The term "genderfuck" refers to the conscious effort to mock or "fuck with" traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender presentation. Broadly speaking, traditional notions of gender assume that one's gender identity, role, and presentation is determined by one's biological or physiological sex: Female-bodied people are expected to identify, behave, and present in a way that conforms to the normative conceptions of femininity; male-bodied people are expected to identify, behave, and present in a way that adheres to the normative notions of masculinity.
Genderfucking can also fall under the umbrella of the transgender spectrum, which includes a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups that tend to deviate from the traditional gender expectations, but the two terms are not synonymous. Genderfucking is based in gender performativity: the concept of gender as a performance. It can be achieved through physical presentation (e.g. clothing, hair, make-up, and secondary sex characteristics), as well as behavior. Because much of gender performance is expressed through clothing, in societies where a gender binary can be observed, there is an established, widespread notion that some clothes are “masculine” and should be worn only by male-bodied individuals, and others are “feminine” and should be worn only by female-bodied individuals. Hawkes, sociologist and author, addresses this “dress code” and the opportunity for a resistance: “The universality of codes and their meanings allows for the the mainstream ‘messages’ they convey and through this to illuminate the existence of alternative identities.”
Often, parody and exaggeration are used to transgress gender roles, usually to expose them as artificial. For example, a person who engages in genderfucking may purposefully exaggerate conventional notions of femininity, or masculinity. Genderfucking can also be achieved through cross-dressing and androgyny, both of which challenge and contribute to dismantling the gender binary by separating expression or performance of gender from perceptions of biological or physiological sex. Thus, genderfucking protests gender essentialism. This concept is protested not only through non-normative appearance, but by challenging normative gender roles, characteristics, or behaviors as well – for example, a female-bodied individual who is purposefully assertive and nondomestic in order to challenge the notion of essential femininity.
Read more about Genderfuck: History, Gender Binary, Judith Butler and Gender As Performance, Genderfucking in Children