Through the use of The Gender Book, I decided to focus my attention on if my gender was under the transgender spectrum. Due to being born a female, my transition would be from female to male. While considering how my life would be different, I realized how much my privilege as cisgender showed.
The first thought I had was the fact that when an individual is transgender they usually pick up on this difference in their sex and gender fairly early. I thought about how challenging that alone would be. For an individual to be forced to dress a certain way, play with certain toys and in some cases be judged for playing mainly with the opposite sex while growing up. These thoughts made me think of David from As Nature Made him, I thought of David
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because he was forced to be a female when he was so clearly a male. Through the pronoun changes, clothing change and toy change along with being forced through therapy to grasp this concept that he was “female”. Though David was intersex and not necessarily transgender, I thought about how if he was transgender, he may have felt a similar way, especially while growing up with a twin brother. I then considered how awful puberty would be for myself as I grew up.
Of course while being young, it would be easier to hide my breast, and my body would not exactly be as feminine, but once puberty began I feel as though I would struggle greatly. One specific video I thought about was the video Ashley Wylde posted on YouTube and was used in one if the graduate student’s presentation, she discussed how disgusted she was with her period, she said she felt as though it didn’t belong to her and reinforced the gender she no longer assigned with. Another documentary I thought of was The Gender Revolution, a documentary that interviewed Jaz, a young lady who was about to go through puberty, and her mother stated she was nervous about how that would affect Jaz. I also thought about other videos that talked about how excited kids were to begin homrmone treatments while they were going through …show more content…
puberty. I then thought about when would I personally want to “come out” or transition. I would personally probably “come out” when I was an adult. I don’t think I would be personally strong enough to handle the backlash and intense bullying while in school or even college. I considered the perks of transitioning at an older age, such as hopefully being able to afford it and possibly forming a better group of supporters at an older age than what I may have had in high school. I did consider the struggles my parents would have with this transition, my mother would be absolutely heartbroken, she would no longer have the daughter she thought she had all along and I know from conversations with my father that he would never be able to understand it and would always think it was a phase. I believe my mother would purchase every parenting book that discussed a child being transgender, just like the many parent guide books we have been assigned to read chapters from throughout this semester along with the pamphlets we had assigned to read such as the APA Transgender pamphlet. Once I would decide to transition I contemplated all the other struggles that would follow, regardless of age. I thought about how my possible employment would be impacted, from readings and statistics, the class has learned through the U.S. Transgender Survey that trans individuals have a 15% unemployment rate. I thought about how likely I would be to have a job once I transitioned or told my boss I was transgender. I thought about the young woman in the video in the lecture that Joe lead. The woman in the video discussed how her boss let her go because she was “changing before their eyes”. Another concept I thought about was how my mental health would be, due to lying to myself for so many years about what my true gender have been. I also considered how much I would have to handle if I decided to get a sex change, I thought about how I would have to talk to a therapist to get a letter of approval for my surgery, as if I was not mentally well enough to control my own life. I also thought about how I would be compared to the DSM IV and how my therapist would try and diagnose me with GID or Gender Dysphoria, which I now know the criteria for due to the assigned readings. I then thought about the surgeon in The Gender Revolution documentary and how she had said that her oldest patient was around 80, so that would not be something that would have to be rushed for myself. I also thought about my love life, how complicated that would become.
I thought about the many statistics we discussed and horror stories about individuals getting beaten or even murdered once their partner found out. I thought about how my relationship would no longer be approved of or supported because it was not in a relationship society approved of. I thought about the documentary Sex Differences. I thought about how when some discussed their sex lives they were incredibly confident and others were not. I also thought about The Gender Revolution Documentary and how blessed the one woman was that her wife and children supported her, which is rarely the
case. Lastly, but most importantly, I thought about how my health benefits and safety would dramatically change. I revisited the U.S. Transgender Survey, and saw that 25% of individuals had trouble with their health insurance due to being transgender. The classmate who shared their hospital bill during their transition also proved how expensive it is to transition and live the life you always knew you were supposed to live. I thought about the bathroom conflict we have discussed as a class along with how important it is to “pass” or in the terms of Paris is burning, how real you have to look to remain safe. All in all, being any gender other than cisgender has it’s issues and struggles. After truly considering how my life would be different if I identified with a different gender, I realized the priveledge I truly have, as if Julia Serano has not already put me in place enough as is through The Whipping Girl, especially the chapter 8, Dismantling Cissexual privilege, which covers all the privileges I never knew I had, but take advantage of almost daily. This class on its own has greatly impacted me and made me gain a sense of sympathy for all genders and the struggles they face daily. But to truly realize how different my life would be in terms of family, health, safety, love, employment and so forth due to my gender being different is disheartening and terrifying.
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
In regards to the development of gender identity, it is a more complex issue to deal with, as one has to be concerned about all aspects of the person life, starting from even before they have been born (Swaab, 2004), to a point in their life where they are settled and satisfied with their identity. The American Psychological Association states that while development is very fluid among young children, it is usually believed to form between ages 3 and 6, however many transgender, individuals are not able to embrace their true gender identity until much later in life, largely due to societal stigma associated with these identities.
Furthermore, the article clarifies that many transgender people experience a stage of identity development that aids in helping them better understanding their own self-image reflection, and expression. More specifically, they reach out to professional...
With the “Orange Is the New Black” star, Laverne Cox being transgender and permitted to play a vivid character as “Sophia”, Caitlyn Jenner’s announcement on the Diane Sawyer interview in 2015, and the arsenal of social media, being non-cisgender (not the gender assigned at birth) in general, has been discussed more than ever. Due to the Internet’s broadness, people who met this classification are unraveling new identities such as non-binary and genderqueer (only people who are this can say this word as “queer” is a slur). Being cisgender is the norm in society. I am also non-cisgender and this is an unique thing that possessed many scars.
Gibson, B., & Catlin, A.J. (2011). Care of the Child with the Desire to Change Gender-Part 1.
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...
By taking on the body of an obviously transgendered male and performing this body in the small town of Orangeville, Ontario during the profoundly eventful holiday month of December, the comparing experience of varying embodiments between myself as a young, white female versus myself as an obviously transgendered male lead to a variety of emotional and social repercussions which will be theorized and analyzed throughout this research paper.
However, they want to be referred to only as a man or woman. But what if our gender identity, our sense of being a boy or being a girl, does not match our physical body? From a very early age, we will start to feel increasingly uncomfortable. For some this is a mild discomfort, for others it is so traumatic they would rather die than continue to live in the wrong body. Unfortunately, as transsexual people are a small minority of the population, the condition has been labeled by Psychiatrists as "Gender Identity Disorder".
In today’s evermore politically correct society, the term transgender is loaded with various meanings and implications. The inability for a consensus to form as to universal meaning stems from various interest groups laying claim to the significance of the term. For instance, the term ‘transgender’ is often interchanged with ‘transsexual’ or ‘transvestite.’ The two conditions are wholly different separate from transgender. For the purposes of this paper, Andrew Solomon’s definition will suffice: “The term transgender is an encompassing term that includes anyone whose behavior departs significantly from the norms of the gender suggested by his or her anatomy at birth. The term transsexual usually refers to someone who has had surgery or hormones to align his or her body with a nonbirth gender” (Solomon, 2012, pg. 599). It is helpful to know what the key differences between the terms transsexual and transgender. A person who is transsexual is someone who has gone through the process of changing their physical sex from the sex they were born with to the desired sex. A transsexual person could be someone who has met the criteria for the DSM-5 diagnosis of gender dysphoria and physically transitions so their inner-self matches their physical body thereby erasing the dysphoric state. Although the term transsexual falls under the umbrella of transgender, it is important to distinguish the two terms.
Social Construction of Gender is a process, stratification system and structure. The day to day interactions emphasize gender as opposites. Take for instance, conversations, formalities of daily life, sayings, and so on. The social construction of gender is created through social interaction – through the things we do and say with other people. This means that gender it is not a fixed or inherent fact, but instead it varies across time and place.
In contemporary society, many social issues involving gender still prevail today and influence many of our everyday life choices, from what one wears, the jobs one pursues or how one may think. In this essay, the issues being discussed involve the importance associated with gender, essentialism and deviance around gender inequality.
The relationship between sex and gender can be argued in many different lights. All of which complicated lights. Each individual beholds a sexual identity and a gender identity, with the argument of perceiving these identities however way they wish to perceive them. However, the impact of gender on our identities and on our bodies and how they play out is often taken for granted in various ways. Gender issues continue to be a hugely important topic within contemporary modern society. I intend to help the reader understand that femininities and masculinities is a social constructed concept and whether the binary categories of “male” and “female” are adequate concepts for understanding and organising contemporary social life with discussing the experiences of individuals and groups who have resisted these labels and forged new identities.
In today’s society we as humans are aware and accepting of more identities than we ever have been before. Civil rights movements all over the world are advocating for everything from marriage equality, to laws protecting gender-queer people. However, it isn’t perfect. Just as there will always be racists and homophobes, there will always be people who say gender identity is a choice. Well, a study done earlier this year proves those people wrong.
Gender Theory in Everyday Life”, the various definitions of “trans” depict that it is not possible to place one’s gender into only two categories. In the definitions of “trans”, transformation or transitioning is a common theme. Transforming into their true self or transitioning from one gender to the other. In the third definition, transgendered individuals are seen as transcending gender, thus making gender non-existent; not only to them, but when they view other individuals (Kessler and McKenna 1-2). The individuals in “When Girls Will Be Boys”, had to create a safe space, and find allies that would provide them with resources to help them in their progression as a trans individual. Trans people truly want to be integrated into society, but they are cognisant of the social standards in place that make them othered (Quart 49-50). In the instance of the varied definition of trans and the experiences of people in “When Girls Will Be Boys”, they are all going against the social norms and actively fighting to create a seat at the table. They refuse to to fit in the status quo of accepting that there are only two genders, and one must stay in either category. Instead, they challenge that thinking by being themself, thus having a hand in creating the new norm. These individuals are not passively combating the misconceptions, miseducation, and misinformation. They are actively creating a space for others and themself to grow in self and in
Works Cited “The meaning of gender” by Jacquelyn B. James, retrieved on June, 04,2003 from http://www.radcliffe.edu/quarterly/199804/meanings_gender.html “Transexuality.a small prime for the confused but sympathetic person” by Janis Cortese, retrieved on June 04, 2003 from http://www.io.com/wwwave/sxlty.cgi Transgender Inclusion–The Widening Field by Jack Drescher, MD, retrieved