I have always felt discriminated against in our society, being a Chinese, transgender female. As a female in my own culture are oppressed by males and even in the American society. There are a constant battle against gender equality. Being a transgender on top of the gender equality battle, tends to lead to more inequality in my life. Although, being born in the United States, enables me to a better educational opportunity than most others.
In their respective pieces about the transgender community, Mari Birghe’s piece falls short due to its lack of detailed examples and its heavy reliance on eliciting sympathy from the reader to persuade as well as its failure to see the other side of the argument while Elinor Burkett’s piece proves far superior due to its multitude of extensive examples in addition to its surplus of concessions. Burkett’s piece is stronger in part due to the surplus of concrete examples provided in contrast to Birghe’s meager examples. In Elinor Burketts’s piece, which states transgender women are not entirely female because of their previous male privilege, she intertwines many specific examples that help to prove her overall message. This is that transgender
Stereotypes in media have been around since the earliest cartoons were drawn. The media gives supposedly identifying traits with images of the stingy Jewish man, the single Hispanic woman cleaning homes to raise her three children, and the “butch” lesbian falling for the beautiful blonde who just happens to glance at her every day in the hallway. These portrayals make up general knowledge about minorities for a lot of people, but their accuracy is questionable at best. While production companies have been making strides towards the better, insufficient representation in the media tends to portray minorities as their negative stereotypes rather than as people.
For the past year society's standards of homosexuals has changed dramatically, last summer gay marriage has been legalized in all 50 states in the us. Now sympathizers of transgender are trying to advocate for bathroom changes for transgender, these people are demanding equal rights to bathrooms that they associate with. I personally find this outrageous and immoral. The concept is very ludicrous, why are we allowing people to choose their gender? It’s ridiculous, I personally believe or would like to think that all children were raised as one gender, and that their parents educated them on the simple concept of where to use the restrooms.
However, like gays and lesbians, transgender people have always lived among us. In the United States in particular, they have existed since at least 1952, when Christine Jorgensen became the first American to go through a gender transition (albeit it took place in Denmark, not here). Of course, like their LGB brothers and sisters, they experienced endless discrimination from society and law enforcement. Local LGBT hangouts were regularly raided by the police, and unrest escalated between the two groups until enough was enough. On June 30, 1969, patrons of New York’s Stonewall Inn rose up against the attacking police force and rioted.
Transgender students are denied the right to feel comfortable and included while others enjoy that right. There may be many more students that enjoy this right than are denied it, but under the 14 amendment, the government cannot “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” not even the minority. All students
The film, Growing Up Trans, was a great medium for me to better understand and reflect on gender socialization, gender identities, and countless variations within the transgender communities. Each child and his/her stories give the audience an insight to both the personal troubles of living as transgenders and the systemic errors of the society that intensifies these troubles. Undoubtedly, the children in the film expressed their discomfort of being characterized as the deviants. Deviants are those who are perceived as outsiders and who violate what the society considers true and correct (Charon). In our society, heterosexuality and gender conformity – one’s gender identity matching one’s sexual identity – are considered the norm.
The structure of injustice that is most present in the pieces titled, Imagine a Country by Holly Sklar, and “I am Alena”:Life as a Trans Woman Where Survival Means Living as Christopher by Ed Pilkington was that of institutional classism. Institutional classism can be defined as the intentional or unintentional set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value or discriminate against people based on their socio-economic status. In the excerpts above, institutional classism was displayed through the school system and the healthcare system of the United States. In the piece titled, Imagine a Country by Holly Sklar, Sklar asks the reader to imagine a country with different scenarios that people often associate with being from another country and not the United States.
The focus of this paper is to shed light to the fact that there are health disparities within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans* (LGBT) population. When a couple is granted the right to marry, it becomes possible for health insurance companies to recognize that. As a result, all family members are covered by whoever’s employer offers the best plan. Married couples and families are then able to access health care when needed. Whereas heterosexual couples who are married and have families are able to be on one joint health insurance plan, LGBT couples do not have the same luxury.
Transgender is the term used to describe an individual whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. The documentary, “Growing up Trans”, is a sensitive clip to watch about young youths who attempt to navigate family, friends, gender, and the medical decisions they face at puberty. “Growing up Trans” focuses mainly on transitioned young youths. The transgender youth from the documentary links to many theories from chapter eight. Theories such as socialization, gender, sexuality, homophobia, transphobia, and microaggression are associated with “Growing up Trans”.
What we today see as genders is the norms that follow when born as a girl or as a boy. What is being connected to male norms of masculinity is strength, aggression and dominance, while woman more often than not follow norms such as passivity, nurturing and subordination. We have come to realise in recent years that your gender and your sex is not the same thing. The fact that there is not only two genders but a lot more is also something that has been discovered. Transgender is those who is born as one gender, but identifies as another.
In class, we learned about different types of groups, and how they are viewed from the world perspective. The importance of the gender and sexuality being socially constructed does matter, and it let people choose their identity. In class, we learned about so many different types of gender groups, and one was transgender. Transgenders people are usually people who do not identify with their gender, and prefer the opposite sex.
Transgender stereotyping has come a long way. It used to not be understood, let alone accepted. It has taken many years, and the world has started to comprehend the changes transgender individuals want to make. We often take changes like these and pay no mind to them, because it is only human nature to judge others unlike you. It is unknown to us, therefore we are apprehensive about it.
The term “transgender” is a label that was never used until the mid 1960s. According to history, “Psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University coined the term transgender in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology (“Transgender”)”. When a transgender person desires to be the opposite gender, they may get an invasive surgery to fully transition into their new identity. Multiple transgender people have started to announce the having of the surgery has destroyed their future (Bindel). People have the right to be whatever gender they aspire to be, but transgender people should do public activities and should stay grouped with their biologically assigned sex.
A true transgender is determined to self-identify. Christine Jorgensen was asked on why some transsexuals are still in the same emotional shape even after transition and so Christine said: “There have been a few people who were unhappy about their status in life and they felt that the sexual reassignment surgery will change their life that much, and it really doesn’t. It’s who you are that’s important. I refer to it as a Cinderella syndrome. I’ve met cases who went from male to female thinking prince charming is coming around the corner on a white horse.
