Gender Binarism In The Guardian By Ashifa Kassam

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In November 19, 2016, Alberta Canada, a mother was ripped away from full custody over her four-year-old child because authorities found her guilty of child neglect for allowing her child to wear the opposite gendered clothing. This article was posted on The Guardian by Ashifa Kassam and quickly made headlines in the media. According to Kassam, Susan Smith said she gave birth to a male but soon after the child turned two it began to identify as female. At first, the child was questioning why it had a penis, and as any parent would, Smith explained that because you were born a boy you had a penis. This greatly unsettled the child to the point of the child waking up screaming, “Mom, I don’t want to be a boy…I’m going to cut off my penis, I want my penis off.” This alarmed Smith and immediately she sought help from professionals who she hoped would guide her and her child.
Professionals emphasized that the child might be diagnosed with a condition called gender dysphoria, “a condition that causes a person to experience extreme distress because of a disconnect between their birth sex and gender identity” (Kassam, The Guardian). Smith took this into account and decided to support her child in every way that she could and with the …show more content…

By definition, gender binary is a concept that portrays only two anatomical options for humans-male or female. This concept of gender binary is an important angle in this paper. In most western cultures, only two genders are acceptable, ruling out all other gender possibilities. If society has adapted in a way that discards all other gender possibilities other than male or female, a much greater issue is at stake. Allowing only two gender leads to a gender identity crisis within individuals which can lead to emotional and physical damage (Transgender Guidelines,

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