields. “The Space Race” is a heartfelt ode to those who came before us, on whose shoulders we all stand.
Aside from individual expression and experiences, gender shapes how we view and interact with the people around us. In a gym setting, tensions can be high. In “Women Can Be Big Too” Bailey Middleton interrogates the anxiety and pressure a lot of femme-presenting people feel when entering that space. On television, these dynamics are on display in an even more flamboyant way. The British hit Love Island informs "The Fittest Bird on the Island," Kiki McLaughlin’s exploration of “trashy TV” and the ways in which it promotes and subverts gender roles. Also taking on the topic of gender roles, Eryn Rhodes takes a more abstract lens. In “Femininity Is Not an Insult: Vulnerability, Feelings, and the Impenetrable Shield” she discusses the way we assign certain emotions to a gender and then assign morality to those emotions, and the effect that has.
A human being will always amount to more than any label allows, and I hope at the end of all the rage debating, we can all at least agree on that. Thank you for tuning in to our newest issue, and special thanks, as always, to Mary Esselman, Addie Gilligan, and KJ Villanueva for all your hard work.
