From the 'guy who is 70% female' to the woman 'with a little bit extra': Meet the 11 young people thrown together for a new reality TV show who are casting a new light on the gender debate in Britain

Genderquake features 11 people with very different gender and sexual identities
They will move in together for a month and share life stories and experiences
Among them are people who identify themselves as non-binary or gender queer


290
219

View comments
Cambell is a woman who used to be a man. Howie grew up wanting to be male, but is now a proud lesbian. Markus is a gay man who likes to wear make-up, which, he says, ‘confuses the hell out of everyone’.

Phoenix defines as 70 per cent female, while Saffron identifies as non-binary, so would rather not have any she/he tags attached at all, if you don’t mind.

Dan may dress like a boy on Monday, but a girl on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Romario thinks men should be men and the more macho the better — and Brooke was born a boy, but developed breasts as a teenager. Her friends now joke that she is ‘a woman with a little bit extra’.

Bewildered? Well, you won’t be alone.

The most startling thing about a new Channel 4 programme which brings together 11 young people, all of whom have different ‘gender identities’, is that even some of those involved seem befuddled about the brave new world they are living in.

‘Oh, I didn’t understand a lot of it,’ says Markus, who, with his eyeliner, looks as if he might know about these things. ‘I didn’t even know what gender fluid meant. I still find it all difficult, knowing what vocabulary to use. You can’t call Saffron “she” and I kept slipping up on that. Or “babe”, which I’d do, too. Of course it’s difficult. No matter how broad-minded you are, it is difficult.’

The series, Genderquake, which starts on Monday next week, could not be more timely. In the past decade there has been a seismic shift in the way society regards sex and gender — resulting, as sweeping social change often does, in a fair amount of confusion.

To many people, the idea of gender fluidity — that a person’s gender lies somewhere on a ‘spectrum’ rather than being one of two options — is baffling. But to a growing number, including some of those in the new TV series, even the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are outdated constructs.

Genderquake addresses the whole issue in a disarmingly simple way: the group of volunteers, who have been chosen for their varied stances on sex and gender, move into a house together and cameras film them over a month.

It’s a bit like Big Brother, minus the evictions. Life stories come tumbling out. Prejudices, entrenched views and rows duly ensue. Questions are asked that, in polite society, tend not to be asked. Not everyone will like the answers, either.

The oldest member of the group, Markus, is 32, while the youngest, Charlie, is 19, so we are talking about millennials here — most of them not short on opinions.

Four agreed to speak to the Mail about their experiences.

Filomena, 27 and from a small town outside Dublin, is perhaps the most traditional in outlook. A heterosexual woman, she admits she was nervous about signing up.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5671965/Young-people-cast-fascinating-new-light-sex-gender-debate.html

The world's gone mad!

Non fucking binary?    What is she/he/it?   A laptop app?


Listen, Saffron...you got a vagina, you're a woman.  You can feel/wish/want/yearn/pretend all you like.   Physiologically, you're a female.    And that haircut makes you look like the village idiot.

I don't doubt some people are genuinely born in the wrong body so to speak, but I think the majority are just confused...or attention seeking.
Unfortunately for them, there are two different sexes....male and female....so you are either one or the other.
Gender neutral is just a word some have latched onto,  and its nothing new anyway.
Boy George and Eddie Izzard led the way in recent popular history, but they knew very well who they were underneath all the lipstick and frocks.

I like to generally give people the benefit of the doubt but things are getting a bit ridiculous now. There have always been people who may prefer to be the other gender, or may just be more comfortable doing the jobs that the opposite gender may traditionally do. Mainly in many cultures if a man wanted to dress and live like a woman or a woman wanted to live and dress as a man they were allowed to get on with it but they did have to make up their mind. Many women served in armies and navies as men as far as anyone knew. This binary thing is difficult to understand, everyone I would think, may feel a slight difference now and again to the degree of maleness or femaleness. It seems a tad indulgent to expect people to see you as a woman one day and a man the next and who is going to remember to call someone 'they', surely if you feel like a woman today and dress that way, you can be she, if tomorrow you feel like a man and dress that way you can be he.
Its quite confusing for me, I dread to think how confusing it will be in the future if this carries on.

Moved to social issues so it isn’t overlooked.

Vintage wrote:I like to generally give people the benefit of the doubt but things are getting a bit ridiculous now. There have always been people who may prefer to be the other gender, or may just be more comfortable doing the jobs that the opposite gender may traditionally do. Mainly in many cultures if a man wanted to dress and live like a woman or a woman wanted to live and dress as a man they were allowed to get on with it but they did have to make up their mind. Many women served in armies and navies as men as far as anyone knew. This binary thing is difficult to understand, everyone I would think, may feel a slight difference now and again to the degree of maleness or femaleness. It seems a tad indulgent to expect people to see you as a woman one day and a man the next and who is going to remember to call someone 'they', surely if you feel like a woman today and dress that way, you can be she, if tomorrow you feel like a man and dress that way you can be he.
Its quite confusing for me, I dread to think how confusing it will be in the future if this carries on.

You've hit the nail on the head with the term 'indulgent'. This is all so self indulgent it's nauseating. I'm all for people expressing who they are and how they feel but what I can't stand is the demands and trotter stamping that goes on when people won't kow tow to their demands.

Syl wrote:I don't doubt some people are genuinely born in the wrong body so to speak, but I think the majority are just confused...or attention seeking.
Unfortunately for them, there are two different sexes....male and female....so you are either one or the other.
Gender neutral is just a word some have latched onto,  and its nothing new anyway.
Boy George and Eddie Izzard led the way in recent popular history, but they knew very well who they were underneath all the lipstick and frocks.

They were gender benders but never lost sight of the fact that they are men.

I think it’s an interesting idea, even if it’s just to see their various journeys and what they go through
Might be an eye-opener!

It'll possibly be all flying handbags, tantrums, tears and flounces, but I will probably watch it just to see how it goes.

I think it's car crash TV. I don't see the dignity of emblazoning your sexuality, or lack of it, across the living rooms of millions. The victim mentality is getting really tedious.

Have to agree with the victim mentality thing. It may sound a bit nasty but I'm fed up of the majority being told off for not being kind enough to minorities, of whom there seems to be more and more every day. While I understand people can't help having problems being in the wrong bodies, having a syndrome, being on a spectrum for this or that but how much responsibility do ordinary people have to shoulder, everyone has problems in their lives and some of course are more serious than others. I'm in two minds about the girl who was thrown out of the cinema for whooping and laughing too loudly, after other people complained, she is on the autistic spectrum and told those complaining this but how much do you have to give in to while trying to enjoy the cinema, theatre, concert etc. Where are 'ordinary' peoples rights to enjoy their free time. She's entitled to go to a film of course and she manages to hold down a job so I'm sure she could temper her enthusiasm with a little help from the friends she was with. Both her and her mother came across as very entitled. We all need to learn and understand about autism apparently and everything else including people in the wrong body, gender spectrum uncle Tom Cobbley and all, where will it end if it ever will.

Vintage wrote:Have to agree with the victim mentality thing. It may sound a bit nasty but I'm fed up of the majority being told off for not being kind enough to minorities, of whom there seems to be more and more every day. While I understand people can't help having problems being in the wrong bodies, having a syndrome, being on a spectrum for this or that but how much responsibility do ordinary people have to shoulder, everyone has problems in their lives and some of course are more serious than others. I'm in two minds about the girl who was thrown out of the cinema for whooping and laughing too loudly, after other people complained, she is on the autistic spectrum and told those complaining this but how much do you have to give in to while trying to enjoy the cinema, theatre, concert etc. Where are 'ordinary' peoples rights to enjoy their free time. She's entitled to go to a film of course and she manages to hold down a job so I'm sure she could temper her enthusiasm with a little help from the friends she was with. Both her and her mother came across as very entitled. We all need to learn and understand about autism apparently and everything else including people in the wrong body, gender spectrum uncle Tom Cobbley and all, where will it end if it ever will.

One thing that really gets my back up is people who think having kids means they are entitled to more benefits than those without. And I don't mean social security. They want this or that, can't do this or that, want people to bend over backwards for them because...."I've got a child". So fucking what. You chose to have that child. It's a life choice. It's not a disability.

Not once did I ever expect to be treated differently in the street, car park, on the bus, in the supermarket, because "I had a child".