Pride Chat #2: There Are More Than Two Genders!

Welcome back to another Pride Chat, and get ready to fight me (maybe, we'll see). As a cis woman, I definitely have no right to talk about the experiences of non-cis people, but I can spread a little bit of light on the fact that they are in fact out there. For those of you who don't know, a cisgender person is someone who agrees with the gender they were assigned at birth. A non cis person can be non-binary (someone who doesn't identify with either male or female), trans, or any of the other gender identities out there. According to this gender masterpost on Tumblr, there are tons of other genders out there besides male and female.

Now, if you're someone who rolls their eyes at even the thought of someone being trans, then you definitely won't like this post, but it's something you need to hear. The world isn't divided into solely males and solely females! There are people who identify many different ways, and that's perfectly normal!! What's not normal, quite frankly, is the fact that some people have their heads shoved so far up their ass that they can't accept that. Also, a persons genitals have no correlation to what their gender identity is, and if that's your argument against them, then you might want to reevaluate yourself. No matter who you are, or what you identify as, you are completely valid and I'm here to love and support you!!

In this overwhelmingly heteronormative and cisnormative world, people who identify as something other than a cis male or a cis female get treated poorly, and that's pretty shitty. There's even debates on which bathrooms they can go in, which is so ridiculous to me. A bunch of cis, straight, white dudes vote on the majority of the issues, including women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights, such as which bathroom someone can take a piss in. Trans people just want to go to the bathroom in peace, what could possibly be dangerous about that?

Although this post mostly turned into a rant against small-minded people, I really just wanted to mention the fact that there are more than two genders, and the fact that things like colors (pink vs blue), makeup, clothes, etc get labeled with specific genders piss me off. For example, my brothers get shower gel, no big deal, right? You would think. But of course, if you want to sell shower gel, you have to slap a giant "FOR MEN" in all caps and bolded on the bottle, and name the scent something totally ridiculous, like "PURE POWER SURGE." Ah yes, now this shower gel is completely ready to sell and put on the shelves in stores. I find it quite funny how fragile and toxic masculinity is, and nothing will be funnier to me than seeing a regular product with "FOR MEN" slapped on it, as if it makes any difference whatsoever. Overall, I just want you to understand that there are more than two genders, and whatever you identify as, you're loved and valid.

~Maddison

Source for the cute pride hearts!