Trigger Warning
This story is so deeply disturbing. A 17 month old child, Roy Jones, was murdered by his mother’s boyfriend through repeated punching and choking. The senseless act of violence was triggered by what Pedro Jones (the accused) felt was the young boy, “acting like a girl.” What it means for a child less than two years old to “act like” any gender is beyond me, since at that stage they are still developing an awareness of the world around them and not yet even how they fit into it.
It is easy to take acts of violence such as this and proclaim it a tragic instance that is not connected to a larger system of managing the gender expression of young people through often physically, psychologically and spiritually violent means, but it is. From hate crimes against queer and trans youth, to the policing of children’s behavior for the slightest of gender “transgressions” by the most “well meaning” of parents is rooted in the belief that there are only two genders and there are only two distinct ways to perform those genders. Physical violence is one very common way young people’s gender performance is policed. It is not only debilitating for children and youth, but causes them long-term harm and in this case, it cost one of them their life.
And after the jump one of my favorite posters debunking gender essentialism.
One Comment
In my opinion, stuff like this happens because even now, gender roles are still too rigid. It’s a real shame. I remember reading in my old Anthropology textbook that there was a Native American tribe that has four genders instead of two: masculine men, masculine women, feminine men, and feminine women. I forgot which tribe that was, though. But anyways, that same book also said that the masculine women and the feminine men are especially treated with great respect. While I read that selection, I kept thinking that maybe if that system had stuck, people today would be more tolerant, and maybe hate crimes wouldn’t be so prevalent.
P.S. I got a piece of paper with that very same poster at an anti-domestic-violence event at school!
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[...] boyfriend, who was “trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl.” As Samhita at Feministing says, crimes such as this are “rooted in the belief that there are only two genders and there are [...]