(un)gendered
Design Thesis
Design, Innovation and Society
Renssealer Polytechnic Institute
(un)gendered is the result of a semester of design research that explored how language constructs gender and identified potential points of disruption.
This thesis was developed in the context of critical design, which is design that provokes a response related to an issue rather than design that attempts to actively solve an issue. This thesis explores the gender binary and the ways it is reproduced and reinforced through language. It also explores how digital communication now plays a significant role in identity creation and how digital spaces offer a medium to use design as a tool of social change.
The design process was different for this project than for others due to its goal of provocation. Design iteration and design research occured simultaneously and the information extracted from that research guided each subsequent round of iteration. The final product is a synthesis of concepts that span multiple disciplines and exists in a space between social science and design. The (un)gendered browser extension targets gendered language in digital communication and replaces it as much as possible with gender neutral language. The transition is far from seamless, and this friction is actually a part of its function. It serves to highlight how embedded these gendered words are in the English language, and by extension the ideas behind them. Using the browser extension can at times be frustrating when replacements feel clunky and when sections of writing depend on gender heavily for context. In this way, users are forced to constantly examine gendered ideas and confront their own assumptions.
The image below shows a conceptual map of the synthesized research. The content on the remainder of the page initally functioned as a standalone page for the browser extension and offers an alternate introduction to the project. The Chrome extension is not currently available but will be re-uploaded after maintenance is completed.
Gender is created through a process of communication. We develop our conceptions of ourselves and our understanding of what it means to be who we are over years of interactions with other people, with media and with social institutions. A constant that infiltrates every stage of development is the binary system of gender. Everything in our society works to restrict us within one of two boxes.
For transgender individuals, and anyone else who doesn't fit into these boxes, this rigid enforcement of the gender binary can result in social dysphoria, which is discomfort and distress caused by social assumptions related to gender such as pronouns, social roles and/or body language. The often violent cultural climate leads over 41% of transgender individuals to attempt suicide, compared to the average suicide rate of 4.6%.
However, the naming of bodies as one thing or another is only made meaningful by the cultural context. Communication processes create culture; therefore, changing our communication processes can change our society. Digital communication has become the norm and the most meaningful intervention to restructure the gender binary comes in mediating our digital communication practices.
The (un)gendered browser extension removes gendered language from your browsing experience and explores what a post-gender English could look like. Post-gender English looks different than a genderless language because the fundamental structure of English is colonial, binary and patriarchal and these elements cannot be removed, only worked around. The goal of this project is to start a conversation about the gender binary and the ways in which it is constantly reproduced.
We can all choose to actively combat the structural violence enacted by the gender binary.
preview the extension in the images below:
