Gender Neutrality is a topic that is becoming more widely discussed in todays world with more emphasis going into breaking down stereotypes and creating a world where people do not feel pressured into conforming to a certain label.
Are we as designers responsible for creating stereotypes and is it our obligation to break down the mould?
Introduction
Gender Neutrality is ‘the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people’s sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than the other.’ Designing in a gender neutral manner does not mean designing for everyone it means allowing people to choose a product and not feel like it wasn’t designed for them. If you are designing for a specific gender you are ruling out another gender. As designers we shouldn’t create products that rule out certain gender from using it.
According to the 2011 national census of the U.K, when asked if people were male, female or other, 0.3% of the population identified as other while in America that number is 0.7% according to the Williams institute. Gender Neutrality is a topic that is becoming more widely discussed in society today with a big effort going into creating all inclusive products that allow people to feel safe in the choices they make. Traditionally products where created with a target market in mind whether that be male or female, black or white and old or young. This led to designers creating products that were designed with certain stereotypes in mind. They were made with different considerations to colour, form and size. ‘Stereotypically women’s tastes still stand outside the true canon of aesthetic values of the dominant culture’ (Sparke, 1996). Sparke here is referring to the fact that when designing for women we do not design products that emphasise the role that women play in our society today but instead create products on outdated and historic pre conceptions of what we believe they want. It goes on to say that ‘women would be quick to disassociate themselves from those tastes.’ This supports the fact that stereotypes are made and that products of today are not doing any justice to dispel the gender stereotype towards women. As times have gone on there has been more of an emphasis put on creating products that do not appeal to certain genders but instead appeal to a wider audience and can be used by all types of people. I am going to use this series to explore three main questions:
Is stereotyping inevitable when designing with personas?
Should stereotyping always have negative connotations?
Do designers create stereotypes and is it our responsibility to create all access products?
Within these headlines, I will use literature review, critique and design precedents to make arguments that I believe will allow me to come to a conclusion on if designers responsible for creating stereotypes and whether it is our obligation to break down the mould.