Queer Pedagogy
 

Firstly I am wondering what other users opinions are on this subject based on my text and any other texts you wish to examine.

Secondly, what do you identify as?
I identify as a queer, cis-gendered male.

Below is the introduction to my essay on Queer Pedagogy. Pedagogy means "The science of" and Queer can refer to many aspects of society, but is primarily defined as non-heterosexual. The dictionary definition of Queer refers to the strange.
What I propose within this essay are suggestions of how one could incorporate these ideas into education.

This is the conclusion to my essay:

So you're proposing to teach "queer" in schools? Did I understand correctly? I am quite dense, and sometimes don't understand thinga that are as plain as it can be, I'm sorry >. <.
Anyways, I identify as a female. Like, I was born a female, with all the female things going on, and there is nothing else I could be but female.

Yes, essentially my essay proposes possible ways to teach queer in schools.
I will say that in the case of your identity you could identify as a cisgender female. If you have ever heard of the term transgender, cisgendered is basically the opposite.

Cisgendered means that you agree with the gender that you were given at birth. In your case you were a female at birth and still identify as a female.

Transgendered means that you do not agree with the gender that you were assigned at birth.

I do apologize for the language difficulty, I myself spent lots of time rereading pages upon pages about this topic. If you have questions please feel free to ask.

Honestly, the idea that you are proposing is nice but...it's just that. Idealistic. It doesn't confront wider realities such as religious and social persecution and anxiety, or the fact that some global education systems are down right non-existent.
From an anthropological perspective there are examples of societies where transgendered roles are considered acceptable, but still cause social anxiety. For example in South Asian countries there is a religious sect known as the Hijra who are primarily made up of men and some hermaphrodites who identify as female. Although this sect is widely accepted into society as they are consider devotees of a particular Hindu Goddess, they are still at the centre of much social anxiety (you can read Chandra for further info).
There are also societies which openly condemn transgender individuals yet secretively engage in practices such as pederasty (dancing boys of Afghanistan).
I think the main problem however is that when talking about any sort of queer/transgender matters in a global context you have to acknowledge that our own western understanding is based on a western construction which is not applicable in other countries. McIntyre wrote a brilliant book called 'whose rationality, which justice' that basically underlined the fallacy of western logic and rationality as a social construction of our own perception of truth rather than an absolute universal truth.
It is a bit of a ball ache to understand but if you are going to study any type of global gender issues it is important to understand that your own understanding and conceptualisation of gender is far from universal, and this becomes the proverbial fly in the ointment when trying to create some kind of global prescriptive cure.

Anyway, the topic you have chosen to study is awesome and I hope your essay does well!

To effect of not considering gender roles I would say that I did consider them, but I do not know about all the genders in the world however I did fail to write in depth about them.
This essay was written for an assignment in school. If this ended up being my college thesis I would make a section dedicated to gender roles in other cultures.
In response I will say this, the point of view of this particular article was taken from an American perception. Although not mentioned in the present paragraphs, I do mention later the globalization of other countries in comparison to America. Telling readers a similar message to yours, that this issue would not be solved in modern times because of the very nature of social constructive differences. I also touch on a topic of globalization and American's patriotism can have a negative effect on the idea of a global society. In the past it seems that America has used patriotism to send citizens to war and to the peace core to carry out deeds that the average citizen might not agree with if they were told about, so they hide it by saying "Won't you fight for your country?".

It's not about knowing all the genders in the world. It is simply understanding that gender is a social construct which can greatly vary from culture to culture...and this is pretty much true of most social phenomena. When you go to college you'll find most essays you write will flip flop from thesis to antithesis until you finally draw the conclusion that 'this subject is too messy and complicated to understand fully'.
In social science and humanities, you will be taught that everyone has their limitations, bias, ect which will affect how we perceive the world- and this includes us as scholars, so do not feel offended cos you get brownie points with markers for mentioning your own limitations (in fact in social science research papers scholars will dedicate a paragraph to their own inadequacies). Topics like gender are absolutely massive, so I have no problem admitting I have a limited understanding. The areas that I do specialise in are very specific, but even then my knowledge has gaps. So yeah, the academic path is a humbling one.[heart]