The Colonial Project of Gender (and Everything Else)

The gender binary, like many colonial acts, remains trapped within socio-religious ideals of colonisation that then frame ongoing relationships and restrict the existence of Indigenous peoples. In this article, the colonial project of denying difference in gender and gender diversity within Indigenous peoples is explored as a complex erasure casting aside every aspect of identity and replacing it with a simulacrum of the coloniser. In examining these erasures, this article explores how diverse Indigenous gender presentations remain incomprehensible to the colonial mind, and how reinstatements of kinship and truth in representation fundamentally supports First Nations’ agency by challenging colonial reductions. This article focuses on why these colonial practices were deemed necessary at the time of invasion, and how they continue to be forcefully applied in managing Indigenous peoples into a colonial structure of family, gender, and everything else.

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Epistemic Injustice and Judicial Discourse on Transgender Rights in India: Uncovering Temporal Pluralism

Journal of Human Values ◽

10.1177/0971685819890186 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 30-49

Author(s):

Dipika Jain ◽

Kimberly M. Rhoten

Keyword(s):

Gender Diversity ◽

Case Law ◽

Epistemic Injustice ◽

Sex And Gender ◽

Self Identity ◽

Gender Binary ◽

Gender Diverse ◽

The Everyday ◽

Judicial Discourse ◽

And Gender

This article examines how efforts at legal legibility acquisition by gender diverse litigants result in problematic (e.g., narratives counter to self-identity) and, at times, erroneous discourses on sex and gender that homogenize the litigants themselves. When gender diverse persons approach the court with a rights claim, the narrative they present must necessarily limit itself to a normative discourse that the court may understand and, therefore, engage with. Consequently, the everyday lived experiences of gender diverse persons are often deliberately erased from the narrative as litigants mould themselves into the pre-existing normative legal categories of gender and sex. As a result of such mechanisms, the article finds that gender diverse litigants face epistemic injustice in the courts as their legal legibility is constructed within a constraining gender binary paradigm of judicial discourse. The article explores the trajectory of transgender rights in India, through an analysis of case law prior to and post the landmark NALSA decision, to understand how the approach to transgender rights and identities has been shaped by and shapes, in turn, normative conceptions of gender. The article argues for the incorporation of temporal pluralism into the law that would allow courts to hear gender diverse litigant accounts premised on contemporary gender diversity beyond the binary (rather than incontestable prior understandings based in past precedent), which would better account for such social injustices.

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Two-Spirited People and Social Work Practice

Critical Social Work ◽

10.22329/csw.v11i1.5817 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jill Alaers

Keyword(s):

First Nations ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Work Practice ◽

Social Work Practice ◽

Sexual Diversity ◽

Human Service Professionals ◽

Urban Rural ◽

And Gender ◽

Traditional Roles

Diversity of sexual orientation appears to be universal throughout human history. This article explores gender and sexual diversity of non-Aboriginal and traditional First Nations groups in North America, and the reclamation of traditional roles and identities by contemporary two-spirits. This article argues that social workers, as well as various other human service professionals stand to improve the quality of their practice by seeking deeper understanding of sexual and gender diversity through exploration of historic First Nation traditions of two-spirit roles as well as the intersecting multiple oppressions impacting two-spirits in urban, rural and reserve locations.

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Queer Settlers: Questioning Settler Colonialism in LGBT Asylum Processes in Canada

Refuge ◽

10.25071/1920-7336.38602 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 47-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Katherine Fobear

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Gender Identity ◽

First Nations ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Settler Colonialism ◽

Forced Migration ◽

History Of ◽

Sexual And Gender Minority ◽

Refugee Claim ◽

And Gender

Refugee and forced migration studies have focused primarily on the refugees’ countries of origin and the causes for migration. Yet it is also important to also critically investi- gate the processes, discourses, and structures of settlement in the places they migrate to. This has particular signifi- cance in settler states like Canada in which research on refugee and forced migration largely ignores the presence of Indigenous peoples, the history of colonization that has made settlement possible, and ways the nation has shaped its borders through inflicting control and violence on Indigenous persons. What does it mean, then, to file a refugee claim in a state like Canada in which there is ongoing colonial violence against First Nations communities? In this article, we will explore what it means to make a refugee claim based on sexual orientation and gender identity in a settler-state like Canada. For sexual and gender minority refugees in Canada, interconnected structures of col- onial discourse and regulation come into force through the Canadian asylum and resettlement process. It is through this exploration that ideas surrounding migration, asylum, and settlement become unsettled.

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Understanding School Climate for Trans and Gender-Expansive Persons

10.1093/oso/9780197506592.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 50-74

Author(s):

Matthew L. Garrett ◽

Joshua Palkki

Keyword(s):

School Climate ◽

Learning Environments ◽

Music Teachers ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Music Programs ◽

Positive Role ◽

Gender Binary ◽

School Music ◽

School Learning ◽

And Gender

This chapter investigates why school music teachers should consider gender diversity—to honor all students, including trans and gender-expansive (TGE) youth. The question “How does the gender binary manifest in school music programs?” is addressed in an effort to raise teacher awareness and examine bias. Three theories are described as grounding principles for the book: (a) gender complexity, (b) gender affirmative model, and (c) transgender theory. The authors identity specific challenges faced by TGE youth in school learning environments. Readers gain a more complete image of TGE persons as individuals by acknowledging the resiliency of these young persons and understanding the challenges they face, rather than viewing them as only victims. This insight allows teachers to better understand how participation in school music programs can play a positive role in the development of these young persons.

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Voicing our Realities

Diversity of Research in Health Journal ◽

10.28984/drhj.v1i0.50 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 137

Author(s):

Robyn Rowe

Keyword(s):

Educational Attainment ◽

First Nations ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Indigenous Education ◽

Future Research ◽

Family Responsibilities ◽

Post Secondary ◽

Teenage Girls ◽

Shared Stories ◽

And Gender

Promoting empowerment and growth for First Nations mothers is critical when attempting to improve the post-secondary educational attainment of Indigenous Peoples. Based on the literature, Indigenous Peoples of Canada have lower rates of University-level education across all Indigenous groups (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit). The literature also shows that Indigenous Peoples cite personal and family responsibilities as a barrier to their educational attainment more often than any other barrier. Approximately one in ten First Nations and Inuit teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years were parents in 2011. Fertility rates in the same group are six times higher than that of other Canadian teens. The statistics go on to explain that early motherhood increases the vulnerability of young First Nations women who are already disadvantaged socio-economically by their cultural background and gender. The data for this project was collected through the use of autoethnography and Indigenous storytelling as methods. Together, we explore the literature and the shared stories, while discussing the preliminary project findings through a decolonizing lens. Key points discussed include the balancing of identities, the implications of the imposter syndrome for First Nations Peoples, the process of navigating the post-secondary institution, and the importance of restoring culture while finding autonomy within academia. This research aims to contribute to the literature on Indigenous education while creating the groundwork for future research which may help to inspire future generations of First Nations mothers to attend post-secondary education.

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Queering the Docile Body

Political Science Undergraduate Review ◽

10.29173/psur19 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 56-62

Author(s):

Emma Kauffman

Keyword(s):

Sexual Behaviors ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Judith Butler ◽

Gender And Sexuality ◽

Gender Binary ◽

Binary Model ◽

Recent Emergence ◽

Mainstream Society ◽

And Gender ◽

Normalization Process

Increasingly, there is a view that the recent emergence of sexual and gender diversity has helped to move mainstream society towards the eradication of the normative privileging of particular genders and sexualities. However, when we look beneath the surface it is more likely to be a reconfiguration of the heterosexual matrix, a term defined by Judith Butler as that grid of cultural intelligibility through which norms are created and maintained in bodies, genders, and desires and how they appear natural (Butler, 24). Using Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix as my foundation, this paper will demonstrate the ways in which gender and sexuality become naturalized in order to explore the normalization process of both heterosexual desire, or orientation, and the gender binary. It will argue that although we are in the midst of a historic mobilization of diverse and complex (trans)gender movements, the sphere of intelligibility continues to be subject to hegemonic interpretations. These interpretations privilege a binary model of genders and sexual behaviors, thus resulting in a continuation of normative identities and desires. Further, as this essay will explicate, the heterosexual matrix, in accordance with neoliberalism, work as a mechanism of power that designates what is an intelligible life. As such, without first locating these functions of power, the push for a more fluid and open understanding of gender, sexuality and desire will continue to fail, and the space for widespread change will dissolve.

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