Bhaswati Mahanta

Gender, even though as a social construct, is a way to express my identity. Whereas education is a stepping stone on the path of achieving a more accepting society with less discrimination. The society in which we live has different perspectives of viewing people from different genders. Years of internalized patriarchy and misogyny which gives space for the growth of queer phobia, clouds the judgement ability of people and condition them into believing the societal stereotype that anything outside the gender-binary is abnormal. Gender was created ages back by those members of the social hierarchy in power, mostly men, to retain their hold on the reins of control over the weaker section of the society. After centuries of sticking to the construct, with only a few daring to break free, it got engraved into our very minds into blindly following it without raising any questions. I believe gender does give some of us a sense of belongingness or sense of identity, just like when a woman identifies her femininity and reclaims it as her power after facing years of oppression. When we talk about ‘gender’, no child is born introduced to the terms of a gender binary world. It’s the institutions of the society like family, schools or religious institutions who portray and shape their young minds into believing the pre-existing norms of the stereotypical society. This is where the power of ‘education’ comes in. Schools might act either as a safe space for a child or as a traumatic experience full of fear.  Education not only affects the lives of the queer kids but also directly influences other young minds who might not identify as gender queers but will grow up to be the future of the present society and either take forward the so called pre-existing gender stereotypes or shatter them.

 When we talk about education, already the privileged section has a certain dominance over the non-privilege section of society. From the very beginning educational institutions impose or project the idea of a binary world into the children by referring them as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’, binary uniforms, binary washrooms (which mostly are not even transgender-inclusive). People tend to assume that a kid is either a male or a female, at an early age, which takes away their very choice to decide whether or not they belong to the binary genders. The fact that people are well aware of the existence of the queer community since centuries and yet try to dismiss their existence is what posses the biggest threat to their identity. The reason why you and I didn’t have a lot of queer friends growing up as compared to our cis-gendered friends is not because they didn’t exist, its mostly due to the unsafe environment they were surrounded by which didn’t give them the sense of security or acceptance. Often the members of the queer community are projected as people with mental disorders who are faking their identity. Institutions like religious institutions which were again created ages ago by groups in power, consider anything out the gender-binary as a sin and against the laws of nature. In a world where religion has one of the biggest influential roles in the society, it’s very easy to put such concepts of prejudice and hatred into young minds. Few even claim that ‘conversion therapy’ can actually cure the queer folks into being straight which isn’t a proven fact. There have been cases of extreme harassment and abuse in such conversion therapies due to which many young kids have lost their life.

  The educational institutions, especially schools are a place where many young teenagers are at the exploring phase of their lives. They grow curious about their body and mind and a few of them experience feelings of attraction towards other people. This is practically what every normal teenager go through but the fact that in our society, especially in India, this phase is ignored or more like suppressed by the elders leading such institutions. For most teenagers, who didn’t attend privileged educational institutions, sex education and biological anatomy is only what they learn from the internet. Even if sex education is provided in schools, it is hardly queer inclusive but speaks mostly about the binary genders, i.e. male and female. As a person belonging to the community, I assure you that it is much harder for a queer kid to swim through such situations. At an age when teenagers are not fully aware of how their body or mind works, experiencing something like questioning their gender identity, which might not be binary is a very scary dream. Counsellors are again a foreign topic to most people of the queer community. One can only afford therapy if they belong to a privileged and supportive family. The projected idea of a gender-binary world, the internalized queer phobia, peer-pressure to act normal and lack of guidance result in queer kids either spending fearful years in the closet hating their body out of dysphoria or having to face harassment and bullying from peers, parents, teachers and even strangers for expressing themselves, which is obviously not a healthy way to step into adulthood. The stress and trauma faced by most queer kids pulls them into lifelong anxiety or possibly depression, which is why the importance of a guidance counselor and a queer community’s impact on a gender-queer person’s life cannot be focused enough.

  We as humans always look for the feeling of acceptance and belongingness and the queer community acts as a safe haven for those queer or questioning teenagers. I believe that only schools through the means of education has the power to change the world’s perspective into a more welcoming and accepting way. In a world where one among the two binary genders is still fighting for equal social status, the queer community is far away from claiming an equal position but educational institutions through providing proper sex education and counseling can put a step ahead towards the possible future where our future generations won’t have to live in a structured society shaped centuries ago, where they won’t have to live in dysphoria and where young brilliant minds won’t be wasted away in the depth of deteriorating mental health just because they were born as people who didn’t fit into the pre-existing boxes created by the society.

Bhaswati Mahanta is a 2nd year student pursuing Political Science (Hons.) at Cotton University, Guwahati.