Essay On Gender Identity In Michael Chabon's Faking It

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What is it that determines our gender, could it be our physical features, our personality, our chemistry or our hormones? Gender can affect who we are because we may think a certain way and be perceived another way. it is our choice to become the gender we identify with and there are many factors that can play a part in determining our gender and identity. The texts "Faking it" by Michael Chabon, "What makes a woman a Woman?" by Peggy Orenstein, "The Body Narrative of Transsexuality" by Jay Prosser share their own experiences on gender identity. Therefore, based on these experiences one should steer away from the traditional ways of view gender.
In the text "Faking it" by Michael Chabon in this text a father figure is trying to steer away …show more content…

This is shown in the text was shown in the text "What makes a Woman a Woman?" by Peggy Orenstein. In the text, a woman has to surgically remove her healthy sexual organs because she is at risk of developing cancer but she starts to question what necessarily makes a woman. The stereotypical women is having appealing physical features and fitting into these characteristics that society places women. However, Orenstein realizes that her physical features does not entirely makes her a women. She says," I know that my sex could never be changed by any surgeon's scalpel. Why not? Perhaps because of the chemistry set I was born with, one that Semenya may or may not share"(Orenstein, 707). Taking away her sexual organs won't change who she is but society portrays women with these labels that are supposed to define what exactly is a woman. Laura Cereta had to fight a similar battle when she had to prove to men that her intelligence was not just given to her but it was gained with diligence. She says, for knowledge is not given as a gift, but [ is gained] with diligence"(83). She had to defend her intelligence because society didn't believe that women can be exceptionally smart. Therefore, breaking the traditional view of gender can help one to earn a sensed identity towards the gender that one may identify

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