Transitions to new concepts of gender

Non binary: The food writer Jack Monroe identifi es as non-binary and transgender. (Photo: Tom Jackson.) The times, they are a-changing, perhaps now even more than fi fty years ago, when Bob Dylan sang this line. The sports personality formerly known as Bruce Jenner is now even more famous as Caitlyn Jenner and graced the cover of Vanity Fair in a tight dress. A tough guy boxing promoter transformed into Kellie Maloney. Laverne Cox has been widely praised as the star of the TV series Orange Is the New Black. The UK food blogger Jack Monroe, formerly trading as “a girl called Jack”, is now transitioning and currently uses the twitter tagline “labels are for tins”. Following in the wake of a rapid spread of equal rights for homosexuals, culminating in the legalisation of same-sex marriage in many European countries and in the US, transgender rights have become the new frontline where traditional misconceptions and discrimination are under attack. Institutions and law makers in many western countries face pressure to extend equal rights to those citizens who don’t necessarily align with the gender marked in their passport. Even veterans of previous revolutions are having trouble keeping up with the speed of change in defi nitions and perceptions of gender, as feminist writer Germaine Greer found out when published remarks on trans women not being real women led transgender activists to accuse her of transphobia and to campaign to have an invited lecture cancelled. The ‘trans-excluding’ feminist stance, essentially based on the fear that men might once again defi ne what it means to be a woman and adopt that role at will, is losing ground, however, and may well die out with Greer’s generation. And yet, tragic news from this frontier also keeps coming in, including the all-too frequent cases