Gender Diversity : The Wide Range Of Gender Variation

Jazz states that from the time she began forming coherent thoughts, she knew she was a girl that was trapped inside a boy’s body. Jazz also says that she was never confused about who she is,

What if you had a child who was experiencing gender dysphoria? A child who didn’t feel that they were comfortable being the gender that they were born into? What would you do if your child wanted to become the opposite gender? In the documentary “Growing up Trans” (TV Episode 2015) Children who are experiencing gender dysphoria tell their stories about what it’s like growing up transgender. The documentary offers insight on the issues and complications the children and their parents face while transitioning.

Janet Reimer gave birth to identical twins, Bruce and Brian. During a circumcision, Bruce penis was badly severed and could not be repaired surgically. The penis was severed by an electric burning device. During the Reimers search for answers on what to do about the severed penis, the family heard of Dr. John Money. Dr. John Money was the only one that seemed as if he had the answers the family wanted to hear. He convinced the family that Bruce could be raised as a girl by having reconstructive surgery and keeping his true sexual identity a secret. He told them if they kept it a secret and nurtured him as a girl, then he will begin to believe he was a female. The family believed what Dr. John Money said and agreed to the reconstructive surgery. Dr. John Money also told the family they were never to tell anyone of the surgery. Janet Reimer raised Bruce as a girl named Brenda and kept his sexuality a secret. Throughout Bruce and Brian childhood, they would meet with Dr. John Money typically once a year. During visits, Dr. John Money would continue to convince Bruce he was a female and would take sexually explicit pictures of him.

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.

The documentary Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis depicts the tragic experience of a young boy and the psychologist who attempts to “treat” him after an unfortunate accident. In a time of little knowledge of sexual variation Dr. John Money proposed the theory that a boy could be raised as a girl, but after years of failed attempts this theory would be shattered. This story began when twins Bruce and Bryan went in to the hospital to have a routine circumcision operation at 7 months of age. On the 27th of April 1966 Bruce was the first of the two twins to be operated on, but the procedure would not go as planned. The boy’s parents were soon informed that their son’s penis had been fully burned off in a nontraditional attempt to burn the foreskin away from the penis. In a position of great confusion the Reimers became hopeful in light of such tragedy as they later became aware of the work of Dr. John Money, a man who was becoming a pioneer in the field of sex change surgery. In meeting with this man the Reimers were informed that their baby boy could live a normal life as a girl.

Although children grow up in households, they fast start emulate the father or the mother, and as a result, they acquire habits depending on their gender. Children learns from a young age to distinguish the differences between genders, and give much attention on how somebody looks, so they can tell the nature of people. They need to categorize themselves on a side, and they try to do so. And as we move back to the story of dance, Quindlen comes to say that “it’s the dance that’s important, not the difference”. I totally agree with this statement, because all that matters is to make a move and communicate with the other

The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much

She was a Boy I mean it sounds crazy but yes she is trans at a very young age- and it happened that fast! When Jazz was in preschool she started looking a lot like a girl. Jazz was born as a boy and they called him/her - Jared but now since she is now a girl she is named Jazz.

Jazz Jennings was born a male on October 6, 2000 to a normal american family in Florida. In Jazz’s early years it was apparent that he was not a normal young boy. Jazz’s parents experienced many situations when Jazz would express to his parents that he wanted to wear a dress. Even at 15 months Jazz’s parents would praise Jazz as a “good boy,” he then would correct them, saying that he was in fact a good girl. When Jazz would say things referring to himself as a girl his parents would brush it off and say that Jazz was

Gender identity is defined as the identification of a human being as being male or female. The knowledge that we have about gender acquisition is still not as accurate as we would like. Biological and environmental factors are at play and not one or the other seems to be completely wrong. Biological views relating to gender identity are supported by chromosomal and hormonal based differences. Environmental perspectives emphasize on modeling and experience (individual and cultural) affecting gender acquisition. However, the only unbiased way to assess gender identity is by taking into account both biological and environmental factors (McCabe, 2007). This paper focuses on gender identity in early childhood development.

* Jennifer open up and informed the writer about her struggles with her gender identity. Jennifer disclosed more information about her childhood and her mother dysfunctional interaction with her and her sister. When there were teenagers, Jennifer’s mother forced them to dress up as men; Jennifer believes now, that this was her mother’s way of protecting them from being sexual abuse by their father.

Diversity activities teach children to respect and celebrate the differences in all people. Gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation are controversial topics in today’s day and age. Even in 2017 people are still treated

As relates to chapter two material and the above mentioned questions, I absolutely think Jazz 's parents influence her behavior because they allowed her to make her own decisions in regard to who she feels like not just as a human being but who she is as a person in regard to her personality traits, attitude, and characteristics that she displays. As early as two years old her mother reports that she was always playing with toys that are associated with ones that typically a biological female would gravitate to. Her mom also stated that she was wearing high heeled shoes and focusing more on playtime with her sister instead of her two older brothers who actually said if they could choose they would have chosen for jazz to be a girl and remain a girl. This type of positive reinforcement is exactly what Jazz needed in order to grow and be comfortable even with all the negative attention from peers and others that may disagree with allowing a child suffering from gender morphia.

“Gender” is a social construct that is developed solely by our society and the early developmental stages of an adolescent’s life. By introducing youths to the roles, behaviors, expectations and activities that correspond with males or females we give a clear guideline of what is accepted from a young male or female. An individual however can identify his or her gender based on their own system of beliefs without corresponding to their natural biological sex. Our lives are shaped by our true biological identities but the influence of the world and society is enough to define what a male and what a female truly is to an individual.

Diversity can be defined as the differences among the people working in the same workplace. Those differences can be related to gender, race, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, culture or personalities.