Hello, my name is Sage, and I hope you appreciate how symmetrical my set up is today.
[Highway Wildflowers plays quietly in the background].
So, somebody recently asked me to make a video on non-binary representation in the media,
and it's a challenging video for me to make because there isn't a lot of representation,
let alone good representation.
Non-binary characters in the media are either totally lacking.
Used as jokes.
Ray: Would you care to expand upon that, sir?
[Coffee shop background noises]
Barista 1: Why'd you feel the need to call me sir?
Barista 2: What the fuck, man?
Ray: Okay, I am so sorry - I - when I - female?
Barista 1: Oh, female!
You a biologist?
You a biological essentialist?
You a detective?
Is that what you are?
Cause we don't like biologists.
Barista 2: We also don't like detectives.
Ray: What is going on here?
Barista 2: What's going on here?
Uh, what's going on here is that you offended "they".
Thanks for that one, Lena.
Thanks.
Or you're kind of baited, where it seems like you almost get a non-binary character, but
then not quite...
[Mumbling noises of a crowd, bus passing by]
One kid: What in the fuck is that?
Other kid: Is that a batty (??) or a lezzie?
Other kid: Oh...
Liv: Fuck me, Franky.
Grace: Pretty please with sugar on top.
Adoring the new you.
When I was first asked about non-binary representation in the media, specifically the representation
of non-binary characters in fiction, I actually had a really hard time even thinking of one,
but after a little bit of thought, I was able to come up with a few things.
I recently finished reading Darling Days by iO Tillett Wright, and while I don't think
that iO specifically ID's as non-binary, there is a lot of interesting gender play and discussion
in the book, which is why I thought of it.
I also thought of the Lilith's Brood trilogy by Octavia Butler, which again isn't specifically
non-binary representation - um, what it actually is is science fiction that deals with the
idea of a third-sex category in an alien population who play very important roles.
Sex doesn't equal gender, and this certainly doesn't involve non-binary representation
specifically, but it's interesting just in the sense that it plays around with concepts
of sex and gender, and does challenge the gender binary, I think a little bit.
So that came up for me.
I also thought of the ABC's of LGBT+ by Ash Hardell, because I think that this book is
a good resource for people to use if they want to include non-binary representation
in whatever it is that they're creating.
So, that's just some of the stuff I thought of off hand and none of it actually, specifically
involves the representation of non-binary characters um, which is sort of disappointing
that I couldn't even think of that in the moment, but I decided to do some research.
So, there's actually a wiki on nonbinary.org called, Fictional Depictions of Non-Binary
Gender," and that's where I went.
What's interesting and kind of strange is that only one character is listed under movies,
and that's because Biaggio from the Kings of Summer.
Joe: Have you ever felt this at one with yourself, this masculine?
Biaggio: I don't know.
I don't really see myself as having a gender.
Though still relatively limited, there's quite a bit more representation under books and
web comics.
One of the books listed is Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, which I remember reading
part of a couple years ago.
According to the wiki, this book is about a butch named Jess Goldberg, and the trials
and tribulations she faces growing up in the United States before the Stonewall Riots.
Feinberg defines butch as a gender identity neither female nor male.
There's also an anthology here called, "Beyond the Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid
Speculative Fiction".
I think I need to read this one because it sounds really up my alley.
So, if you're looking for more non-binary representation in your life, I'd really recommend
checking out this wiki and some of the other stuff that I've mentioned in this video.
I hope that as we move forward, we start to see more non-binary representation, but also
more diverse non-binary representation.
I find that whenever I see a non-binary, genderqueer, or just gender non-conforming characters in
the media, they tend to be thin and white and able-bodied and kind of like, androgynous.
I find like people often think that non-binary people are supposed to be all of those things,
um, and that's what non-binary looks like, when in reality non-binary can look like so
many different things.
Non-binary is like an umbrella term for many different gender identities um, and there's
no one way to be non-binary, so not only do I want to see more representation just in
general because I think we desperately need it, I also want to see more diverse representation
so that we can get away from that sort of stereotype of the like white, thin, androgynous
non-binary person.
So, thank-you to Garrett Robinson for suggesting this video topic, it's certainly an interesting
one to tackle.
If you have any suggestions for non-binary media things, please leave them in the comments
below, I would love to hear about them.
And I think that's it, yeah.
Oh, yeah, I should end the video, right.
Okay.
Thank you all for watching, and wherever you are in life, I hope that you're learning as
much as you can.
Okay, Goodbye friends.
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