An electric current is the flow of charge, typically carried by electrons. Electricity flows through a wire, unseen and abstracted until it encounters resistance. This photograph shows a circuit at the moment of illumination. The lightbulb acts as a resistor, causing the electrons to release energy in the form of heat and photons. This light that we can see is not the current itself, but a product of resistance and shedding energy to continue its journey.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics states that we can not know the position and the momentum of a particle, such as electrons, with accuracy at any given moment in time. The more precisely you come to know one, the less precisely you will know the other. This depends upon whether we conceptualize the photons as particles or as delocalized waves.

Gender is a lot like the electron. How can we come to know gender? The answer may differ depending upon how we try to measure it: through language, performance, or behavior.

Like a current, gender flows, but we often only recognize it once it is put up against resistance. As in quantum entanglement, gender and identity can influence one another by their interactions, even at a distance — transcending space or any one definition. In this way, both gender and electrons embrace ambiguity, resisting a fixed measurement.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave tells us that people chained in a cave observing shadows projected onto a wall by fire would come to know the world through shadows, distorted and blurred, and mistake it for the truth. They can only appreciate the true forms if they were to be freed and have a direct view of the objects casting shadow. A shadow may be the most accurate measurement we have at the moment, as we are chained to this society – but perhaps viewing the light alone does not tell the whole story either.