2. In this article, gender is identified as a social identity that is constructed and reformed throughout life in order to achieve a true sense of identity. It is not a term or label given from biological sex such as male or female that defines ones’ gender role. The writer claims gender is more than a social settlement, that it is not a binary construction of male or female and involves a matrix of genes, hormones, and social influence.
3. Within neuroscience research, “expert” Dr. Georg S. Kranz at the Medical University of Vienna is quoted in this article, reporting a 2014 study in “The Journal of Neuroscience” of transsexual individuals. Dr. Kranz studied different types of transsexual groups and observed sex hormones that showed differences
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Some strengths of the article would include the research and conclusions of sex reassignments found through scholarly “experts” such as the study found by Dr. Kranz. He asserts women identified as female gender to have the highest level of “diffusivity” then comes along female-to-male transsexuals, then male-to-female transsexuals, and finally the lowest of males whom identified as male gender. This research concluded that through transgender experience, there is a disparity between gender identity and physical sex where the brain is structured differently suggesting a neural basis existing on spectrum. With the range of gender identity, the research also concludes sexual orientation to be based on spectrum and thus controlling an extent of how changeable gender is and what extent one will go through to change their body and behavior to match a desired …show more content…
It meets the guideline with its’ attention to assert a concern on gender identities and our scientific understanding of them. The writer essentially focused on scientific theories by Dr. Kranz and Dr. Cecelia Dhejne that the foundations of sex-reassignments are based upon a mismatch between gender-specific brain developments and how they are “scientifically” formed and the high suicide effects of it subsequently. Using important information such as transgendered people with brain structural differences reports relevant information in relation to the controversial idea of how changeable is gender and how it affects lives to this day.
f) The source fails to consider other interpretations and does not provide alternate explanations for the research proposed. The writer does accredit different understandings but solely focuses on the theory by Dr. Kranz, that those whom wanted sex-reassignment to their desired gender are based upon the theory of different brain structures. No alternate explanations were accounted for gender changes and why people do
Connell: Chapter 4 “Sex Differences & Gendered Bodies”: I found this entire chapter quite intriguing, but I really appreciate the way that Connell approaches the ways in which males and females differ, and yet she also points out how there is no significant difference in brain anatomy and function between sexes. I found the statement by neuroscientist Lesley Rogers incredibly interesting, she states, “The brain does not choose to be wither a female or a male type. In any aspect of brain function that we can measure, there is considerable overlap between females and males” (p.52). This statement when paired with information about the affect social processes have on the body is mind boggling to realize, as Connell states, “biology bends to the hurricane of social discipline” (p.55). It is unnerving to think that I am merely a product of my society.
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
Swaab, Df. "Sexual Differentiation Of The Human Brain: Relevance For Gender Identity, Transsexualism And Sexual Orientation." Gynecological Endocrinology 19.6 (2004): 301-312. Informa Healthcare . Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
...ignificant evidence for my research argument indicates that the nature of gender/sex consists of a wide consensus. The latter is significant to original sex differences in brain structure and the organized role through sex differential prenatal hormone exposures through the term used in the article as (the ‘hardwiring’ paradigm). The article is limited to scientific shortcoming that presents neuroscientific research on sex and gender for it lacks an analysis that goes beyond the observed results. The article is based on neuroscience studies and how it approached gender, yet the article suggests that gender should be examined through social, culture studies, ethnicity and race. This article will not form the foundation of my research but will be used a secondary material. The neuroscience evidences will be used to support my argument and will be used as an example.
Fresh from the womb we enter the world as tiny, blank slates with an eagerness to learn and blossom. Oblivious to the dark influences of culture, pre-adult life is filled with a misconception about freedom of choice. The most primitive and predominant concept that suppresses this idea of free choice involve sex and gender; specifically, the correlation between internal and external sex anatomy with gender identity. Meaning, those with male organs possess masculine identities, which involve personality traits, behavior, etcetera, and the opposite for females. Manipulating individuals to adopt and conform to gender identities, and those respective roles, has a damaging, life-long, effect on their development and reflection of self through prolonged suppression. This essay will attempt to exploit the problems associated with forced gender conformity through an exploration of personal experiences.
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).
Specifically, “In fact, it’s hard to believe that this hard-won loosening of gender constraints for women isn’t at least a partial explanation for why three times as many gender reassignment surgeries are performed on men.” In the author’s opinion, “brains are a good place to begin because one thing that science has learned about them is that they’re in fact shaped by experience, cultural and otherwise. The example Burkett uses is Ms. Jenner’s experiences she had when he was a men and how he wouldn’t have had those experiences if he was a women than. Burkett added “...he never had to figure out how to walk streets safely at night… Those are realities that shape women’s brains…transgender take a similar tack, ignore those
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
When it comes to the idea of sex and gender, and how with the age of modern medicine, people around the world may change their own lives for the better as they change their sex to the gender they associate with. Finally feeling the freedom of being in the body that they wished for, yet this a decision that should be taken by the participating, rather than the doctor making the procedure. Judith Butler’s writing, “Undoing Gender”, there is a story of a person whom goes through their life trying to figure out what they have become. Feeling that they are one thing and being told they are another when in reality, it’s the one being accused of being wrong is right. The story goes as David, being born a boy, is accidently given the circumstances
According to the DSM-5, gender dysphoria is “the distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender” (American Psychological Association, 2013). Even though studies have shown that not every individual suffers from distress, it is still possible that an individual might suffers from distress due to the hormonal treatment or surgical procedure(s). In the past, gender dysphoria has been referred to as “gender identity”. However, gender identity, by the DSM-IV definition is “a category of social identity and refers to an individual’s identification as male, female, or occasionally, some category other than male or female” (American Psychological Association, 2000). Individuals that identify themselves with another gender tend to change their sex, which has been proven to be a hard and long process.
Transgender Today Nowadays, there are lot of unexpected changes coming in our lives every day which are challenging to our society. Gender issues are one of the hot topics among new changes. Transsexuality is a critical part of this gender issue. After reading the article “Night to his day” by Judith Lorber, I found a clarification regarding the social construction of gender. While looking for some facts about transgender, I have also found a lot of articles with different points of views from researchers, scientists and individuals who have transformed from their origin to transgender men/women.
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s sex and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision whether accidental or genetic can effect that child’s life style views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors.
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
In today’s day in age, different sexualities and gender identities are quickly becoming more accepted in mainstream society. Despite this change, there are many people who believe that having a different sexual orientation or gender identity is a choice that is frowned upon. In order to refute this belief, research and biology of the brain is necessary. Researching the brain on the basis of sexuality is a fairly new topic of discussion because it is somewhat difficult and confusing. This paper will explore the different identities of gender, sex and sexual orientation and the main biological reasons behind these. There is also some validity of different sexual orientations and identities through the evidence of sexual disorders like Klinefelter’s and Turner’s Syndrome and gender dysphoria.