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Transgender issues with discrimination
Transgender healthcare reflection paper
Transgender issues with discrimination
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This image is from University of Alberta student Alix Kemp’s zine, Genderfailz. Written during his transition, Kemp details the difficulties involved in achieving a medical transition. Although Kemp lives in Canada, a country known for its effective health care system, he struggles to find the resources and medical professionals to support him. Despite its reputation, the healthcare system Kemp is under makes the hormone treatment he desires very inaccessible. He is forced to answer questions that do not even pertain to his gender identity, but are rather invasive inquiries that work to satisfy others’ curiosity. The specific page I have included is from the first entry in Kemp’s medical journey. He has finally come to the conclusion that …show more content…
he wants to take testosterone, and he goes to his university’s campus health center to begin doing so. He has come well prepared and knows the specialist that would prescribe him his hormones. However, he is met with a myriad of “stupid questions,” only the first instance of the healthcare system not prioritizing the good of the transgender patient. In addition to this zine, Kemp has published another booklet that further discusses his experiences with a health system that is unfriendly to its trans patients, as well as the pharmaceutical industry that profits off of trans people’s identity. Finding this source was different than finding the source for the previous archive project because I had to physically find this document. I took notes and information on the publication at the library and was more responsible for documenting information as I read the zine because I did not have the privilege of accessing it all times. Despite a progression in cultural perceptions of transgender people within the previous decade, the treatment of trans people within a medical context has not evolved with the same magnitude. While hormone treatments and variations of sex reassignment surgeries are now much more accessible than it was in the twentieth century, those seeking medical transition are oftentimes required to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to receive treatment. The first sentence of Genderfailz states “i fail at gender”, which identifies Kemp as not conforming to the “ideal” trans narrative.
Beginning with Christine Jorgensen in the 1950s, the perception of the “good transexual” has been one of a Eurocentric and binary acumen (SKIDMORE). Historically, trans people have been forced to compose a “respectable” image for non-trans people as a way to prove their value and legitimacy. This usually involved a rejection of all things not correlating to the sex that the person desires to transition to, meaning a female-to-male trans person could not admit to interests even remotely feminine. Trans patients had to tailor their life story to convince their doctors to provide adequate treatment. Decades later, Alix Kemp realizes that his story does not match the ones heard in the media or the ones the doctors desire to hear. While he does identify as masculine, he does not conform to societal understandings of manhood; he frequently dresses in typically feminine or androgynous attire. He also has not experienced the common “I’ve always known I was a boy” or any other definitive understanding of his gender (MEYEROWITZ). Joanne Meyerowitz, author of “A ‘Fierce and Demanding’ Drive,” might compare Kemp’s transition story to those of the long and arduous journeys of the trans patients from the 1950s. Meyerowitz details how these trans people recounted to their doctors their sad stories of lifelong gender dysphoria and desire to live as a different sex. Kemp both similar and different than these past patients. While Kemp is trans and wants to begin the medical process of transitioning, he had not felt the same type of discomfort. However, it is important to recognize that these patients may have been altering their stories to please their potential
caregivers. Additionally, many trans people had to tailor the information they told their doctors to convince them that their gender identity was legitimate. In the case of Alix Kemp, the medical system did not support him in the ways he needed, especially considering his simultaneous struggle with depression. He feels bombarded with medication ranging from anti-depressants to birth control. In the numerous visits with medical professionals, he was met with unrelated questions about his sexuality, which did not relate to his transition. These inquiries included “do you masterbate regularly?” and “what is the most significant difference between being a man and a woman?”. Although Kemp’s true beliefs is that the disparities between men and women is practically nonexistent aside from societal norms and self-perception, he knows his answer would raise concerns. Alix Kemp’s journey is one that resonates with thousands of other transgender people living with an increasingly accepting yet flawed healthcare system. By reading about his transition, I have began to question what role medical professionals should play in transgender health, as some policies regarding transgender health have been seen as being merely roadblocks in one’s transition. Is it reasonable to inhibit access to hormones and sex reassignment surgeries with years of required therapy and doctor visits, often with doctors that may not be well informed on trans issues? Studying this through the stories of other transgender people undergoing a medical process of transition can further enhance understandings of transgender history.
Andrews begins his narrative by comparing the outlooks upon being transgender to a more normal stance or as his girlfriend (who is bisexual) put it “‘Why can’t you just be gay?’” “‘Why can’t you be normal?’” Being transgender was still a fairly new concept at the time whereas being gay or bisexual was more widely accepted. He affirms the outlook upon being transgender by means of a quote from his current girlfriend “‘Why do you have to mess with this whole transgender thing?’” He
The definition of gender has become way more revolutionary and expressive compared to the twentieth century. Gender used to be similar to sex where someone would be identified as a male or female based on their biological genitals however, this day in age it is way more complex. Someone can be born a male but mentally they feel like a male. In “Sisterhood is complicated” Ruth Padawer explains the journey of different transgender males and the obstacles they face while attending Wellesley college. Wellesley is a women’s college that has been around for a very long time and is in the process of the battling the conflict of whether they should admit transgender students. Ariel Levy author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs” tackles the stereotypes and
Jamestown, Virginia, is a crucial source of legends about the United States. Pocahontas, a daughter of an Indian werowance married an Englishman named John Rolfe and changed her name to Rebecca. In her article, “Gender Frontier”, Kathleen Brown underscores gender role and responsibility in both Native American and English settlers. Gender frontier is the meeting of two or more culturally specific system of knowledge about gender and nature. She also stresses the duties that they played in their societies prior to the arrival of the English people in the early colony in Virginia. Brown describes the difference values between Europeans and Native Americans in regards to what women and men should and should not do and the complex progression of
In How Sex Changed by Joanne Meyerowitz, the author tell us about the medical, social and cultural history of transsexuality in the United States. The author explores different stories about people who had a deep desired to change or transform their body sex. Meyerowitz gives a chronological expiation of the public opinion and how transsexuality grew more accepted. She also explained the relationship between sex, gender, sexuality and the law. In there the author also address the importance of the creation of new identities as well as how medication constrain how we think of our self. The author also explain how technological progress dissolve the idea of gender as well as how the study of genetics and eugenics impacts in the ideas about gender/sexuality and identity. But more importantly how technology has change the idea of biological sex as unchangeable.
The medicalization of transgender tendencies, under what was Gender Identity Disorder, was demoralizing to all transgender people. This resulted in a form of structured and institutionalized inequality that made an entire group of people internalize their problems, making them question not only their own identity, but also their sanity. Therefore, the removal of this disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 2013 and the newest editions was important in that it shows society’s recognition and acceptance of the transgender
Being Trans gender is when a person’s self identity does not conform with their conventional sex. Talking about people identifying as a transgender individual is a difficult and very controversial topic to discuss. One author, Ruth Padawer has brought the topic to light, presenting us with examples from one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States. In her piece, “Sisterhood is Complicated” from 2014, she ponders on the idea of if people who identify as transgender should be allowed in an all women’s college. In her piece, she states that “Some two dozen other matriculating students at Wellesley don’t identify as women. Of those, a half dozen or so were trans men, people born female who identified as men, some of whom had begun taking testosterone to change their bodies.” All of which made the switch to be transgender after being accepted into the school. So, in a college of all women, some are switching genders and it challenges the idea of an all women’s college. The piece continues to go through and tell us the story of three trans men and their experience at Wellesley college.
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
In contrast, there is an alternative perspective (i.e. nurture) that has been gaining popularity. This
In conclusion, keeping Gender Dysphoria as a diagnosis aids the most vulnerable population in seeking treatment and care, options, protection, and guidance. As society and medicine moves forward, we may be able to steer away from mental health bias and general discrimination towards non-conformity, but for now it is important to protect the patients who are helped by the diagnosis. Gender Dysphoria currently allows patients to be treated under their insurance, have access to care, and fight for their
Mental health professional have tried to correct their ‘‘gender identity disorder’’ with brutal aversion therapies. Tran’s youth who came out often faced crises throughout their family and social systems. Once out, developing a sense of realness about their new gender became extremely important. An urgent need develops ‘‘to match one’s exterior with one’s interior’’ In ad...
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Living life as a transgendered person is not easy. There are very few times when someone comes out as transgender and their lives are still relatively easy to manage. There are a copious...
The first introduction of gender related disorders was in 1980 in the DSM-III, divided into two categories, transsexualism and gender identity disorder of childhood (Kamens, 2011). The later diagnosed as a child having a “strongly and persistently stated desire” or “insistence” that one was the opposite sex (Zucker, 2009; American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Revised categories in the DSM-III-R (1987) included: gender identity disorder of adolescence and adulthood nontranssexual (GIDAANT), and not otherwise specified (GI...
Preves, Ph.D., Sharon E. "Intersex Narratives: Gender, Medicine, and Identity." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 32-42. Print.
Proponents for a diverse gender identity argue that a society which operates using gender binary norms puts unwarranted hatred and stress onto individuals who do not fall neatly into the binary of man and woman, by being “challenged, chastised, or cajoled toward normativity” (Ehrensaft, 2015). In Ehrensaft 's article “Boys Will Be Girls, Girls Will Be Boys” she proposes there are at least nine gender identities. Those being; “transgender, gender fluid, gender priuses, gender tauruses, proto gay, proto transgender, gender queer, gender smoothies, and gender oreos.” Ehrensaft indicates that, while this list may seem large, it is still likely missing a lot. As a psychiatrist, she has worked with many families that are working to come to grips with a child who is non-gender conforming. In many cases these children have attempted suicide due to feelings of alienation and hatred from the outside