Gender Differences Between Effeminate Boys And Transgender Children

In her article A Boy’s Life, Hanna Rosin gives us a glimpse at what some of these transgender children go through. As she follows the life of Brandon (later called Bridget), she unveils a range of hurdles that kids like him and his parents must overcome. Problems like social rejection, gender identification, and the anxiety that all of this creates becomes the usual for a family like Brandon’s. But even so, all of this is minimal in comparison to the huge decision that the parents must make in behalf of the child. In the article, Rosin reveals to us that scientists have come up with a way to prevent a kid’s development into

The article starts off defining the term transgender, and different circumstances where others attempted to ‘normalize’ the homosexual and transgender movements. The article states that transgender people “are deeply troubled individuals who need professional help, not societal approval or affirmation.” (Traditional Values Coalition 1). The article continues, showing instances where the transgender movement won “major political victor[ies]” (Traditional Values Coalition 2), such as California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 which protected transgender children at public schools. The coalition states that the media is helping the transgender movement by portraying transgender people as “misunderstood and persecuted” (Traditional

Scholars have been critical of the medical establishment’s and state’s involvement in constructing and policing of transgender identity. These kinds of pressing issues have occupied the small existing literature. There is not much information and studying what is being done on transgender in traditional areas, family studies research, such as their dating behavior and formation of intimate relationships in adulthood. There is little research on the issues around being parents, their children’s experiences with having transgendered parents, as well as relationships in the family as a whole, and relationships in work and school.

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

This article, “No Way My Boys Are Going To Be Like That,” converses that young children are becoming aware of gender processing, which means

Fifty years ago, nobody could ever have imagined how widely accepted transgender individuals would be in modern times. Countries all around the world had only ever known about the social distinction between men and women, which is known as ‘masculinity vs. Femininity’. However, now it is much more complex than that; as transgender and gender confused individuals are more widely accepted, it has become more of a case of sex vs. gender. “Sex is the biologically based distinction between men and women centring on sexual organs, while gender is the social and cultural rendering of masculinity and femininity.” (Oakley, 1972) And even though transgenders are accepted into society they still face inequalities such as not being accepted into a particular community, ostracised by families and friends,

Gender and gender roles are a somewhat complicated idea to understand. Contrary to popular belief, gender and sex are two different things in that “gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy” (“Understanding Gender”). When parents automatically assign their child a gender based on their sex organs, it leaves very little room for change later in the child’s life, because children born with female sex organs are not necessarily girls, just as children born with male sex organs are not necessarily boys. Rather, gender is based on mindset, personal identity, outward presentations, and behavior of the individual. Binary genders, or the broadly

The theme of prejudice and fear experienced by transgender and intersexual people can be observed all throughout Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She. At the very beginning of the documentary, this theme is illustrated through the murder of Gwen, a transsexual teenager. She had had sexual relations with two of her murderers who exclaimed, “I can’t be gay!” when they discovered she was a transsexual. They viewed Gwen as a boy pretending to be a girl, and beat her ruthlessly until finally strangling her to death. Her mother’s greatest fear was that her daughter’s transition might result in her ultimate demise, a fear that materialized into a horrific nightmare. Another instance of prejudice found in this documentary can be found in the story of Noah, an eight-year-old child with male anatomy that identifies with the female gender. Noah lives in the American

“I am transgendered. I was born female, but my masculine gender expression is seen as a male…it’s the social contradiction between the two that defines

There are million reason to accept the people as they are. Reading this book, the boy does not go with stereotypical boy flow and open up about understanding and accepting difference. The boy who love to like pink or love to wear princess dress that might be or might not grow up to be gay. And that child might be labeled with gender confusion or gender identity disorder or other unprintable name. This book has hugely important in expanding the national conversation about diverse gender expression.

In an article “'Why did God make me like this?': Parents share incredibly moving film about having a transgender son and why they decided to let him change gender and become a boy at age five” by Snejana Farberrov discuss how one family embraced a daughter transgender by cutting her hair and using male pronouns. The girl who name is Ryland told her parents, she was a boy and from then on more and more they started to treat Ryland as a boy. She told her parents at a very young age that she was a boy.

Kailey (2005) started off Just Add Hormones by introducing the terms sex and gender as individual and different words in definition. He also spoke about how transgendered people take much longer to transition than what people frequently assume. Most people assume that one surgery can make a male a female, or a female a male. The book overall discusses the stereotypes transgender people have, and how those stereotype dehumanize regular people. The book shows accurate differences between being female and being male. It allows readers to fully understand Kailey’s (2005) experiences in every aspect of life in both a male and female lense. The book is going to be helpful because it compares and contrasts life as a male to life as a female. This perspective is going to support all three of the themes: gender socialization in the workplace, gender roles in relationships and gender socialization in family, because it contains Kailey’s perspective in

In the documentary Growing Up Trans, we hear the real stories and explanations of how kids felt with both their sex and gender. Kids would give interviews on how they felt being stuck in a biological body that they did not agree with. Throughout the movie, we see children expressing how they do not want to conform to the ideas of their “gender”. Throughout the movie, we see the ideas of a gender that is socially constructed. People buy their little girls babies, Barbie dolls, princess costumes.

When young girls break gender norms, it is acceptable because masculine traits are desirable. Girls who play sports, wear boy’s clothes, and play with toys marketed towards boys are seen as tomboys, and stronger for it. Conversely, boys who play with girls’ toys and wear girls’ clothes are considered effeminate and weak. This attitude that society holds was reflected in the results of Kane’s interviews with parents.

I chose to explore the definition of masculinity from the perspective of a female-to-male transgender individual. Often times, masculinity is one of the biggest validations a man can have. However, feeling less masculine than one would want can be detrimental. In terms of transgender men, feeling masculine can be a struggle. In searching for scientific journals and articles pertaining to both subjects, transgender and masculinity, there were only a handful of articles written. There is little research about how female-to-male transgender individuals feel about masculinity. However, there was enough evidence to gather an idea of what studies years from now may continue to uncover on this subject. This lack of research should suggest a need for