Non-Binary People Aren’t A New Phenomenon – We’ve Been Here As Long As Humans Have Existed newness

+ info: Huffintonpost UK

This week HuffPost UK is running Being Non-Binary, a series of first-person perspectives exploring what it means to be non-binary, looking at how non-binary gender identity relates to different people’s personal, professional and romantic lives.

I look at my emails this morning. I am happy and grateful to see a request from an art institution for work – as a freelance artist work can be unpredictable.

The smile soon turns to a familiar sigh as I read something along lines of: “In 2018, where gender conversations is all Around Us! and we are discovering NeW and FuN WayZ To Expl0Re R GenderZ – we would love you to come talk about being Non Binary and other Modern gender expressionz that have Blasted into our 2018 consciousness!”

The sigh doesn’t omit what I know is probably a very well-intentioned email coming from a white, middle class, recent graduate of an arts university just outside of London brought in to ‘help with outreach’, otherwise known as ‘make us relevant again’. But still, the sigh is there.

I want to reply: “This does not feel modern to me, this feels like the most ancient thing I know” but I’m not sure how Meredith would cope with that response and if that will pay my rent.

It’s not just that email though. Switch to TV screens, television like Good Morning Britain, documentary after documentary, thinkpiece after thinkpiece, perfume campaign after fashion campaign, and there is a dangerous undertone of ‘newness’ amongst the conversations around gender and non-binary identities.