The Gender Bender Campaign at Gustavus Adolphus College was started by M-Pact, Womyn's Awareness Center, and MAGS (Media's Affect on Gender and Society). The project started as an idea about how to change students’ perceptions across campus. Similar to advertising using celebrities or “everyday people” to sell a product, the organizations thought that they could use Gustavus students to sell an idea. They seek to change how people think about gender by challenging their traditional views of gender identity and gender roles.
When we look around and see all of our peers making statements about owning their gender we are inclined to embrace their identities as well as our own because it becomes less “unnatural”. The project is a great conversation starter about how we box people in as well as our selves when we adhere to a strict definition of how Women, Men and those who identify as other forms of gender can act.