How the world is becoming more gender-neutral
The ‘X’ non-binary gender marker on ID cards and passports, the implementation of gender-neutral toilets within the respective buildings of ministries, and the recent legislation to remove gendered references in a series of clauses are some of the strides Malta has been making lately towards becoming a more gender-neutral place. It is measures such as these which keep Malta firmly afloat as Europe’s most progressive country for LGBTIQ rights.
With all that is happening in Malta of late, The Malta Independent looked beyond the country’s shores to see what other strides are being taken abroad.
London Underground to scrap ‘ladies and gentlemen’ announcement
Last week, Transport for London workers were told to eliminate ‘ladies and gentlemen’ from their announcements, with the motive to make the public transport system a more gender-neutral environment. The phrase will be replaced with announcements such us ‘good morning everyone’.
According to a report on The Independent, the change was brought about after months of campaigning by activists, who claimed that “although ‘ladies and gentlemen’ was ‘polite’, it was ‘outdated’ and ‘belonged to yesterday’.” The newspaper said that pre-recorded announcements and written guidelines for the staff will be reviewed and amended wherever necessary, across London.
The report added that institutions across the UK have made similar commitments, “including Cardiff Metropolitan University’s decision to ban phrases like ‘forefathers’ and ‘right-hand man’ in March,” it said.
Gender-neutral smartphone emojis approved
A genderless emoji has been created to be available in the selection of cartoon mobile phone icons, which currently depict males or females, was approved earlier this year and are officially on the 2017 list, which means that if the list is accepted by smartphone manufacturers, the genderneutral emojis will be available on the next wave of smartphones on the market.
According to The Telegraph, “emojis for boy and girl, man and woman, and older man and older woman were introduced in 2010. But in the latest list of icons, Emoji 5.0, options for simply child, adult and older person have been added.”
“There has been a growing call to include non-binary characters to represent people who identify as neither fully male nor female,” the report stated, adding that 0.4 per cent of people in the UK did not identify as male or female in the 2011 Census.
According to the Emoji search engine ‘Emojipedia’, “not everyone identifies as male or female. Some of us identify as a bit of both, or neither, or something else altogether. Regardless of your gender identity, I hope we can all find adequate ways to express ourselves in emoji.”
“My wish is that adding more gender options in emoji will help us all to celebrate our unity and our diversity. I advocate for everyone to feel comfortable using emoji men when we feel masculine, emoji women to express our feminine aspects, and gender inclusive emoji whenever we feel like celebrating our humanity regardless of gender,” the article said.
“In terms of emoji reflecting our emerging understanding of gender, the addition of three gender inclusive people emoji is only a first step. For full inclusive gender representation to exist in emoji, there must be androgynous emoji representations corresponding to each man/woman pair.”
Brands launching genderneutral children’s clothes
Clothes brand ‘Target’ and Stockholm-based company Toca Boca has collaborated and launched a gender-neutral clothesline for children, which were debuted at Target stores last week.
Toca Boca, a mobile app game, wanted to team up with Target due to its progressive policies, according to the website LGBTQnation. In 2015, Toca Boca removed the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ labeling in their toys section and last year, they announced that it would spend $20 million to add genderneutral restrooms to their stores.
The clothing line features the genderless cartoons from the Toca Boca games, and the patterns and designs of the clothes do not fall into gender stereotypes, according to Toca Boca’s design director Mathilda Engman. Target is not the first clothing brand to launch gender-neutral clothes.
Gender-neutral Kindergarten schools in Sweden
A concept brought to life by Lotta Rajalin, gender-neutral kindergarten schools in Sweden, amongst other things, allow children to play with whatever toys they like, are encouraged to experience all their emotions and are careful with what diction to use around the children in order to break away from gender stereotypes.
In a TedX talk, Rajalin says how she has been working on genderneutral schools since 1998. The toys in Rajalin’s schools feature Lego Bionicles wearing pink tutus and skeletons washing dishes in the dolls house, for example.
Teachers are instructed to avoid stereotypical associations when talking to the children. “We don’t put labels on the children, we avoid saying ‘Frida she is so beautiful or cute or helpful’ or ‘Mohammed he’s so tough or wild,’” Rajalin said in a Tedx Talk. “We don’t take anything away, we only add.”
MTV removes genderspecific categories for 2017 MTV TV & Movie Awards
The MTV TV & Movie Awards have removed their best actor and actress categories, replacing them with one gender-neutral acting category, under the ‘best actor’ title.
MTV have made their awards more gender-neutral at a time when separating the two genders for acting awards is an issue in the spotlight.
Prior to this decision, Orange is the New Black and Billions celebrity Asia Kate Dillon, who identifies as gender non-binary contacted organizers of the Emmy Awards regarding the situation, to which they asked if the star would prefer being included in the actor or actress category. Dillon opted for the actor category as it is more of a widespread genderneutral term.
The Grammy Awards eliminated distinguishing between male and female performers in 2012, according to The Guardian, for one category, for example the new category is ‘best pop vocal performance’.