Beyond the Gender Binary

by Alok Vaid-Menon

What I like about colors is that when you mix them together, they become greater than the sum of their parts, something different altogether.

Bias and discrimination are not just being endorsed, they are given the green light. This gives many people permission to harass us in public everywhere we go.

I do not have the luxury of being. I am only seen as doing. As if my gender is something that is being done to them and not something that belongs to me.

The thing about shame is that it eats at you until it fully consumes you. Then you cannot tell the difference between their shame and your own— between a body and an apology. It’s not just that you internalize the shame; rather, it becomes you.

People’s fixation on “proper” grammar or “new terms” often hides a more sinister motive, even if it’s not conscious. They are okay with language shifting as long as it’s the people in power doing it, not us.