Redoing Gender: How Nonbinary Gender Contributes Toward Social Change Darwin HelanaPaperback

Redoing Gender demonstrates how difficult it is to be anything other than a man or a woman in a society that selectively acknowledges those two genders. Gender nonbinary people--who identify as other genders besides simply "man" or "woman"--have begun to disrupt this binary system, but the limited progress they have made has required significant everyday labor. Through interviews with 47 nonbinary people, this book offers rich description of these forms of labor, including "rethinking sex and gender," "resignifying gender," "redoing relationships," and "resisting erasure." The final chapter interrogates the lasting impact of this labor through follow-up interviews with participants four years later. Although nonbinary people are finally managing to achieve some recognition, it is clear that this change has not happened without a fight that continues to this day.