Gender is Like an Ocean: Reflections

By: Jennifer Chinenye Emelife and Lindsay Cavanaugh

“It was a powerful book. It really hit me. I cried at some parts … It also explained what some transgender people go through” — Amissa, Delta Student

 As we celebrate Pride this month (and always!), we are looking back at the film, Gender is Like an Ocean, made from our work with grade 8 students in 2016. The film shows grade 8 students from Delta Alternative School, alongside Masters of Teaching (MT) students from OISE, create arts-based projects connected to their experiences of gender as a response to Kirstin Cronn-Mills’ book Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (2012).

Photo credit: benjamin lee hicks

 In the film, one of the research assistants, benjamin lee hicks argued that “we’re all in transition all the time,” reminding us that life is in phases. As you'll see in the film, benjamin invited us to reflect on the transitions that have shaped our lives. Some of the Delta students talked about leaving their parents’ homes while the Masters students talked about transitioning from students to teachers. benjamin further emphasizes the value of not othering transgender students when talking about gender. benjamin says that if you start from the “idea of ‘a transgender person’, the likelihood of it being us and them is so much higher and that’s the way that we do it a lot of the time.” Instead, benjamin invites people to explore their own stories of transition alongside others. 

This connects with what Dr. Lee Airton talks about. They emphasize the importance of everyone, not just people who are trans or part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, to interrogate what gender and sexuality means for them. Dr. Airton invites us to think about how gender and sexuality works for us. What have been moments when someone is trying to call us into gender norms or push us out of certain gender expressions? In what ways does our understanding of transitions impact what we do? Gender is Like an Ocean metaphorically invites us to reflect on questions like these and we hope that by watching it, you too are able to “not just to acknowledge but to celebrate queerness, in others and ourselves” (Allen, 2021).

Watch Gender is Like an Ocean now on Vimeo. Passcode: music