Gender and power

We cannot talk about gender without talking about power systems like gender/sex binaries, patriarchy, heteronormativity, coloniality, neoliberalism and race. The work of queer, trans, anti-colonial feminist theorists such as Jasbir Puar, Paul-Beatriz Preciado and Aileen Moreton-Robinson, just to name a few, informs my understanding of gender (and sexuality) as more than just an identity marker and role category. When we reduce gender to identity formation, classification, reproduction, oppression, struggle, recognition and politics, we often miss exposing the historical contexts and contemporary conditions and ecologies that control and discipline human bodies and lives. When we concern ourselves with identification – whether intentionally as part of our activist politics or unconsciously as a result of broader socialisation and normalisation – we assume identities are static and bounded. We often end up in divisive situations arising from identity politics. Even well-meaning, passionate activists and community workers get caught up in struggling for identity representation, policing identity borders and markers, and reinforcing colonial categorisations and constructions of gender and sexuality.