The Gender Tag Project

The Gender Tag Project is a YouTube “tag” video that encourages individuals to answer a set of ten prompts relating to their experience with gender in the form of a YouTube video. The Gender Tag videos are compiled in a YouTube playlist called “The Gender Tag Project,” found by clicking here.

The Gender Tag Project (Explanation)

This video explains how The Gender Tag works, and provides important definitions and background information on gender.

The Gender Tag is a project for everyone. Gender is a part of the human experience, and every single person experiences gender in a different way. The Gender Tag prompts cover topics that range from gender identity to gender expression and gender roles, and are aimed at creating conversation about each individual’s own understanding of gender.

The goal of The Gender Tag Project is to compile videos from trans and cis people, nonbinary people, queer and straight people, men and women and people of other genders, people from different cultures and classes, with different ability statuses, different romantic orientations and so on. The more different types of people that contribute to The Gender Tag Project, the more diverse and more complete the experience of viewing it will be. Everyone lives a gendered life, and not everyone is talking about how that affects their lives and informs their views – that needs to change.

The Gender Tag prompts are both general and broad, giving participants final authority over where they take the answers. For many people, the performance of gender is something they know and understand well, and think about every single day; for others, this might be their first time thinking about it in an active way. The Gender Tag project hopes to make conversation about gender more accessible, and to provide information and education for those who may not fully understand how others experience gender, or how gender affects the world we live in.

The Gender Tag by A. Wylde

Click to watch my contribution to The Gender Tag Project.

The Gender Tag Prompts

1. How do you self-identify your gender, and what does that definition mean to you?
2. What pronouns honor you?
3. Describe the style of clothing that you most often wear.
4. Talk about your choices with body hair. How do you style your hair? Do you have facial hair? What do you choose to shave, or choose not to shave?
5. Talk about cosmetics. Do you choose to wear makeup? Do you paint your nails? What types of soaps and perfumes do you use if any?
6. Have you experienced being misgendered? If so, how often?
7. Do you experience dysphoria? How does that affect you?
8. Talk about children. Are you interested in having children? Would you want to carry a child if that were an option for you? Do you want to be the primary caretaker for any children you may have?
9. Talk about money. Is it important to you to provide for a family financially if you choose to have one? Is it important to you that you earn more than any partner you may have? Do you prefer to pay for things like dates? Are you uncomfortable when others pay for you or offer to pay for you?
10. Anything else you want to share about your experience with gender?

The Gender Tag: Celebrating 600+ Videos

As of January 2020, well over 1,000 individuals have contributed a video to The Gender Tag Project playlist.

Important Definitions

Biological Sex – attributes such as anatomy, chromosomes, and hormones; sex assignment is usually assigned at birth and inform whether a person is male, female, or intersex. (source)
Gender – the state of being male or female, typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. (source)
Gender Identity – a person’s internal sense of being a man, a woman, neither of these, both, and so on; one’s inner sense of being. Everyone has a gender identity. (source)
Gender Expression – the ways in which a person manifests masculinity, femininity, both, or neither through appearance, behavior, dress, speech patterns, preferences, and more. (source)
Gender Roles – set of roles, activities, expectations and behaviors assigned to females and males by society. American culture recognizes two basic gender roles: Masculine (having the qualities attributed to males) and feminine (having the qualities attributed to females). Other countries have three or more gender roles. (source)
Transgender – sometimes used as an umbrella to describe anyone whose identity or behavior falls outside of stereotypical gender norms. More narrowly defined, it refers to an individual whose gender identity does not match the assigned birth gender. (source)
Cisgender – refers to people whose sex assignment at birth corresponds to their gender identity and expression. (source)
The Gender Binary – Western view of gender as a rigid binary consisting only of two options, male or female, usually designated by physical sex characteristics as observed at birth. (source)
The Gender Spectrum – opposed the static, binary model produced through a solely physical understanding of gender. Includes the intersection of biology, gender expression, and gender identity in a multidimensional array of possibilities. Represents a more nuanced, and ultimately more authentic model of the human experience of gender. (source)
Nonbinary – an umbrella term covering any gender identity that doesn’t fit within the gender binary. The label may also be used by individuals wishing to identify as falling outside of the gender binary without being any more specific about the nature of their gender.(source)
Preferred Gender Pronouns (PGP) – the pronoun or set of pronouns that an individual would like others to use when talking to or about that individual. Examples include she/her/hers, ze/hir/hirs, he/him/his, and others. (source)
Gender Dysphoria – happens when a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. (source)
Misgender – refer to someone (especially a transgender person) using a word, especially a pronoun or form of address, that does not correctly reflect the gender with which they identify. (source)

Posting a video using the words “The Gender Tag,” “Gender Tag” or any variation of titled content posted for intended inclusion in The Gender Tag Project is considered expression of agreement for portions of the content to be used for promotion of The Gender Tag Project exclusively, and for informational use regarding The Gender Tag Project and directly related adaptations. Uploading content for inclusion in The Gender Tag Project does not entitle anyone to use said content for advertising or promotion of anything other than The Gender Tag Project and directly related adaptations.