Critical look at the gender debate at 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON
Vienna (OTS) – Gender mainstreaming or gender madness? The term gender is on everyone’s lips and is discussed emotionally. For a long time now, it has no longer just been about biological women and men, but also about gender identities that deviate from traditional ideas. What does gender mean? How many genders are there actually? Who has the authority to interpret this? And: How are gender identity and body related? On the occasion of Pride Month, “dokFilm” will shed light on this in the new documentary “Gender, Queer, Us – Identity in Transition” by Stefan Wolner and Anna Katharina Wohlgenannt on Sunday, June 23, 2024, at 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON and other questions about gender and identity from a cultural-historical and socio-political perspective. In addition to experts from gender studies, psychology and social sciences, people who live outside traditional social norms also have their say. The film leads through the supposed gender jungle and engages viewers without any prior knowledge.
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Old certainties are breaking away, social conventions are being shattered, and the world is increasingly moving away from binary thinking. What leaves some perplexed and often angry is celebrated by others as a liberation.
Social networks play a fundamental role, both in young people’s search for identity and self-discovery as well as in sometimes orchestrated resistance: “We have been observing an emotionalization of society for 20 years, since the emergence of social networks,” states political scientist Anna Durnová sees the starting point of an increasingly polarized society, which can also be seen in the gender debate.
Some swim effortlessly with the current, others fight against the current. Sophie Mashraki identifies as non-binary: “I just define myself as me.” The owner of Austria’s first queer modeling agency worked as a model for a long time in addition to her work as a director in the independent theater scene in Vienna, but hardly received any orders. Finding a suitable agency was difficult. The German-speaking fashion market for models who deviate from the heteronormative and, like them, “are neither white, blonde nor blue-eyed” is not very large, which is why she decided to found her own agency. Mashraki is convinced that diversity is a trend, but also a necessary social progress.
His work is about breaking down stereotypes and rewriting, rewriting and redefining what is associated with masculinity: the artist Offerus Ablinger portrays people from the queer subculture in his works such as the painting series “Trans Mask”. .
They provoke many people to the point of aggression – children’s book readings by drag queens: These are “transpropaganda” through which children are sexualized too early. Drag queens are, first of all, an art form that has nothing to do with transsexuality. Drag queen Freya van Kant talks about the massive threats of violence that she is constantly confronted with.
“School must be a safe place to grow up,” says Ilse Rollett, director of AHS Rahlgasse. There are many children and young people in her school who “want to try it out: I’ve been a boy for half a year now. Now I’ve been a girl for half a year. Now I’ve been non-binary for half a year.”