Perhaps one of the most fascinating yet depressing studies on gender, its fluidity, and how oppressive it can be is the case of David Reimer. In Chapter 3 of "Undoing Gender" by Judith Butler, this situation was studied in detail and psychoanalyzed. When Reimer was extremely young (under a year old), his penis was damaged and had to be removed, so psychiatrist John Money stepped in and told Reimer's parents that they could have sex reassignment surgery, raise David as a girl, and he'd live a normal and happy life. David was thus renamed Brenda and was brought up as female. Around age eight, however, Brenda started exhibiting traditionally masculine behaviors such as wanting to play with trucks and toy guns. She started living as a boy at the
People have animals, especially dogs and cats, as pets. They take care of animals and spend their lives together. However, sacrificing animals is necessary for human life to survive. Moreover, using animal experimentation is common because this can improve our health. Henry E. Heffner and Carl Cohen who are proponents of animal experimentation point out that it is necessary because it can protect human health. However, Robert Garner and Sarah Rose A. Miller who are opponents of animal experimentation claim that it is unacceptable because it causes animals to suffer. Two aspects of the arguments about animal research are about the use of laboratory animals and the idea of using substitution for live animals, and although the authors mostly disagree
Imagine this: you hear your mother crying in another room. She has just gotten terrible news. Her youngest son has died from bleeding in the brain from an injury. The loss in the family has been hard on everyone. Your brother received this brain injury while taking a hard blow to the head while in football practice. You probably know that these sort of deaths are a serious problem, and scientists are trying to prevent them. It is a comforting thought to know scientists are trying to stop these deaths. However, this research could not take place without the animals being used as test subjects. The use of animal lives in medical research and in testing of drug is a necessary sacrifice to save countless human lives.
This book refers to the construction of gender and how it is formed from a young age and continues through to adulthood, linking to the formation of gender and sexual identity.
The case study that I chose was from Nursing Ethics Journal is titled, The twins: a case study in ethical deliberation. This case presents a nurses perspective about nine year old, Roman Catholic, Hispanic twins, who survived a very difficult preterm birth and were in a persistent vegetative state since childbirth. The parents took care of the twins along with their four other children, but the growing demand of the twins was starting to take a toll on the parents, so they decided to place the twins in an institution. From the time that the twins were admitted to the institution, they have been frequently admitted to the hospital related to respiratory illnesses and urinary tract infection, which were a result of their deteriorating immune system. The nurse’s role was to obtain a do not resuscitate (DNR) order from the parents due to the doctors stating the twins have less than a year left to live, and “why prolong the inevitable?” (Freysteinson, 2009).
In "Learning to Be Gendered", Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet argues that the gender identification does not begin at birth. The dichotomy between a male and a female in biology is what sets them apart. The authors address the false assumptions with gender identification for people who think they figured out the pattern for boys and girls. The article gives examples of instances where parents and adults have unconsciously made judgments for males and females based on their expectations and roles. As a result, boys have learned to perform as a male and girls have learned to perform as a female.
The knowledge of exploring who you are as male or female represents the ability to comprehend our identity and become part of society’s standards. Gender is a social constructed characteristic interviewed with cultural views and behaviors ruled by context. Because gender is ruled by society’s standards it has become a negative developmental issue for those who do not fit into gender expectations. Repressive hostility upon identity is a central theme discussed in Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. By using graphic illustrations the author shows in a intimate medium her childhood memories so readers can empathize with her memoir easily. The book gives insight of how identity can be overshadowed by shame and self-destructive habits if individuals opt
Every ten seconds, an animal will be abused. One form of animal abuse that is still debated today is animal testing. Can animal experimentation really be considered abuse? Millions of animals each year are used for biomedical research across the country. But, animal testing may not be as safe as many may have originally considered. Those in favor of testing argue that animal testing increases the longevity of humanity and is a pioneer for medical research. Opponents propose safer alternative solutions, and reveal the inhumane aspects of animal testing. But, which side has a more persuasive argument?
About 60% of American households own at least one pet. As many view them as beloved household pets and even apart of the family, those pets are also considered test objects for animal testing. So what’s the difference? A household dog is no different than a lab rat; they all feel, think, behave, and experience pain and no animal should have to go through the cruel and unusual punishment of animal testing. Animal testing is the use of animals in medical, biological, and physiological studies. It is viewed as an extremely controversial topic in which some think of animals as their own while others believe animal testing is needed for medical progress and research. Animal testing should be abolished because the tests performed on animals are unethical,
Since the value of animal life as a living being should be recognized and to a certain extent equated to the value of human life, the animal experiments raise a range of ethical questions (Armstrong & Botzler,
I noticed cocaine is the drug of choice to almost all of the Prop-36 probationers. Many of the addicts would share that, after the use of such drug, they would hallucinate and want more after they came off of the drug. This study explains how the abnormality of dopamine in certain areas of the brain are associated in how cocaine takes full control of your will and can lead to drug addiction. A perfect example is that of a female being assessed stated that she felt horrible after the first use and the second use. Eventually she became addicted, but not because she liked it, it was because she was forced to use it in order to survive in the streets. She explained how the drug numbs your body and keeps you awake. The probationer was homeless and used cocaine for survival. Basically she used to to stay up at night and walk around the street for her own protection and slept in the
In a similar manner, author Kevin Jennings reflects on the soul-searching journey of determining his true gender identity. Jennings was brought up as a Southern Baptist and was taught that “gay people were twisted perverts destined for a lifetime of eternal damnation.” At the young age of six, Jennings recognized his sexual orientation and felt he needed to hide his differences in an effort to maintain the idea of “normal” identity. This trend of being “normal” followed Kevin Jennings throughout his high school years. According to Jennings, “I pursued what I thought was “normal” with a vengeance in high school, determined that, if the spirit was weak, the flesh would be more willing at the prospect of heterosexuality” (522). As noted by one source, (StageofLife.com), “63% of teens say they know who they are while 37% do not know their identity yet.” I can say without hesitation that people are searching for their “normal” identity, struggling to come to terms with the immense expectation of society’s
In the United States, ideas concerning race and gender have not always been around; they were only introduced through social constructions. Each one of these terms has its own unique story of how it came to be widely known and understood in the US, as well as around the world. In this paper, I will focus on the issues concerning the social constructs of race and gender, along with providing background information about how these terms still have huge influence today. Race and gender have contributed to many of the injustices present in today’s society. Racial projects such as Federal House Act of 1934, privileged whites, over people of color in terms of bank loans, allowing whites to have the best neighborhoods, while people of color got stuck
Animal experimentation has achieved many accomplishments over the years but most of the time when people set out to bring it down, most of these accomplishments did not matter. Many of which couldn’t have happened in test tubes, nor could they have been as fast and/or efficient. These successes ranges from blood transfusions to antibiotics, from organ transplantation to dialysis, from chemotherapy to vaccinations, joint replacement and bypass surgery, basically every protocol for the prevention, treatment, cure and control of pain, suffering and disease is based on knowledge attained through research with
Animal experimentation has been practiced for centuries. Humans have always used other living beings for their benefits weather its consuming them, making unnecessary cloths out them such as fur, experimenting and using them as entertainment like in the circus. The treatments these animals experience is beyond inhumane. There are many different experiments done on these animals for human safety, these tests are for cosmetic industries, medical training, testing drug or different types of toxic chemicals and food. Animal experimentation is extremely cruel, unnecessary and unreliable.