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Practical Androgyny

@practicalandrogyny / practicalandrogyny.tumblr.com

The tumblog sibling of PracticalAndrogyny.com a site devoted to the practicalities of ambiguous gender presentation within a binary gendered society.
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practicalandrogyny

United Kingdom Nonbinary Election Campaign results and final analysis blog post and bar charts, analysing the performance of the UK Trans Info campaign in light of the general election result.

As encouraging as the 809 candidates pledging support were, the 33 of them that actually got elected didn’t include the 2 Lib Dem MPs who previously showed the most support for nonbinary people in parliament.

This means that it’s important that those 33 who were elected are kept to their word and asked to show active support, and that more MPs are told why these issues deserve consideration.

If your newly elected local MP supported the campaign, please do what you can to hold them to their pledge and remind them why this cause is important. Even if they didn’t, the blog post gives some ideas of how to ask for their support.

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practicalandrogyny

During the 2015 UK general election campaign, we asked candidates from all parties to pledge to support the rights and recognition of the roughly 1 in every 250 people in the UK whose genders don’t fit into the two options recognised under UK law.

33 out of the 809 candidates who took the nonbinary pledge were elected to parliament.

Despite winning the majority of seats, only 3 of the elected Conservative Party MPs pledged support - only 0.9% of Tory MPs.

Every general election candidate who pledged to support nonbinary rights and recognition in 2015 is listed here

Many will be standing again in the snap general election on the 8th of June 2017.

#UK Election#general election#election 2017#snap election#nonbinary#non-binary#trans#election
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mxactivist

UK Petition: to require government bodies to accept gender-neutral honorifics

[LINK]

When interacting with the government you often have to provide a title from a preset list of options. Many people prefer to use no title, or a gender-neutral title: government bodies should offer gender-neutral options e.g. “Mx”, as well as the option to use no title at all.

[Image: a screenshot of a green and grey progress bar from the petition website showing that the petition has 292 of 10,000 required signatures.]

This is so important, and for a few minutes I wasn’t going to promote it, because I already have Mx on all my government paperwork and records. But then I realised that if this gets to 10,000 signatures, the Government will have to release an official statement saying that titles aren’t legally binding and that they already accept Mx on records.

That would be a HUGE victory for nonbinary people and people who don’t want to indicate a gender with their title. So please, if you are in the UK or might have followers who are, consider reblogging this. <3

Thank you for your time!

PS: Probably a good time to mention my Freedom of Information Act request of the DWP about how many customers have Mx on their records compared to other titles.

#UK#Mx#Nonbinary#Petition#Campaigning#United Kingdom
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neutrois

Top Surgery Survey

Anybody who has had, considered, or thought about top surgery should take this survey. All questions are optional, time to complete is 10-20mins.

Help us gather lots of data! Spread the word by sharing widely.

http://tiny.cc/topsurgerysurvey

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cassolotl

Nonbinary/genderqueer Stats Survey 2016

[LINK]

Twice now I have surveyed nonbinary people to get a general idea of preferences when it comes to language to describe us. In 2015, nonbinary and genderqueer identities were much more visible (in fiction and non-fiction), and trans issues have been thoroughly discussed in the media.

This time I’ll attempt to improve on the last survey by including some options that were missed out last time, plus any responses that were written into the “other” boxes over 1% of the time. As before, you will not be asked for your name, age, email address, specific location, legal gender, or gender assigned at birth.

What the results will be used for.

It will close at 12pm (noon GMT/UTC London) on Friday 15th January 2016 or thereabouts. (If there’s still plenty of responses coming in, I’ll announce a new closing time.)

Thank you,

Cassian

[LINK]

PS: Last year there were almost 3,000 responses, with some interesting results. If you want to help us to repeat (or exceed) that, please consider sharing in your various social media places!

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cassolotl

This survey ends tomorrow at noon (GMT/UTC), in about 15 hours. We’re at just under 2,600 participants. Can we get 300 more? :D

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practicalandrogyny

There's less than 12 hours left to respond to the 2016 Nonbinary / Genderqueer Statistics Survey.

If you're not (always only) a man or a woman, please take time to fill it in - these sorts of statistics help a lot with activism.

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cassolotl

Nonbinary/genderqueer Stats Survey 2016

[LINK]

Twice now I have surveyed nonbinary people to get a general idea of preferences when it comes to language to describe us. In 2015, nonbinary and genderqueer identities were much more visible (in fiction and non-fiction), and trans issues have been thoroughly discussed in the media.

This time I’ll attempt to improve on the last survey by including some options that were missed out last time, plus any responses that were written into the “other” boxes over 1% of the time. As before, you will not be asked for your name, age, email address, specific location, legal gender, or gender assigned at birth.

It will close at 12pm (noon GMT/UTC London) on Friday 15th January 2016 or thereabouts. (If there’s still plenty of responses coming in, I’ll announce a new closing time.)

Thank you,

Cassian

[LINK]

PS: Last year there were almost 3,000 responses, with some interesting results. If you want to help us to repeat (or exceed) that, please consider sharing in your various social media places!

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United Kingdom Nonbinary Election Campaign results and final analysis blog post and bar charts, analysing the performance of the UK Trans Info campaign in light of the general election result.

As encouraging as the 809 candidates pledging support were, the 33 of them that actually got elected didn't include the 2 Lib Dem MPs who previously showed the most support for nonbinary people in parliament.

This means that it's important that those 33 who were elected are kept to their word and asked to show active support, and that more MPs are told why these issues deserve consideration.

If your newly elected local MP supported the campaign, please do what you can to hold them to their pledge and remind them why this cause is important. Even if they didn’t, the blog post gives some ideas of how to ask for their support.

#uk#united kingdom#politics#nonbinary#non-binary#election#general election#uk election#uk election 2015
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Update to the bar charts from the earlier post on the UK general election Nonbinary Campaign based on the figures as of 11pm the night before the election.

782 candidates have taken the pledge, almost 20% of all candidates.

Top of the list are the Green Parties, which across the English & Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish Green parties have 312 pledged candidates (54% of their total candidates and 40% of all the candidates of any party who have pledged).

Only 1% of Tory candidates have pledged, just 11 candidates compared to Labour’s 101 candidates and the LibDems’ 171 candidates.

The full party breakdown is here and the full list of pledges can be read here.

#nonbinary#non-binary#politics#uk#election#uk election#uk election 2015
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The first recorded use of the gender-inclusive title Mx in print, from The Single Parent magazine, volume 20, April 1977.

The letters page ‘In The Chapters’ by Ann Parks, page 21, gives some context - it appears that a previous issue had asked a question to which Mx was one of the suggested answers:

There has been some response to the question of what to call men and women (other than Mr. and Mrs./Ms.).  Ex--husbands are WASbands, of course.  Pat Kite (Single-Again Scrapbook, April SINGLE PARENT) felt that both sexes should be designated MX.  But Dalynn Hoeflin (Solano County, CA 92) feels that males should be

But the actual first use in print is on Page 16 in an article called ‘Single-Again Scrapbook’ by Pat Kite. This appears to be a short story, possibly part of a serial, involving a flirtatious encounter at a party:

"THE WORST PROBLEM facing the single woman today is having to decide whether she is Miss., Mrs., or Ms.," said the Blue-Eyed Man as he sat sipping his rosé.
  "Ooohh, really?" I gasped, swallowing my frito whole.
  "I'm glad you agree," nodded the Man, taking the matches from my hand to light my cigarette. "Now, where I work we make it a point to call every female 'Ms.'  It took me quite a while, but I made it.  Now everybody's happy."
  "Where do you work?" I asked.
  "The welfare bureau."
  "Do you mean if you get a widow who was married forty-eight years in your office, and you address her as Ms., she likes it?"
  "Why not?" said the Man.
  "Frankly the term Mizzzz reminds me of the servant section of a pre Civil War Southern plantation," I commented, drawing out the words through clenched teeth.
  "Oh, that was in the past" smiled the happy Man. "Now Ms. for everyone connotes individuality.  What tile do you go by?"
  "Mrs." I replied with a shrug.
  "Why Mrs.?"
  "Because I have four children and I like them to look legitimate, that's why. Anyhow, if Mrs. and Miss are to be shortened to Ms., then I think Mister and Master should be changed to Muster . . . abbreviated Mu. On second thought, maybe both sexes should be called Mx.  That would solve the gender problem entirely."
  "Are you a women's libber or something?" said the horrified Man.  "Then how come you didn't get mad when I lit your cigarette?"
  "Because it was a gesture of courtesy," I answered, "and I don't think good manners ever go out of style.  Besides, I love having doors opened for me, and my heavy packages carried."
  "Oh, then you're not a libber!" said the Man with a sigh of relief.
  "It all depends on how you look at it," I replied.  "For instance, if you'll give me my matches back, I'll be able to light your cigarettes.  We could take turns."
  "You wouldn't.  .  .  .!"
  "Why not?" I said with a tiny smirk.
  "You know, the biggest problem women have today is whether to be Miss, Mrs., or Ms.," said the Man, as he took the matches from his pocket and lit my Bel-air.
  "Not quite, kind Sir," I commented, trying to change the topic to the artistic merits of Alice Cooper.
 "Yes really, Ma'am," laughed the Man as he got up to dance.
 And we mixed our whimsey with our wine until well past midnight."

There are also a number of examples of people discussing Mx on Usenet newsgroups starting from 1982, with the first person mentioning that they have used the title for themself appearing in 1998.

Mx is currently being considered for inclusion in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

(Thanks to Alex from Nonbinary Inclusion Project and several Twitter users, including Altivo, who helped a great deal in tracking down this article.)

#Mx#gender-neutral#gender-inclusive#language#words#OED#dictionary#history#nonbinary#non-binary#titles#honorifics
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The first recorded use of Mx was in Single Parent, the American magazine, in 1977. Dent said: “The early proponents of the term seem to have had gender politics as their central concern [and] saw the title as one which could sidestep the perceived sexism of the traditional ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’ and ‘Miss’.

Jonathan Dent, assistant editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, as quoted in today’s Sunday Times.

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Bar charts showing the number of pledges by candidates of the top 9 parties in the UK general election Nonbinary Campaign.

Over 700 election candidates have pledged to support nonbinary rights and recognition. Practical Androgyny has a new post analysing the performance of the different political parties.

There’s still time for UK voters to ask local candidates to take the Nonbinary Campaign pledge.

Edit: The second graph is incorrectly labelled - the figures are correct for the time of publication but the labels should read ‘party candidates’ not ‘party members’. My apologies for any confusion caused, there is a corrected version here.

#nonbinary#non-binary#politics#election#uk#uk election#uk election 2015
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cassolotl
Survey: Nonbinary Stats 2015
nonbinary.tumblr.com

[LINK]

It’s been over a year and a half since I last surveyed nonbinary people to get a general idea of preferences when it comes to language to describe us. In that time nonbinary genders have become more well-known in the media in the UK and the US. It can’t hurt to get a...

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practicalandrogyny

Last day to respond to this survey. It's quick and easy. If you're nonbinary, genderqueer etc, please take the time to fill it in.

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cassolotl

Mx is now officially over 30 years old

Nat’s gone and done the research, it must’ve taken ages, and it is really interesting and helpful: When was the Mx gender-inclusive title created?

The Google Groups Usenet archive extends back to 1981 and the earliest example I found of someone suggesting and using Mx (albeit as a one off) was in July 1982 on the newsgroup net.nlang during one of their frequent discussions of gender neutral pronouns (intended to be used to refer to anyone without giving their gender) and nonsexist gender neutral language (such as ‘chairperson’ and  ‘womyn’)

Nat’s article goes on to document more mentions online, and the first serious mention of its practical application in 1998:

Subject: Re: Vegetarianism and B12 deficiency (was Re: Organic GE) Newsgroups: uk.misc,soc.culture.british,rec.food.veg,uk.politics.animals, uk.people.teens,soc.culture.scottish,uk.environment Date: 1998/10/19
[…] Occasionally I have used the title ‘Mx’ before my name, with the idea that it leaves in question whether I a woman or a man or somethinng in between and gives no idea of my maritial status.
– Gnome 11

I love these little insights into gender and linguistic history. Big appreciation to Nat! I’ve updated the Mx PDF to include this new information (and a couple more examples of its use, by the University of Birmingham and the Institute of Physics), so be sure to download the new version for emailing to stubborn people. Direct download / Scribd

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practicalandrogyny
#mx#titles#honorifics#gender-inclusive#gender neutral
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nonbinary
The Frisky: “Agender”: Neither Man Nor Woman, But Definitely Fabulous
www.thefrisky.com

Excellent and highly recommended response to the flawed NY Mag Agender article from The Frisky:

It’s a common assumption that non-binary people were all assumed female at birth, i.e. born with the body parts we typically associate with girls. With the exception of Pejic, who doesn’t have a pronoun preference and has de-emphasized the importance of gender in interviews, there are few visible examples of assumed-male-at-birth non-binary people. Kopas explained how this narrow POV can harm assumed-male-at-birth people and others who fall outside the typical presentation:
It seems that we’ve started treating the most visible examples of non-binary people as if they represented the full range of ways of being. […] Who does this leave out? People of color, fat people, male-assigned people… As a male-assigned non-binary person, it’s sometimes felt like a struggle for me to have that part of my identity recognized even by other gender-variant folks. People want to place me as either as a man because of my physical features, or a woman because of how I dress or because I’m on [hormone replacement therapy]. But there’s no non-binary uniform or medical regimen — nothing says that someone can’t dress femme and still identify outside of a gender binary. So if non-binary is to mean more than a particular kind of androgynous expression, then we need to talk about the range of ways that it can look and feel.
In short? “Agender” may sound like a tidy little label — but that would be an underestimation of every agender person that you meet.

Read the full article at The Frisky

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practicalandrogyny

The article also challenges the commonly presented view that androgyny is the only way to present a nonbinary gender.

#androgyny#agender#trans*#trans#transgender#nonbinary#non-binary#genderqueer#neutrois#media representation
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