Using Finding Nemo Friends to Transcend the Gender Binary

Not only are women discovering what it means to have equal rights, women and men both are now redefining what it is to be a "woman." Gender roles are being subverted, leaving both stereotypes and cultural expectations unfulfilled.

These movements in what we understand about our own gender can be explored through looking back unto nature. Take for instance one of the most bizarre gender roles I've encountered: the angler fish. The angler fish is of course featured in the film Finding Nemo. (Remember that working in an aquarium makes you relate fish through Disney films to keep kids' attention) It has giant scary teeth and this peculiar little light (bioluminescence) that helps attract prey to it, as the angler fish lives in the deep ocean where sunlight does not reach. The angler fish floats motionless and waves its light around. Due to the deep ocean (3,000') being particularly scarce in grub, the angler fish can expand its stomach and swallow prey twice the size of the angler fish's entire body. One might assume that this terrifying creature is a male, but the male is actually a much smaller fish. The male fish loses its ability to feed itself when it reaches maturity due to the degeneration of its digestive system. Thus, the male goes out looking for a way to eat and ends up biting onto a female angler fish. The Male's teeth are conveniently hook shaped and easily latch on, but once he takes a bite, he releases an enzyme that both melts his lips and melts part of the female. This process literally fuses the bodies together as one, giving new meaning to the romantic idea of being one with your significant other. This is almost a parasitic union however, as the male feeds off of the female's nutrients and is only used by the female as an instant way to spawn. Additionally the female can carry up to six males on her body at a time and is by no means monogamous. Thus, the female angler fish is the dominant gender, the socially accepted multi-partner gender, the physically larger and the aggressive, head of house-hold gender. All of these are not what we would normally think of as female due to our cultural history, but this change in defining our gender is by no means unnatural. A more comical explanation of this process can be found here: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler

Beyond the redefining of gender roles, we are also re-examining whether or not we can be simply male or female. We may have the goods to be defined as either male or female, but we can identify our emotions and sentiments with a gender that is not our physical own. There are hermaphroditic relationships all over nature. Sequential hermaphrodites are born as one gender but can later change into another such as our beloved Nemo the clown fish. Clown fish engage in protandry and are born as males in which both reproductive and not yet reproductive males lives in a harem together with a large, singular female for reproduction. When the female dies, one of the reproductive males will become the female and one of the sexually immature males will mature. Simultaneous reproduction exists when one organism possesses both male and female parts, such as earthworms and slugs. (And, allegedly, Jamie Lee Curtis upon her birth)

Thus, gender roles undergo change throughout nature. Perhaps it is one thing to literally become a female fish in the anemone than it is to be born a man and "feel" more like a woman, but we also can't quite say for sure whether or not animals endure a mere gender change mentality. What we "feel" is "natural," isn't it?