Non-binary gender identity and algorithmic-psychometric marketing legibility

ABSTRACT

Recently, discussions of non-binary gender identity have been increasingly featured in U.S. American mainstream print media, particularly mass market magazines, advertising and business editorials, and marketing reports from consumer insight strategy groups. I present a threefold argument relating to this increase in non-binary gender visibility. First, I argue that the media depictions I examine portray non-binary gender identity as a more “authentic” gender identity than cisgender and binary transgender identities, a claim that encourages all consumers to engage in individualized consumptive patterns that transcend hegemonic gender categories in order to attain an authentically gendered self. I frame this media and marketing reification of the supposed affective and consumptive behaviors of non-binary individuals as a result of the parallel evolution of trans respectability politics, targeted marketing techniques, and aspirational economic subjecthood in the U.S. Second, I argue that the departure from these broad, hegemonic consumptive patterns that all consumers are encouraged to adopt enables the development of ever more fine-grained individual consumer data profiles within various algorithmic targeting marketing systems. Finally, I argue that the algorithmic legibility that such discourse encourages renders individuals more vulnerable to the many surveillance systems with which individualized commercial data profiles are often shared.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• surveillance
• algorithms
• non-binary gender
• trans visibility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There is an increasing amount of non-binary gender representation in a variety of non-print media, including television, film, and art. Some of these representations have been praised as respectful and nuanced portrayals of non-binary gender and individuals, and some have been criticized. While these media representations are increasingly influential and deserving of analysis, such an analysis is outside the scope of this article.

2. The term “post-millennium generations” refers to both the population typically referred to as “millennials” (those born between 1980–2000, with an emphasis on, in this case, “late millennials” born from 1990 onwards) and “Gen Z” (those born between 2000–2010) The media discussed here use “millennial” and “Gen Z” sometimes distinctly and sometimes seemingly interchangeably. However, the general implication in these articles is that the “non-binary generation” begins with late millennials and extends to current adolescents and younger.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Camilla Cannon

Camilla Cannon studies at the intersection of trans studies and surveillance studies. They live, read, and write in Washington, D.C. E-mail: [email protected]