Francisco sent in the Jan. 7th cover of The Statement, the magazine of the Daily Michigan (found here). It features three apples: one carries male markers (giant mustache), one female markers (eyelashes, make-up, and big red lips), and the third, labeled with a question mark, carries markers for both sexes, sort of askew, and is partially missing.
Cayden writes:
[Apparently p]eople who don’t conform to the gender binary (and quite rigidly too — note the “man” apple’s huge stache and the “woman” apple’s pouty red lips) are incomplete people: monsterous and frightening.
Comments 6
Alicia — January 15, 2009
The text beside it seems to say "Why singular pronouns aren't as simple as a rule in the grammar book". For that particular message, it may have been more effective if the featured on the third were truly "gender neutral" rather than just having elements of both genders.
thoughtcounts Z — January 15, 2009
What's the pronoun they use for the third apple? Is it just a question mark?
Alicia — January 15, 2009
@thoughtcounts: Yes, it's just a questionmark. Funny, considering that there are several gender neutral pronouns common in groups that often involve gender neutrality or blurring.
Sanguinity — January 15, 2009
Incomplete, or victim of violence. Given how disproportionately high violence against transpeople is, this could very easily be read that way: as maiming, instead of mere incompleteness.
And zir apple doesn't have a mouth, either? Silenced, too.
Titanis walleri — January 15, 2009
"And zir apple doesn’t have a mouth, either?"
Strictly speaking, neither does the "male" apple, come to think of it...
Ryan, Sociological Images, and Trans Narratives « genderkid — February 1, 2009
[...] images, videos–, and they published some of it, adding their analysis: On Being Genderqueer, Gender-Ambiguous People as Incomplete, the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and One Laptop Per [...]