Being Non-Binary in a Binary World
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.
Book cover art from Sarah Maxwell
Content Warnings
Taken from the author's website
Parental abuse (both emotional and physical)
Misgendering (both accidental and purposeful)
Transphobia
Homophobia
Detailed anxiety & panic attacks
Detailed depressive episodes
Suicide idealization
Underage drinking
Mason Deaver's playlist that inspired the book
Resonation of the playlist with the book:
How to reconcile gender identity with possible rejection from family and religion?
"Trying to save face, and daddy heart break"
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.