Gender Is A Complex And Controversial Phenomenon

In the late 1950’s to mid-1960’s, the transgender community faced discrimination such as physical and verbal harassment, denial of social spaces, and alienation in the media. This matters to us today because transgender individuals are still existing and are a part of our human population today. The community is also still struggling to find their representation in the media and in society. The transgender community is still facing a wide array of types of discrimination, from nasty looks to denied access of education. Gender identity should not be taken into consideration when determining another person’s worthiness of respect.

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.

American society today is not any different from the past, except today people are apt to discuss everything publicly on various social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram just to name a few. Transgender persons happen to be one of those subjects that have become the hot topic of the new normal. Nowadays there are blogs, tweets, and pictures posted online of people’s transition “coming out.” Like the past, society is still tough when it comes to judging each other. Although transgender might not have had a recognized community in the past, it is prevalent that society is becoming more accepting of their community, and aware of issues their community faces. In this essay the names, nouns, or pronouns used will be in accordance to the individual’s preference.

Kidd and Witten define the term transgender vaguely, stating it “describe[s] people who transcend the conventional boundaries of gender, irrespective of physical status or sexual orientation” (Kidd & Witten, 2007, p. 36). This term is a reference for the ‘other gender’ that is not particularly male or female. Currently, within the American society, there is a growing awareness of individuals who are transgender. Much of this awareness comes from LGBT movements and

The United States is a divided society. We like to categorize ourselves according to political affiliation, race, and religion. We are members of the middle, low-income, or wealthy classes. We choose what seats to sit in during a football game according to the team we are rooting for. It is oddly comforting to know that you belong. All too often, however, transgender youth are denied that sense of ubelonging because they defy society’s categories of male and female. The gender binary divides society into two separate, unequivocal categories that marginalizes transgender youth and directly impacts their emotional health and well-being. Society’s collective response of demeaning, shaming, and violence further increases the divide.

Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that rather than sex determining gender-gender determines sex. Sex is shaped by gender discourses which give us scripts to perform according to whether we are biologically classed as male or female. The continual performance of these scripts on a daily basis is what makes us male or female. The classic example of this is the third sex, yes, the third sex and that is the transgender( born male in a female’s body or

Coming out as a transgender, identifying with a gender expression that differs from the assigned sex, has proven to be quite difficult through the ages. While the acceptance of transgender people has grown significantly higher throughout the years, people’s stance on them are still quite divided, and the uphill battle for transgender rights has proven this. Just giving transgenders the right to simply go to the bathroom they identify with has shown to be controversial according to the TIME cover Battle of the Bathroom. The TIME magazine makes sure to note the problem defiantly “far more than public facilities” (Scherer par. 9). Transgender rights are a problem that Jamison Green, president for World Professional Association for Transgender Health, thoroughly addresses in a report written by Alan Greenblatt for CQ Researcher. Jamison Green’s specific purpose in that report is to justify why transgender people deserve basic human rights like everybody else, as shown in society, through his use of facts, qualifiers, figurative language, counterarguments, and appeals to logic and values.

Despite on how the country has developed over the years with technological advances and cultural acceptance, lack of acceptance in gender identity is a problem many Americans face. As defined by Oxford Dictionary, Gender is “The state of being male or female” (2016). Although gender is usually separated into being either a man or a woman, it is important to state that gender is socially constructed and can differ between different societies. Gender is used as a mechanism to differentiate a person’s masculinity or femininity using their biological features (Babatunde & Durowaiye, 2015). Sadly, those who do not conform to their designated gender are not typically accepted into society and are out-casted by many, including the individual’s

In a lot of places around the world more and more people are coming out as “Transgender.” The term transgender means that the person’s gender identity does not correspond with the gender they were assigned as having at birth. From personally having a transgender boyfriend I have since realized that these people experience a lot of discrimination in and from society. Many people simply just do not understand what the term transgender means and they see it as someone just “wants to be a man” or “wants to be a woman.” While there may be people who present it this way, it is more so that the individual just “feels” different, and “feels” as if they are “in the wrong body.” Some people experience this feeling at a young age as my boyfriend did in his elementary age. We live in a world who put these people down for being who they truly are, and no human being wants or needs that.

The social issue that I chose which affects society today is transgender inequality. These issues are more recently gaining attention and becoming a prevalent topic of inequality within our country. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. As more and more transgender people share their stories in the media, the social problems that arise from these stories are discrimination within their everyday lives. They suffer from scrutiny and judgment from their peers, and thus many hide their gender identity from family and society. This social injustice can be as simple as a glance or staring, or offensive comments and questions to violent hate crimes. Transgender people are prone to violence and harassment, and often not feeling safe in any aspect of society. They are fired from jobs, denied medical insurance, and being murdered left and right solely for being transgender. “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)” (National Center for Transgender Equality). The structure of this paper will consist of adding all the research that was gathered over the semester, news articles and peer

In today’s society, there are divides that impede the movement of progress. These divides may disperse around a number of issues that revolve around gender, religion, sexual orientation and education. These divides have created an un-opened minded society that judge people and groups based on the prejudices and stereotypes that treat them differently. In the aspect of identity discrimination, American society plays a big role in keeping those that are different isolated from the rest of the world. Today’s society suffers huge from a spectrum that focuses power on discrimination. In this spectrum, transgender individuals are perceived as people that are most damaging than lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people. Transgendered people are

Gender identification and expression of transgender individuals has become controversial in America because of lack of knowledge and societal acculturation of this group. As society continues to connect gender identity with sexual identity, those who identify as transgender are forced to conform to the cultural norms of society or choose not to openly portray their gender expression. Although the media and the LGBT community has played a major role in raising awareness about transgender people, legislation and politics reflect inequality and bias. Assigning gender roles in a society leads to individuals not having equal rights and becoming

Society’s view of gender identities are in an evolving state. Many are trying to grasp the concept of accepting individuals such as transgender persons who

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.

Gender is a now a huge topic for modern days. How can you classify a gender in modern society? The answer to this question cannot be answered in modern society but in the past countries were the ones to label genders. Tell them who they are, what is there role, how you support the country in this role. Nazi Germany told to raise and birth children . Soviet Union you will raise children and birth them but also be a soldier and fight when needed. You will be treated as a man but with the duty of a woman . Women in Colonial Quito were legally obligated to practice obedience to their husbands. Women were dominated by their husbands and faced abused. Because this was how society viewed a role of a women in their society . Also in Brazil a boy had to act like a man if he was what they defined as a subversives they were acting feminine and that creates weakness for the nation as acting feminine allowed them to get pregnant by communism . The gender inequalities and differences have been socially constructed and scientifically quantified by countries in order to protect the civilization and control the population.