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“I suppose some people wanted to protect me from bullying and didn’t realize that they were bullying me in the process.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

“It’s not just that you internalize the shame; rather, it becomes you. You no longer need the people at school telling you not to dress like that; you already do it to yourself.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

“Gender is not what people look like to other people; it is what we know ourselves to be. No one else should be able to tell you who you are; that’s for you to decide.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

“Babies are born and divided into one of two categories… boy or girl, which affects how we treat the baby when they cry, what clothes we dress them in, what toys they’re allowed to play with… Nothing is spared; we mark everything — the colors, emotions, relationships, even food… This is done so consistently and with so much authority that we don’t even recognize that we are doing it…

Depending on whether we call them a boy or girl, we assign each a narrative — we tell some children they are strong, and others they are weak. We tell some they can express themselves, and others they should not have feelings. We tell some their worth comes from doing harm, and tell others their worth comes from accepting it.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary