The black and white of binary

This innovative project released by Colenso BBDO, with a powerful film directed by Zia Mandviwalla through FINCH, sees the creation of a piece of code that rewrites the internet to recognise all genders. 

If you’ve never had to think about your gender, you probably won't notice how often you get gendered online. But for those identifying beyond the binary options of male and female, it affects them every day. 

“Often businesses default to asking for gender without considering why they need that information and how it might impact the people on the other end of the form. When trans and non-binary people are excluded, misgendered, or discriminated against during daily interactions with businesses, that contributes to an environment that is hostile to their wellbeing," says Claire Black, GM of rainbow mental health organisation OutLine Aotearoa. 

The project, Beyond Binary Code, addresses this with a single piece of code – that was co-created with OutLine and non-binary communities – that revises the way organisations collect gender data by updating website forms and fields with gender inclusive options.

The film and digital activations support a website where organisations can download the code for their own sites.