Reading Summary 4: His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society

The main purpose of this article is to argue for gender neutral design. The argument was made by one of the United States’ leading textile designers. The designer sees “gender-neutral design as the next frontier in the workplace.” The author starts off by stating, “We are living in a time of gender revolution. Traditional masculine and feminine roles are being challenged through advances in science and technology, and by cultural shifts stemming from the evolution of sexual politics and media depictions of gender.” The author believes, “Identity is no longer clearly defined as female or male, but by increasingly visible manifestations of sexuality or lack thereof.” She also believes that some of the today’s landscape are still designed in a Modernism point of view. Modernism is defined as a movement shaped by a predominantly male perspective. To help build her argument, the author uses examples such as the LGBTQ movement, workplace hierarchies, and bathroom setups.