This is my second monthly post since joining the Insecure Writer's Support Group ! I love this community I've joined and the support it provides! The IWSG prompt this month was: "Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn't around anymore? Anyone you miss?" My mind immediately goes to my fifth-grade teacher, and while she is still alive, and I've spoken to her many times since graduating the fifth grade, I won't be speaking to her anymore. Unfortunately, my identity as a nonbinary person with leftist political ideals is...quite the opposite of anything she'd approve of associating herself with, to put it nicely. So, while still "around" in the "alive" sense, she is no longer "around" in my life. I want to say that I miss her, miss what was taught to me when I was 10 years old, but, looking back, everything she taught me was clouded with that ultra-conservative cloud, everything was about her po
Gender is a social construct, but this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I view it similar to the concept of Time. Humans invented it as a construct to help us navigate our world and explain things in a near-universal manner. However, just because one knows that time "doesn't exist" (ie is a social construct), doesn't mean they can go around saying things like "I'll meet you at the train station in 3 zip-zaps" and expect people to understand what they mean. One still must use terms relative to the generally accepted and understood meanings and concepts of time. When it comes to gender, sure, the gender binary doesn't "exist," but in order to explain and understand our current conception of gender and our experiences within the gender spectrum, we must still use terms relative to the commonly acknowledged nuances of gender if one wants to help others understand their gender identity, as well as internally understand one's own in rel