Inclusive Teaching & Learning Unit: Gender – Part 3
February 15, 2017 in Inclusive Teaching & Learning
‘Boy you’re just a stupid bitch and girl you’re just a no-good dick’
(Words from ‘Black Tongue’ by Karen O of the New York pop rock band YeahYeahYeahs)
These words make me laugh as they play on a twist of making gender assumptions in language and treating one gender identity as a derogatory term to call what is actually the opposite in gender.
This leads me in to my reflection of the Museum of Transology exhibition which was a positively defining experience for me. My visit reconfirmed what I believe to be a strong method of inclusive learning – understanding and increasing knowledge through an exhibition of objects, people and experiences (and I also think I’m a museum-loving geek).
The exhibition was curated incredibly carefully, as I felt it invited you in to see stories of importance to all, whether as a visitor, you know much about transgender communities, are curious in yourself or have family members or friends with gender fluid identities.
The exhibition highlighted the situations where gender is questioned unnecessarily from the small social acceptances amongst friends through to security procedures at airports. It also explained the peripherals in a person’s life that can be key to developing their gender confidence, such as a person’s wealth in order to afford hormones or high quality fake breasts, ‘packing’ and binding. A survey mentioned in the exhibition text also revealed that many transgenders go through years of homelessness as a result of being unaccepted as their true selves by families and support networks. This is not a phase, this is a person’s lifelines, shattering.
These stories of struggle, acceptance, loss of time, love, family, mental health, confidence really resonated with me in the set up of this exhibition, whilst walking amongst the broken closets. I wanted to reach up to read every story written on labels, even those that I couldn’t access which were inside cabinets mounted higher on the walls, and those suspended high above, amongst the gender gradation of undergarments. But actually, in not being able to read all of them, illustrated a concept perfectly that maybe stories can be there, dangling right in front of your face, but it may not be the time to read them. We may need to work carefully to find out how to read them and understand these stories.
Alongside the films the exhibition made me internally ask questions to myself about how I would approach teaching from a pastoral perspective to students going through any gender confidence issues. I felt an overwhelming amount of empathy mixed with positivity and sadness. How could I address and implement appropriate support and inclusive learning to make a student who is in a crisis, confusion, suppression or a determination phase of expressing their gender identity? This exhibition gave me some wonderfully simple, yet grounding insights into how I could be a positive support anchor in a student’s status or journey of gender confidence.