Gender Cube: Visualizing the Multi-dimensions of Gender

Judith Butler discusses what it means to be ‘human’ in her book Undoing Gender, “The category of the “human” retains within itself the workings of the power differential of race as part of its own historicity. But the history of the category is not over, and the “human” is not captured once and for all.” In what ways is the human captured and categorized? We are born and given a description that includes the category of sex: male or female. In that category many trans people and gender-nonconforming are uncategorizable. What does that mean for us?

“The person who threatens violence proceeds from the anxious and rigid belief that a sense of the world and a sense of self will be radically undermined if such a being, uncategorizable, is permitted to live within the social world,” Butler explains. By being uncategorizable, we are murdered, threatened and discriminated against.

The ultimate struggle is why the need for categorization and labels? Humans strongly desire to sort. We are constantly sorting. I’m guessing this comes from some primal need that protected us and ensured reproduction. But as we become overpopulated and insulated from a ‘wild’ world our need to sort seems only to inhibit us from true expression. In my ideal world, these primal instincts would vanish. But, hey, we’re not there yet. So, I created the gender cube knowing it was not an all-inclusive model. I created it as a stepping stone to the great gender galaxy (which seems to be the best model).

What system could we build that better represents the multi-dimensional elements of gender? One issue is that our society is not ready to move away from the masculine and the feminine. These are still deeply rooted in our culture and language. I felt for the system to be integrated it needed to work within these constraints. But gender is much more than a marker we are given at birth and/or an identity we retain for ourselves. Gender is a social, cultural and self-identity. It is put upon and taken up by us. Here is my proposal:

The cube works this way. There is a self-identity axis (x), a social identity axis (y) and a cultural identity axis (z). They are based on a spectrum ranging from masculine to feminine. The exact middle is gender-neutral. This would be a self-reporting system. You determine how you view your gender, how socially you live your gender and how culturally your gender is viewed. You determine what culture means to you – church, America, the city, your friend circle, your family. For me, it was America as a whole. Each box is numbered starting at the neutral point where the lines intersect. This is 0,0,0. It has varying degrees of femininity and masculinity with the middle points on each axis acting as neutral. So, I identify as 3Xm, 2Yf, 3Zm. This means I see myself in the middle of the masculine side of the spectrum. I like to socialize/be seen close to the middle of the feminine side of the spectrum (whether I am is a different story) and culturally, I think I’m viewed in the middle of the masculine side. This breaks down into how I see myself, how I want to be seen and how I am seen.

Gender is a much more complex social system than simply male or female. The increased visibility of the trans community is a catalyst for a fundamental change in the gender system. By becoming categorizable, we become possible.

“…To persist in one’s own being is only possible on the condition that we are engaged in receiving and offering recognition. If we are not recognizable, if there is no norms of recognition by which we are recognizable, then it is not possible to persist in one’s own being, and we are not possible beings; we have been foreclosed from possibility,” says Butler.

Let’s make us possible beings.

Feedback to the Gender Cube from Philly Trans Wellness Conference

I presented the model at the 2016 Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. I received an incredible amount of feedback. I’m thankful I had a large, vocal crowd. I passed out the Gender Cube Worksheet to help the audience members plot themselves on the gender cube and to provide feedback. I wanted to present some of the feedback here. Feel free to use the worksheet to plot yourself on the cube!

One audience member said that the expression of gender through self, culture and socially is always in flux. They plotted themselves as a blob covering several degrees of gender on each axis. This was a great point – this self-reporting system is only valid at the time the person reports it. How they feel in the moment because gender can be/is fluid. Many people plotted themselves covering a range of degrees like 2m through 1f.

Many participants agreed that the axis being based on the masculine and feminine was problematic for several reasons: the masculine/feminine is undefinable and changes based on time, location, etc; and many people do not identify as masc or fem.

Another great point it didn’t allow room for bigender people. It only allowed you to plot yourself masc, fem or neutral and not BOTH masc and fem.

There was a suggestion to turn the cube into a Venn diagram. I’m going to tinker with this idea. The cube originally started as a circle.

Multiple people said that the culture axis was hard because it changed based on where they were – work versus school.

And thankfully I had some mathematically feedback with the look of the cube.

Based on the feedback I’m going to take a critical look at:

• Making the masc and the fem not mutually exclusive
• Include multiple plot points
• Account for time and location
• How gender is defined (is really only the self?)

Remember, the gender cube is not a solution. It’s a step. It’s a step beyond the spectrum. I want to thank everyone that came to my presentation and a special thanks for those who gave me valuable feedback.

*IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTS OUTSIDE OF MASCULINE AND FEMININE I’D BE VERY INTERESTED. PLEASE SEND ME OTHER PROPOSED MODELS OF GENDER!