Course: 66-139 Reducing Conflict: Perceptions of Culture and Identity

Instructors: Ms. Elizabeth Walker, Dr. Bonnie Youngs

Date Published: May 2, 2023

Made by: Emma Tong, Zilyu Ji, Zeyu Zhou

Table of Contents

Thesis

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver and our Project 1 data explore how gender identity can lead to belonging and isolation depending on the inclusivity of the environment and the community. In I Wish You All the Best, the main character, Ben, distances themselves from others due to facing a community that is not inclusive of their non-binary gender identity; yet, when supported by people who respect their identity, Ben gains a sense of belonging. While Project 1, which consisted of interviews with CMU students on belonging, does not represent the experiences of non-binary people at CMU, the data shows how belonging is affected by gender identity and the support of friends. Thus, the novel and data both show us the more perceivable the social acceptance in the community, the more people positively reconcile with their identity, which creates a sense of belonging.

Borrowing the perspectives from people also from the LGBTQ+ community, we want to ask the question of what is it like being and living as non-binary, with all the possible social rejections fighting in the mind? 

Book Summary

When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they're thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents' rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist.