Below, each gender definition-created by Façadomy with Benestad-is followed by each designer’s response.Ī Female is an individual who describes herself as Female and can be considered one of the gender majorities. Linking Ciocci’s thinking with Benestad’s, Façadomy invited seven graphic designers (Mylinh Trieu Nguyen, Andrew Sloat, Riley Hooker, Ely Kim, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Ksenya Samaskaya, and Lobregat Balaguer)-each having pushed the limits of the “d” word in their own practice-to reflect on the seven genders through typographic metaphor. Through these conversations with real people Benestad has observed seven unique genders: Female, Male, Intersex, Trans, Non-Conforming, Personal, and Eunuch.
Hir work as a therapist has flipped the script on gender norms by actively documenting people’s response to the question, “What is your gender?” All responses are equally validated, the subject dictates their own status, and gender is self-determined rather than diagnosed. Benestad, a progressive sexologist and one of Norway’s most public trans figures.
One voice in the construction of this language is Esben Esther P. So, too, must the constructs of gender and the vocabulary we use to describe them.
As a species, we continue to move beyond the constraints of the body. Language bears the responsibility of communication, and like typography, gender must be understood as an expressive format that evolves with the needs of its user. Hormones, regardless of their origins, flow through our bloodstream distributing “chemical messages”-to borrow a term used by Paul Preciado in Testo Junkie (The Feminist Press, 2013) -just as letterforms distribute words throughout bodies of text. Under this premise, in an era where hormone molecules are produced in laboratories and distinctions like “female” and “male” are eroding, the “gender hacker” can be seen as a radical innovator in the ongoing design of the human.
The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial proposes that the ultimate aim of design is a redesign of the species. In a recent panel at the New Museum, artist Jacob Ciocci defined technology as “anything that organizes or takes apart reality,” which prompted a realization: gender could be also be understood as a kind of technology unto itself.
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