Gender Experiment Kit
The process
Context
For designing for social change, I looked at United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities : Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
But how do we make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable when our idea of inclusion is so narrow?
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We conveniently include the groups we are comfortable representing and ignore those who make us uncomfortable.
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In none of the SDGs was a mention of the queer community.The language used to describe gender inequalities is excluding people who do not fit into the gender binaries.
In India, even though section 377 was abolished in 2018, it was just the bare minimum. Homophobia and transphobia is still prevalent in the country. There are no proper laws protecting the queer community nor the majority of the society is accepting.
Existing queer spaces
Some queer cafes, clubs, bars etc. have come up which has given a safe space to a lot of queer people. However, a lot of these spaces are dominated by upper caste hindu cisgender gay men and some require an expensive entry fee. These spaces are clearly not accessible to everyone. Transphobia is another major issue which is prevalent in the queer community.
Initial Design Inquiry
How cities can provide free, accessible, safe and inclusive public spaces for the queer community?
Research
Final Design Inquiry
Can citizens start to celebrate diverse gender expressions to build safer and inclusive communities and cities?
Ideation
Opening up conversations about gender, facing scenarios and choosing how to react, talking about gender through storytelling board games
Opening up conversations about gender, facing scenarios and choosing how to react, talking about gender through storytelling board games
Opening up conversations about gender, facing scenarios and choosing how to react, talking about gender through storytelling board games
Narrative Matrix
Target Audience
Primary Target Audience
Teenagers from age 15 - 18 who are curious about how they can explore beyond their gender expression.
Secondary Target Audience
Schools which wants to sensitize their students on diverse gender expressions.
Renders
Click to open PDFs
User Feedback
Harshil (14 years)
“Society should accept in whatever body one is in”
Anonymous (18 years)
“At starting, it seemed easy, but when I actually started to do it, I started to question the meaning of masculinity and femininity.”
Observations- They started to reflect back on their past experiences with masculinity.
Anonymous (18 years)
“I revisited certain areas of my life. It wasn't really a gender thing. But I felt empathetic to the experiences of others. Even though it didn't make sense to me doesn't mean those experiences don't exist.”
Inspired by The Gender Quest Workbook
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