Week of August 24
Gender-Neutral Language
Gender-neutral language took up the bulk of this week’s news. Oklahomans for Equality are advocating to change the city of Tulsa’s charter to have gender-neutral language instead of gendered language. Meanwhile, the city charter of Chelmsford, Massachusetts is currently changing their charter over to gender-neutral language, such as replacing the gendered “Board of Selectmen” to the gender-neutral “Select Board”. West Mifflin Area School District’s school board recently passed administrative guidelines that support transgender students in the district. One of the guidelines include using gender-neutral language. Multiple articles highlighted Jennifer Lopez and her “nibling”. “Nibling” is a gender-neutral term to describe the child of one’s sibling. Jennifer Lopez posted a video on Instagram promoting her nibling’s new short film.
Several articles focused on the Royal Canadian Navy replacing the gendered term “seamen” to gender-neutral term “sailor”. The Defense Minister stated, “By adopting gender neutral designation for junior members of the Royal Canadian Navy, we demonstrate to all Canadians that the Canadian Armed Forces will welcome anybody who wants to serve their country and uphold the values of inclusion and diversity.”
Gender-Neutral Media
Several articles also discussed the Berlin International Film Festival’s recent announcement that their acting awards category will be gender neutral next year. Instead of “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” there will be gender-neutral categories such as “Best Leading Performance” and “Best Supporting Performance”.
Multiple articles discussed that this is great for nonbinary actors and mentioned other cities that have adopted gender-neutral performance categories. However, articles also expressed the concern that gender-neutrality will result in men taking over the nominations and awards.
Gender-Neutral Parenting
Gender-neutral parenting was discussed in the news this week from attitudes to aesthetics. Psychology today mentioned that gender-neutral parenting could potentially help in “freeing men from the prison of masculinity”. Meanwhile, an article about gender-neutral nurseries suggested decorating the room to be book themed or inspired, using examples from “Winnie the Pooh” and “Where the Wild Things Are”
Another article published gender-neutral “Mommy and Me” matching outfit ideas.
Gender-neutral Fashion
Gender-neutral fashion, specifically sport and streetwear, were highly featured this week. One article highlighted a gender-neutral sport and swimwear brand called “Outplay”. The creator of the brand, Marialexandra Garcia, stated, “We offer an alternative for those who don’t feel represented by other brands because of sizing, cuts, colors and patterns, or simply because they don’t feel truly seen.”
Nike also has a gender-neutral shopping section on their website.
Meanwhile Adidas Skateboarding and LBGTQ brand “Unity” are collaborating to make a gender-neutral clothing and shoe collection.
Another article highlighted a gender-neutral streetwear brand created by some members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team. Soccer player and creator Meghan Klingenberg stated, “We identify as women and we’re creating clothes for people across the gender spectrum. That’s surprisingly unusual. The clothes range from classic feminine looks to more masculine. We like to mix it up, and see that most people in our generation feel the same.”
