Beyond Boundaries
The Minerva Project • August 15, 2025
The phrase “beyond boundaries” suggests a refusal to be confined by rigid categories—a lens through which to view the intersection of gender and healthcare. Medicine has historically drawn distinct lines between men and women, often relying on simplified notions of difference to guide research and treatment. These boundaries, while sometimes grounded in biology, have more often served to reinforce stereotypes than to expand understanding.
While sex-based biological differences exist—evident in variations in hormones, reproductive anatomy, and susceptibility to certain conditions—when healthcare treats gender as a primary organizing framework, it risks erasing the complexity within each category and ignoring those who live outside of them altogether. Such boundary-driven models have historically led to exclusion, from women being left out of clinical trials to variation in gender rendered invisible in healthcare data.
Moving beyond boundaries requires embracing nuance rather than retreating into binaries. Healthcare must be grounded in the recognition that individuals exist on spectrums—biological, social, and experiential. Instead of defaulting to categories, medicine must meet people where they are, accounting for overlapping realities and unique needs.
This iconography is based on the idea that “Men are from Mars, and women are from Venus” —an idea explored in further detail previously on The Loom. Support healthcare that works beyond boundaries here.