Key themes of the exhibition:

Autonomy: Right or condition of self-government, in this case, directly relating to an individuals ability to represent themselves to their truest form, without any pressure or exterior perspectives.

Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

The Gaze: The “gaze” is a term that describes how viewers engage with visual media. Originating in film theory and criticism in the 1970s, the gaze refers to how we look at visual representations. 

Male gaze: The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire.

Female Gaze: What is the female gaze, then? It’s emotional and intimate. It sees people as people. It seeks to empathize rather than to objectify. (Or not.) It’s respectful, it’s technical, it hasn’t had a chance to develop, it tells the truth, it involves physical work, it’s feminine and unashamed, it’s part of an old-fashioned gender binary, it should be studied and developed, it should be destroyed, it will save us, it will hold us back. 

Colonialism: a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world. This largely resulted in the removal of lands, the destruction of culture and language, from indigenous first nation peoples.

Key Statistics/Points

Some stats about Genderqueer individuals NZ:

What to know:

·         In New Zealand, trans and non-binary** people suffer from high or very high psychological distress at rates nine times higher than the general population. It's even higher for gender diverse youth and disabled people.[1]

·         (in 2019) 79 percent of trans and non-binary people have seriously contemplated suicide and two out of every five have deliberately self-harmed in the past 12 months.[2]

·         Almost one third of transgender New Zealanders have been raped- Counting Ourselves’ survey of 1,178 people, published on Tuesday in New Zealand, found trans and non-binary people - who do not identify as male or female - that reported rape were twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the past year.

·         Almost two-fifths of trans and non-binary New Zealanders had attempted suicide at some point, the survey found, while more than half had thought about trying to kill themselves in the previous year.

Stats:

https://vawnet.org/sc/serving-trans-and-non-binary-survivors-domestic-and-sexual-violence/violence-against-trans-and

Stats from USA:

According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey:

·         Nearly half (46%) of respondents were verbally harassed in the past year because of being transgender.

·         Nearly one in ten (9%) respondents were physically attacked in the past year because of being transgender.

·         Nearly half (47%) of respondents were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime and one in ten (10%) were sexually assaulted in the past year. In communities of color, these numbers are higher: 53% of Black respondents were sexually assaulted in their lifetime and 13% were sexually assaulted in the last year.

·         72% of respondents who have done sex work, 65% of respondents who have experienced homelessness, and 61% of respondents with disabilities reported being sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

·         More than half (54%) experienced some form of intimate partner violence, including acts involving coercive control and physical harm.

[1] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399433/trans-and-non-binary-health-and-wellbeing-report-reveals-severe-inequities

[2] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399433/trans-and-non-binary-health-and-wellbeing-report-reveals-severe-inequities

Key terms to know:

AFAB: Assigned female at birth.

AMAB: Assigned male at birth.

Cisgender: denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.

Dead naming: refusing to use someone’s name, and instead continuing to refer to a trans, genderqueer or non-binary person by their birth name. This is extremely offensive, and should be avoided whenever possible.

Dysphoria: Some people who are transgender will experience “gender dysphoria,” which refers to psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. 

FtM a person who was assigned female at birth but whose gender identity is that of a man. Terms sometimes used: trans man.

Gay a person who experiences sexual and/or romantic attraction to those of the same sex. Predominantly this term is used for those who identify as male.

Gender identity: It is important to note that gender identity is different from gender expression. Whereas gender identity refers to one’s psychological sense of their gender, gender expression refers to the way in which one presents to the world in a gendered way.

Gender fluid a person who does not identify as having a fixed gender.

Gender nonconforming, gender variant a person whose gender expression is not limited by the stereotypical masculine and feminine gender ‘norms’.

Genderqueer an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different to the binary male or female.

Intersex a person who is born with sex chromosomes, external genitalia and/or internal reproductive parts of both genders.

Lesbian a person who identifies as female who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to others who identify as female.

MtF a person who was assigned male at birth but whose gender identity is that of a female. Terms sometimes used: trans woman.

Non-binary a description of a gender identity that is neither male nor female.

Queer an umbrella term encompassing all identities and expressions outside of the heterosexual, monogamous and gender normative majority.

Transfeminine a term for a range of identities where the female identity or femininity is prominent.

Transgender a person whose gender identity differs from that which was assigned at birth.

Transmasculine a term for a range of identities where the male identity or masculinity is prominent.

Māori and Pacific Islands gender diversity terms

Taken from Statistics New Zealand: http://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/classifications-and-standards/classification-related-stats-standards/gender-identity/glossary-references.aspx

Wāhine: Maori woman

Ira tāngata: Gender diverse. (Note the macron over the ‘a’ in ‘tāngata’ defines the broadness/diverseness of gender.) How people live their life.

Takatāpui: The traditional meaning of takatāpui is ‘intimate companion of the same sex’. Many Māori people have adopted this term to describe themselves, instead of or in addition to terms such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or transgender. It refers to cultural and sexual/gender identity (Pega, Gray, & Veale, 2010). Also spelt takataapui.

Tangata ira tāne: Someone born biologically female who has a male gender identity.

Whakawahine, hinehī, hinehua: Terms describing someone born biologically male who has a female gender identity.

Cultural aspects to be aware of:

Fa’afafine (Samoa, American Samoa, and Tokelau): a person whose birth sex is male but who is raised as a woman, and identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.

TERF: Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. a feminist who excludes the rights of transgender women from their advocacy of women's rights.