A binary is by definition “composed of, or involving two things,” so why did the west impose a binary system upon the world when it didn’t naturally exist and humans are complex creatures? We know that many cultures understood the complexity of gender and expression, and that today in modern society people struggle to understand themselves through a specific lense. Binaries are a way for governments and cultures to control how people directly experience the world. When you are automatically defined as male or female, you use that definition to define yourself and that impacts your view of the world and how you behave. Suddenly someone is not a unique person with infinite paths and experiences, they now are given two that they use in their everyday lives to define themselves and their experiences. Binaries are important to people seeking control because rather than having a spectrum where people could behave and transform themselves in a variety of ways they are restricted to two boxes, and that is easier to limit and restrict. Suddenly, the government was able to pit men and women against each other with different laws and rights because there were only two options of what a person could be and experience. The men that were in power and taking control of society could easily maintain control when they projected the idea that men were stronger and superior, and therefore were able to initiate gender roles. When born a female, a person was suddenly expected to grow into a woman and let that define her. She was then expected to bare children, take care of the home, cook, clean, be fragile, feminine, and caring.
Without specific gender binaries people around the world never would have been able to oppress and degrade over half of the population as easily as they were. It was easier to suppress a large amount of people when there were only two categories. They never would have been able to put so many people into a single category, make them feel worthless, and take away their voice, forcing them to act as they’re told, as if they only have one option of how to experience life.
All over the world women were subjected to harmful gender segregated phenomenons and had a lack of rights. In China foot binding was a particularly harmful phenomenon where women were expected to tightly wrap their feet to change the shape to be smaller and more feminine, and in doing so it was so extremely painful that women could not even walk and were enslaved to their homes, thus furthering the patriarchal system that dictated that only men could have jobs or any sort of power. Today in Kenya (a country that was colonized until 1964) there’s still high amounts of gender taboos, women are often shamed for getting their periods and have difficulty even obtaining menstrual products. In many cultures female genital mutilation which is dangerous and involves removing the clitoris as a societal norm.
America is supposed to be the country of equality yet last week Alabama annihilated half of their population by legally banning all abortions, even those caused by rape or incest. By doing this they’re able to also keep the poor oppressed, and control the sexual lives and tendencies the country. The rich men who created this law will always have access to abortion for those around them they wish to provide it for, they’ll hire a private doctor or fly their mistress, daughter, etc. to another state or if necessary country. The rich white men that voted for this bill have passed the most restrictive abortion laws in the states with the largest proportions of women of color in their states, and they’re able to target such a large group of people through a single law because of the power they’ve been able to achieve through being on the “right” end of a binary. Rich men will always be able to get birth control for the women they choose to have sex with, and will always be able to have the sex they wish, yet they’re attempting to control the behavior of the public and women overall. By targeting half of the population that society has dictated as one specific type of person, they are able to keep poor women in poverty and put many into it. Outside of the United States this is a constant problem as well, in Mexico feminists are at an extremely high risk for violence and even murder for seeking rights and equality. The term is referred to as femicide because an entire population of males has been pitted against all females through binaries in an attempt to create chaos and violence, further allowing the rich and powerful men to stay in power.
Through binaries the rich leaders all around the world are able to control bodies, control experiences, control wealth, and control perspectives. Still today women everywhere are tied to ridiculous beauty standards that have created a large amount of eating disorders on a global scale and are subjected to high rates of rape and domestic abuse. Women are told they need diets and surgery to be beautiful. Men are told that they can’t cry, that they must experience the world through an emotionless masculine lens. Nobody is truly free when a binary standard is in place, because you are being told how to experience the world based on the body you were born into. Binaries have and always will be about controlling the human experience.
No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.
Margaret Sanger, an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse
Binaries: A Utopian Desire For Control Turned Dystopian 