Transgender Identity In Society

Because of their relative invisibility in public life, many people have a poor grasp on what being transgender really is. To be fair, this is a complicated issue, encompassing its own subsection of the LGBT+ community with its own unique groups. To put it simply, a transgender person is somebody who identifies as a gender other than the one written on their birth certificate. This often means identifying as the opposite sex, but some transgender people live in between the gender binary or outside it altogether. Typically, transgender people live express their identity in different ways: dressing as their preferred gender, going through hormone therapy to alter their bodies, undergoing sex reassignment surgery to change their genitals, or a

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”.

The bathroom bill, which promotes the idea that schools need to provide trans students with bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity instead of their birth sex, is a very controversial topic, and with that comes some very different opinions. Mine, in fact, is rather complicated because I don’t understand what daily life is like for trans students. But before I state my opinion and back it up with psychological research I would like to break down the whole idea of transgender within the bill and how that relates to a scientific perspective. Okay, so in the proposed bill “gender identity” is defined as “an individual’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex that the individual was born with.”

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.

The LGBTQ community is one that faces an ongoing storm of stereotyping and stigmas and the media is no relief from it. One major factor in this is the common trope of the violent and aggressive transgender woman, which is often shown through

Cisgender and heteronormative privileges challenge those that do not fit into these categories, yet dare to be different which I will discuss throughout this paper. Since transgender people have begun to come out and talk about their gender identities, death rates have risen greatly. It is sad that we live in a society in which people have to live in fear for being different than others and expressing who they are. A difference should not get someone killed because we are not objects and should not be categorized as such. We do not all fit into the binary categories that have been opposed on us, why should those who standout be punished for what they have no control over.

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. Some people even speak out against it, because they fear change. But others have chosen to speak up for their decisions and actions. Those like Hunter Schafer, those that have taken a stand against transphobia.

A common belief of many people throughout the world, specifically America, is that a woman is only a woman if she can bear children. As exemplified by Trans Justice in the following excerpt, “transphobic violence is justified using medical theories and religious beliefs, and is perpetuated in order to preserve US heterosexist values” (TransJustice 228) The theory that only persons who are biologically female can be a woman is a violence against trans women, which is perpetuated daily within the American societal norm of the gender

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.

Summary of Main Points Growing up Trans is about this generation of children/teens who have gender dysphoria. That is they do not identify with the gender of their biological sex. (Knox p. 51) “Just a generation ago, it was adults, not children, who changed genders, usually late in life and often in shadows. But today as transgender adults gain wider acceptance, many children are transitioning...”(2:59-3:28)

Cisgender and heteronormative privileges challenge those that do not fit into these categories, yet strive to be unique which I will discuss throughout this paper. Since transgender people have begun to come out and talk about their gender identities, death rates have risen greatly. Sadly, we live in a society in which people have to live in fear for being different than others and expressing who they are. A difference should not get someone killed because we are not objects and should not be categorized as such. We do not all fit into the binary categories that have been opposed on us, why should those who stand out be punished for what they have no control over.

There are institutions who have adopted useful and good norms that ought to be adopted by other institutions, especially the trans-politics. These institutions understand too well the diversity of nature and why some things are the way they are. According to Spade, these are the institutions to be copied because they have the interests of the marginalized people at heart. Most of these institutions have been created by scientists and doctors who according to their research have documented reasons why they think people are the way they are. For instance, homosexuality is associated with sexual identity and that knowing someone’s sexual desires is an important way of identifying who they regard to gender.

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 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

There are grey and in-between areas. Sex characteristics do not always define a person’s gender identity. Many people are nonbinary and that’s perfectly okay, just as many people are cisgender and that is fine as well. The best thing about this paper is that it explains that, and that many cultures accept this