Self Identity In Ruth Padawer's Being Trans Gender

Being Trans gender is when a person’s self identity does not conform with their conventional sex. Talking about people identifying as a transgender individual is a difficult and very controversial topic to discuss. One author, Ruth Padawer has brought the topic to light, presenting us with examples from one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States. In her piece, “Sisterhood is Complicated” from 2014, she ponders on the idea of if people who identify as transgender should be allowed in an all women’s college. In her piece, she states that “Some two dozen other matriculating students at Wellesley don’t identify as women. Of those, a half dozen or so were trans men, people born female who identified as men, some of whom had begun taking testosterone to change their bodies.” All of which made the switch to be transgender after being accepted into the school. So, in a college of all women, some are switching genders and it challenges the idea of an all women’s college. The piece continues to go through and tell us the story of three trans men and their experience at Wellesley college.

The first student Padawer talks about in the piece is Timothy. Timothy wanted to be a part of the student government. Timothy’s

It is a danger, both mentally and physically, to these transgender students attending an all women’s school. I believe Padawer does a fine job informing us as readers on a modern issue like transgender through stories of students at Wellesley College. They face problems such as bullying, humiliation, and sexual assault every day, and the problem is often neglected because they are