Class Videos: "Gender identity: 'How colonialism killed my culture's fluidity' - BBC World Service"; "A Little More Blue - A film on Gender Identity"

 Video link: Gender identity: 'How colonialism killed my culture's fluidity' - BBC World Service


I thought it was really interesting to learn about how various cultures were so accepting of certain gender identities and even embraced them within their belief systems and their ways of life. It would be nice if our current society was as accepting as this and it kind of saddens me to see just how much these cultures have been ruined by colonization and eurocentrism.

This discrimination that has been brought by colonization was even prevalent in the comments of this video. I saw multiple comments mentioning how 'disgusting' or 'abnormal' these cultural gender identities are or berating their gender-related traditions. I find it hypocritical how so many people expect other cultures to conform to eurocentric ideals and yet won't even open their minds to the beliefs and traditions of other cultures.


Video link: A Little More Blue - A film on Gender Identity


This video deeply resonated with me. I really loved the writing and the art style but I especially admired the use of symbolism. The way the creator used different colors (namely blue and pink) to symbolize gender reminded me of one of my own projects I've done.

In my senior year of high school, I took an expository writing class. One of our final projects was to write and illustrate our own children's book. The assignment was this: to create something that you wish you'd had when you were a child.

As a nonbinary person, I struggled with my gender identity a lot throughout my childhood. Because of this, I think that having more children's books that featured transgender characters would've really helped me to better understand and embrace myself.

So that's precisely what I created. My children's book featured Kit, a ten-year-old nonbinary kid. Kit had always worn blue flowers but that had never felt quite right. Yet when they tried out pink flowers, that didn't feel right either. The other characters in the story pressured Kit to just keep on wearing the blue flowers they'd been born with because they 'suited them best' and this hurt Kit's feelings. The story ends with Kit receiving love and support from their friends and realizing that they can wear whatever colored flowers make them feel comfortable. The final illustration showed Kit smiling and wear a flower crown with yellow, white, purple, and black flowers (the colors of the nonbinary pride flag).

I really wish I'd had more stories like this when I was younger. Upon turning in my project and sharing it with my class, some of my classmates even came to me to tell me how my children's book helped them to feel more accepted. It makes me happy to know that my story helped other people who were feeling as lost as I once did and I hope that someday I can create more projects that can save people in the way I wish I had been saved.

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