An Hommage to Fox & Owl

I encountered Fox Fisher and Ugla (Owl) Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir 2017 in the internet, while I was soaking up all their content on the MyGenderation YouTube channel, shortly after my coming out as a non-binary trans person. It felt so affirming, to see myself through the lens of other non-binary people. Inspired by this video I travelled in 2018 for the first time to Trans Pride in Brighton. It is a number of wonderful coincidences, how I ended up becoming «official photographer» at Trans Pride Brighton.

It is indeed the place where I found my own true Pride! The energy of the Brighton trans community hit home, I felt truly reflected and it felt like coming home on more than one level (after I had lived in the UK in my 20s from 1996 – 1999 and nearly moved to Brighton in the early 2000s – which never happened, due to Swiss Europe Politics, but that is yet another story…).

#ThisIsWhatNonBinaryLooksLike

The project #ThisIsWhatNonBinaryLooksLike / #SwissEdition refers and adds to the original hashtag and pays tribute and honor to all the important educational work that Owl and Fox are doing for the global trans community, while adding to it in our Swiss context.

#ThisIsWhatNonBinaryLooksLike / #SwissEdition has grown out of the processing of my own experiences, trying to hold non-binary space in public coverage, while using my photographic influence, to contribute to non-binary visibility, creating those images and points of reference, that I have been missing a great part of my own life – not seeing myself reflected in the stories that are told, while repeatedly being erased and hitting binary boarders in the process of trying to do so.

Thank you so much Fox & Owl, for your hearts & soul that you put into your work, for being visible and for inspiring others to stand in and up for non-binary visibility and inclusion!

The hashtag #ThisIsWhatNonBinaryLooksLike was set out into the world by Fox Fisher (@theFoxFisher) on Twitter in May 2017, after Fox and life partner Owl faced a very disrespectful and insulting debate with the insolent TV personality Piers Morgan on English Breakfast television. Even before this episode of «Good Morning Britain» was aired, they reaped a huge storm of hate on the internet. For more background on that story, see the videos below.

«I am They: A non-binary transgender love story» – MyGeneration, 2018

Response video to the initial TV-segment «Fox & Owl vs. Piers Morgan», 2017

«The Power of Radical Vulnerability»

TED-Talk by Owl & Fox on «Radical Vulnerability» / TEDx London 2022

«Whilst trans rights and visibility is growing, it’s clear there is still hostility and a lack of acceptance towards the trans community from certain parts of society. In the face of such adversity, Ugla and Fox have found that it’s by living each day with radical openness and vulnerability that has allowed them to thrive».

«Being fully yourself, they tell us, has given them more confidence, whilst also radically changing other’s perceptions about trans people. They believe such ‘radical vulnerability’ is a powerful tool in shifting abstract conversations from seeing trans people as topics or debates to be had into seeing trans people as people».

«And that radical vulnerability works both ways – being authentically you gives others permission to do the same. Seeing each other as people, Fox and Ugla argue, is when we can really start focusing on what brings trans and cis people together rather what drives us apart».

«Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir (Owl) is an author, feminist, campaigner. Fox Fisher is an award winning artist, author, filmmaker and trans consultant for on screen. Together they co-wrote the bestselling books, The Trans Teen Survival Guide and Trans Survival Workbook and are co-directors of My Genderation».

Links:

mygenderation.com
foxfisher.com
Owl’s Website
Owl’s Column on Metro UK
Fox & Owl Fisher: «Trans Teen Survival Guide»
Owl & Fox Fisher: «Trans Survival Workbook»
Sarah Savage & Fox Fisher: «Are You A Boy or Are You A Girl»
Fox Fisher: «Trans Pride Coloring Book»
Owl on Twitter
Fox on Twitter

About me  •  The place I am speaking from • Projektbeschrieb • An Hommage to Fox & Owl •  Was bisher geschah