View allAll Photos Tagged nonbinary
I created this image for a magazine story that ended up being removed. Unfortunately the decision was based off its "controversy" that wasn't worth the potential bad press - I disagree, as the people interviewed are part of this school, and their representation is just as important as the same dean that was profiled for another story. This story was about students at my university that identify as non-binary gender (when you identify with neither gender exclusively).
Although it was pulled from the magazine, I felt this image should still be seen because these students deserve acknowledgement and acceptance. This is my way to show support, not only of non-binary gender, but of any identity, gender and sexual... No one should be censored for their identity.
No amount of legislation can make this go away: gender fluidity and gender diversity are natural conditions. They happen — in Nature. This is not a product of capitalist decadence. Get over it.
Last Autumn I observed a thing I'd never seen before. A few of the season's non-astringent Fuyu persimmons had seeds. Never, ever had I seen an astringent or a non-astringent persimmon with a seed. Learn something new every day, I say, and here was just such an opportunity.
I didn't dwell on it; just accepted it — until now. Back in November I posted a shot of tiny buds forming on a persimmon. Now, in December, they are opening as flowers. This is where it gets messy; non-binary. I went back in search of a decent flower for another post. How hard could it be? Harder than you might expect. Like the seeds in the Fuyu, I was in for a surprise.
All I ever wanted when I planted persimmon trees was persimmons. I've got more than I bargained for. Like now, as I write this and there is small hail pounding my windows. Yes, yes I know it is Summer; notionally. There's surprises everywhere.
Nobody told me, nor did I ask, that persimmons are (mostly) dioecious: they are either female or male. Buy a grafted tree from a nursery and it'll be female. Cleverly it will produce fruit parthenocarpically — without pollination. Those fruit will be seedless. It's a thing.
But I got fruit with seeds and fruit without seeds—from the same tree. Like the persimmons and their gender, I was accepting and confused at once.
Now we have an answer! Sometimes persimmons change gender, a lot like the beautiful, beautiful bearded dragons. By accident, in looking for the perfect flower I found the imperfection of Nature, the deviation from the expected and now the acceptance of the different. My Diospyros kaki var. "Fuyu" wasn't hiding this from me. I just didn't look, didn't see their gender fluidity. I am not diminished. I am enriched by this broader view of Nature, and accepting it, as should we all.