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Impact of gender roles on identity
Transgender history essay
Impact of gender roles on identity
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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.
Joanne Meyerowitz follows the changes among medical professionals and how a new establishment of a different diagnostic category. It started in the 20th century as the medical community was speculating that sex was far more com...
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
In the book Difference Matters, Brenda J Allen, begins writing about how gender matters in society. One of the main topics that she talks about is how in today’s society the male gender is the more predominate gender. As the reader, she has brought to mind many new ways to view how males earn more money then females, how we classify jobs as masculine or feminine, and also how society excepts males’ vs females to act and preform in the work force.
Sex exists in a binary system of male and female, and people can be forced into this binary. A mother of an intersex child states that the surgery comes from “the message that a child’s body is not acceptable as-is and should conform to what the state thinks it should be” (“Their Baby Was Born”). Sex, just like gender, exists in a binary, and when individuals do not fall into the two categories, society becomes uncomfortable. Sex, like gender, is socially constructed (Fausto-Sterling). This means that sex is a spectrum and not the binary it has been made to be. However, society continues to see the binary as normal and will attempt to force individuals to fit the already established system. Because they are in the middle of the sex spectrum rather than at the ends, most intersex individuals in the documentary experienced and continue to experience the same pressures to conform described by the mother and Fausto-Sterling. One person identified with the female gender, but her mother raised her as male. Despite her gender identification, she was continually told to be more masculine and to conform to her assigned male sex and gender. Others also had their appearance shaped through surgery and other means to fit into the sex-gender binary but now choose to identify as neither male nor female. However, this lack of gender-sex identification can leave them socially isolated since
Barbie is tall, thin, has large hips and a large chest; she is beautiful, blonde, and she loves to shop; overall, Barbie is the feminine ideal. As researchers Jacqueline Urla and Alan Swedlund acknowledge, “little girls learn, among other things, about the crucial importance of their appearance to their personal happiness and to their ability to gain in favor with their friends” (1995:281). Gender roles are both centered around behavior as well as around bodies; this poses huge problems for transgender people, as well as explanations for transphobia; society has, for so long, accepted gender and sex to be synonymous. Because of this, a person whose gender is female and whose body is (rhetorically) male is a frightening and concerning deviant to most people’s understanding of the way in which gender exists. Everything that has to do with ideals for bodies leads to problems for transgender people; whether it is, as Urla and Swedlund also commented, that “...woman’s body was understood through the lens of her reproductive functions” (1995:287), or the general idea of “norms” for body proportions. When considering women’s bodies’ main purpose to be that of reproduction, it is apparent why the concept of transgender people may be concerning; transgender women -- that is, people, assigned male at birth but who live as women -- are women whose bodies cannot reproduce in the way that women are expected to; transgender men -- people assigned female at birth but who live as men -- may still have bodies which are viewed as useful mainly for their reproductive capabilities, but which they do not intend to acknowledge or use as such. When things stray so drastically from a norm which has long been accepted with minimal thought, onlookers panic that other norms will start to change as well. Straying from this norm also
The novel 1984, written by George Orwell, portrays views on sex and gender in an authoritative government. Oceanic government aims to maintain their power by asserting their dominance over society. This is done through outlawing sex, with the exception of reproduction of more Party members. Two characters, Winston and Julia, have sex for pleasure and also as a form of rebellion against Big Brother. The government takes them both as punishment for their sex crimes. During imprisonment, the relationship between Winston and O’Brien develops. Along with sex, gender is relevant throughout the novel. The party’s attempt at making gender a non-issue is valiant but it makes gender roles more evident in other aspects of the book. While depicting the future in 1984, George Orwell carefully analyzes sex and gender in Oceanic society through government manipulation, character rebellion, and natural human instinct.
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).
First; comes, the notion of nature. West and Zimmerman term this as sex, referring to a person’s biological makeup through genitalia, having a penis or vagina, or simply chromosomal pairing of XY or XX (29). Although there is no escape or control an individual has, if their foetal tissues formed into a penis or vagina, biology does play an underlying role in an individual’s identity and personality formation which is socially constructed. What is the correlation between biology and socially constructed gender then? The case study West and Zimmerman present of “Agnes, a transsexual person who was born (31), ” and raised a boy, but went through sex reassignment surgery, and identifies as a female, shows that although biology may result in a certain genitalia, an individual’s response to that may be one that is conforming or opposing to it. By the terms conforming and opposing I mean to say that Agnes could have either continued to
When one does gender, one’s behavior, language, and mannerisms are perceived by others as indicators of the specific gender that the person identifies with. If one acts effeminately, that individual is regarded as a female and vice versa for males, irrespective of genital markers. The authors claimed that gender is something one does, not necessarily something that one is biologically. As an example, West and Zimmerman looked at Harold Garfinkel’s case study of an individual who was born male but completed sex reassignment to become a female. West and Zimmerman used this individual, named Agnes, to explain how she passed as a woman even though at one point he had male genitalia and would always have XY chromosomes. They explained that because Agnes had figured out how to act in social settings based off of general “conceptions of femininity” (West, Zimmerman 1987 p.131), she was perceived as a woman by society. Agnes proves West and Zimmerman’s theory, that doing gender reflects either feminine or masculine natures which, creates the gender that the individual identifies
Transsexuals see themselves as an actual man or women. The don’t realized that no matter what they do to change their sex, some in society will still see them as that man or women their were born as . For society, the topic of reverse gender is complex with various emotions. Moreover, individuals frequently marked them as misfits, not understanding the genuine essence of being man or woman. There are many arguments that state, psychological disorders do not change a person gender, no matter how trapped they might seem, as
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
For most people, the terms “gender” and “sex” are synonymous. These terms, however, are not interchangeable; and using them as such is harmful to those whose sex and gender are different. When considering sex and gender, it is also thought that there are only two possible outcomes – in reality sex and gender occur on a spectrum, not in a binary system. Many times when an individual’s sex and gender do not agree, a mental illness occurs (most commonly gender dysphoria). To progress as a society, it is imperative to understand these differences, and the harm trivializing those causes.
Gender identity has been a delicate issue when it comes to determining if a person's gender is set at birth or develops and changes as a person ages. A person’s gender is not as simple as being classified as either male or female. There’s a considerable amount of external factors that can influence someone's identity. Although society has a major role in gender identity, sex assignment at birth is not final; furthermore, a person's gender can be influenced by psychological, physiological differences and undergoing changes to the human body.
Sterling analyzes and criticizes the way society handles the meaning of different when it comes to sexuality and gender. The medicalization and misjudgment of intersex and other sexual ambiguities is heavily derived from our long standing belief in two genders and the appropriate roles they are assigned in playing 'house'. Consequently, a cycle of discrimination against the 'abnormal' rose and seeks to use medicine and higher knowledge to change the unknown based not based on medicine, but our own biases.
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
Gender and Sex are both terms used in our society frequently, however, misunderstood the most. Sex is typically characterized by the anatomical perspective while gender is characterized by behaviors. As this may be the general understanding of sex and gender as definitions, it is not the real deal. The real deal is that sex and gender go much farther than men, women, and hermaphrodites. The primary sex categories as of now are female, male, and thirty-three varieties of intersex. For gender, there are over 100 genders that are recognized today. (Powerpoint 1) In this essay I will be addressing different theories revolved around gender and sex and how they affect people in our society more negatively than positively.