As I typed the word ‘genderless’ in the title and in this sentence, the term is in red underline, a very familiar symbol to all of us that we are probably misspelling the word or that it doesn’t even exists. So, what is ‘genderless’ if even the supposedly most efficient and intelligent computer doesn’t recognise it?
If you type ‘genderless’ into your search bar on Google (I use Google, so), one of the first results you’d probably see is its definition. Gathering a few of them, the generally understood and agreed meaning is: the lack of characteristics that SCREAMS one gender over the other.
So, does this means that to associate with the term and concept of genderless signifies one’s desire to distant themselves from their biological sex? Hmm…
Scroll further down on the same page, there are articles that talk about the origins and even discussions about the current situation surrounding the term. Most of the articles address the genderless concept under the scope of fashion. In Refinery29‘s article about genderless fashion and its importance, they’ve mentioned the reasons for choosing the concept of genderless fashion over the conventional binary male-female clothing kind of fashion. Rather than distancing the self from their biological sex, wearing genderless outfits is more about comfort for the self in pieces of cloth that we literally have to be carrying around all the time. Let’s be real, a lot of us chooses an outfit for its comfort and aesthetics (of course).
However, we also need to think about what comfort means for every individual. Some might be for practical reasons due to the jobs they do, some might mean comfort as in the colour that makes them feels the safest, some could even be saying comfort in terms of expressing the selves that they’ve always been oppressed to be hidden from the world as they could not meet the societal standards.
In the same article, they brought up Jaden Smith whom most of us probably know as someone who isn’t afraid to present himself even when in ways that deviate from the societal expectations of normal (look at his tweets). In the interview bits from Nylon about his choices of outfits such as dresses and skirts, he clearly states his actions of wearing these gender-deviating apparels as a way to start normalising it for the kids in the future.
So, you know, in five years when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won’t get beat up and kids won’t get mad at him. It just doesn’t matter. – Jaden Smith
As a public figure who has million of followers on his social platforms, he is definitely doing something that would help raise the awareness against the public’s fear of deviations in societal expectations and norms in the area of gender and the possibilities that comes along with it when people have the knowledge and freedom to practise what they want to. Telling the society that it is okay to wear whatever just because we feel like it is OKAY seems to be what he means; for our society to stop setting a certain standard or limitations for the future generations about what is the right or wrong outfit just because the individual is of a certain sex.
The genderless concept that is often associated with gender fluidity certainly isn’t something that is ultra new or fresh. It has been around for some time but it still hasn’t been as widely exposed and available to the general public as much as it has been in the recent years. However, the level of exposure and the level of acceptance for genderless concept has yet to tally as everyone’s mindset could be different due to our respective upbringing and other socialising agents that has shaped our minds into the way they are now. With the widespread of the concept over the internet and public figures like Jaden, maybe the societal norms and conventions could actually be altered. And eventually, the deviating ideologies could just soon become a dominant way of thinking that everyone accepts.
A Genderless Agenda 