Running from Sept. 18 to October 3, Lois Bielefeld’s art exhibit, entitled Androgyny, is one you don’t want to miss. Located in the Center for the Arts (CFA), the on-campus art gallery is host to this powerful display that explores the theme of gender identity. Beautifully demonstrated through photographic portraits and even an installation, Androgyny challenges societal constructions of gender norms and celebrates gender expression.

The subjects of this display are people who cover a wide range on the gender spectrum. Some identify as androgynous, androgyny being defined as having the characteristics or nature of both male and female, and other subjects are transgender individuals who identify as either male or female but are continuously mis-gendered. Some of the subjects don’t identify as either androgynous or transgender, but society has wrongfully pegged them as such.

The large photographs invite the audience to stare, to question and to judge, which is what happens all too often in real life. However, the most critical component of the exhibit is yet to come: the installment. Once the viewer looks around the gallery, they are welcomed to step into a physical bathroom stall. Inside, they are able to listen to the actual stories of the subjects whose photos they just saw. The subject’s experiences, inner thoughts and feelings are vulnerable to anyone who chooses to step inside and hear what is beyond the photo and beyond the surface.

Suddenly, the exhibit comes to life, and the people in the portraits become so much more than just subjects. They become real people, with real stories, which was the intention of the interactive component. Inside, you can expect to be moved by the statements of these fearless people.

There are counts of young children saying, “A lot of times people ask me if I’m a girl or a boy because of the clothes that I wear, the shoes that I wear and my haircut, and wearing these clothes, like they’re comfortable, and that’s why I wear them.”

According to Lois Bielefeld’s artist statement, the fact that this interactive portion of the exhibit is quite literally in a bathroom stall “is a direct commentary on our current bathroom system and the need for safe unisex bathrooms.”

There are also counts from people looking back on how being androgynous affected their young lives,

“I started to doubt myself and I think that happened at a very young age,” one individual stated. “I started to feel out of place being the girl, you know, wearing jeans and running around with the boys instead of playing with dolls,” said another.

Other stories portray struggles. “Part of it was fun, but part of it was this endless search for: who am I?”

What these individuals said in their installment is a dead-on message to society and to the existence of a rigid gender binary system.

“A boy can wear girl clothes and a girl can wear boy clothes, it doesn’t really matter, they should just be clothes,” one insisted. “I just want to be myself.”

Lois Bielefeld is breaking the binary in her captivating exhibit, Androgyny. Make sure to go check it out before it leaves campus on Oct. 3.