Project Background

After reading “Gender Nihilism” by Alyson Escalante and Desert written by an anonymous author in a short period of time, I became interested in the concept of gender abolition. This particularly resonated with me as someone who already identified as both nonbinary and queer, but felt trapped by my “feminine” presentation. Gender abolition offered a path where I could still dress the way I wanted, go by what name I desired, and be with who I wanted without having any assumptions tied to my gender identity. After initiating a directed reading with my professor Dr. Schnabel, I spent a semester studying this concept with the goal of distributing and sharing what I had learned at the end of the course.

While I was originally interested in photography as a medium for my final project, it soon became clear that the common associations with the body and the usual forms of expression wouldn’t accurately explore a liberatory form of gender or a largely undeveloped area of identity (re)creation. Through my research, I found collaging to be a natural process for analyzing and reimagining gender identity due to its essential act of deconstruction and creation with what is available—similar to identity creation— and its history of use with queer artists.

Writing an OER allowed me to distribute these ideas and workshop in an accessible and educational format. With the help of my professor Dr. Schnabel, Dr. Bialowas, and the Stewart Library at Weber State University, I was able to host multiple workshops for free to university students and the public. My hope is that this OER allows others to facilitate an engaging and accessible activity that allows for further knowledge of gender abolition and identity exploration.