Karolina Bielawka

There has been much discussion about transgender adults in recent years but lately there has been a shift to the discussion of transgender children. Growing Up Coy (2016) is a documentary about a 6-year-old transgender. The documentary follows Coy and her family through a time where Coy’s parents fight for her rights as a transgender individual. This film discusses childhood gender-variant behavior, discrimination and prejudice, and proposes many questions about one’s opinions of being transgender, gender identity, etc.

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.

The stories “The Medicine Bag” and “Apache Girls Rite of Passage” both explain the important traditions that transition a child to adulthood. In “The Medicine Bag” a young boy named Martin is passed down an important family heirloom that represents the change from a boy to a man. In “Apache Girls Rite of Passage” a documentary is made about an important ritual that Apache girls participate in to change from a girl to a woman. In both passages there are similarities and differences between the Rite of Passage. There are also advantages and disadvantages of presenting a story in text or in a video.

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.

Throughout most of the film, we see characters react violently to Ludovic when he-she insists that he-she is actually a girl. Family members, people at school, and the neighbors all try and convince Ludovic that he-she is not actually a girl. The therapy scenes throughout the film in which Ludovic’s mother and father attempt to fix his condition stood out to me the most because of how absurd the process of fixing someone’s gender is. In one particular scene, Ludovic sits in-between his parents as his mother attempts to provide comfort, while the father refuses to even look at Ludovic as he shakes his head at every word of the conversation at hand. The framing of the scene places the camera over Ludovic 's shoulder so that we see the edges of the parents and we get a direct view of the therapist from Ludovic 's point of view. This angle make the parents appear to be absent from the scene and the camera level is set in a way that makes the audience sympathize with Ludovic. And as McGuffie points out, “the framing of the

My Story is the replica of Kamala Das’s psychosexual structure in patriarchal society. Das begins to write when she is admitted in hospital after a serious bout. My Story is the revolutionary product of patriarchal society as it breaks the canonical rules made by patriarchal society. In patriarchal society women are not treated as human being but treated as sexual object.Theyare forced to represses their sexual desire for outer goodness. Das presents herself as the revolutionary figure and reveals her psychosexual growth from her childhood to adulthood.

Hannah Carson, a 16-year-old high school girl, has a secret that only she and her immediate family knows because if the news would to ever be revealed, she would be regarded as a freak in the eyes of society. For as long as Hannah could remember, she has been told by her parents that she should use the female’s bathroom even though she personally identifies herself as a male. Hannah is what society calls a transgender. She and many others like her are starting to emerge into the mainstream society to express their feelings and take their rights. This can be seen in the article “Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics” which is about should people who have penises be permitted or restricted from using female restrooms. We will analyze this article through several sociological key concepts.

Everyone goes through changes in life, especially ones that define who you are. In David Kaplan’s short story “Doe Season,” he portrays a young tomboyish girl that metamorphosis into a young woman over a short hunting trip. Not only does the young girl enjoy spending time with her father, but she enjoys the things that he does – shooting, camping, hunting. This is not typical of your average girl, or even a 9-year-old girl. Throughout the story there are symbols that show the audience Andy’s conflicts with herself and her gender or sexuality. It is also clear that she struggles with herself and her gender role in society.

Prosser (1998) enters the gender-identity conversation with a rather counter-intuitive project. At a time when poststructuralism is busily deconstructing the sex/gender linkage in ways that transcend the materiality of the subject, Prosser wants to bring the “ontological” trans body back into the dialogue by charting the arc of the changing body within transgender narratives. Only by mapping these transitions in this frame can he describe a complex transsexual experience that breaks free from the political binaries used by essentialists and poststructuralists, such as “literal/deliteralizing, subversive/hegemonic” (16). If the former has been guilty of a dogmatic reliance on a narrow understanding of biology to describe transsexuals, Prosser argues, then the former is equally guilty of deconstructing gender to the point of reducing the material body to an inconvenient concept (13).

Writing exhibits a form of communication, empowerment through freedom of speech, and allows the general public to become educated on matters that may not be eminent. Julia Serano is a trans woman who uses her writing, her voice, and her very being as a means to combat transphobia, cissexual privilege, gendering, and “passing” centrism. In Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano dismantles the misconceptions that various individuals have concerning tans women, gender, sexism, and femininity. In order to accomplish this, Serano provides examples from her life as well as her observations before and after her transition from male to female (MTF). Thus, she is able to demonstrate the form in

The document I chose to do this journal entry on was Anna Bijns’ “UNYOKED IS BEST! HAPPY THE WOMAN WITHOUT A MAN”. This document is explaining a number of things. One of the things it’s explaining is that the stuff she talks about is already going on such as how women from a young age believe marriage is a wonderful thing and that happiness will always be there as long as you’re married, but Bijns tells the readers it’s not all like that. The audience I believe she is trying to reach are teenage girls to older women.

A movie based on a heartbreaking true story set in 1930s Denmark, where Einar Wegner played by tremendously talented Eddie Redmayne becomes the first transgender person to undergo a sex reassignment surgery. Gerda, played by Alicia Vikander progressed to the leading role rather than the supporting actor according to us. The story began by demonstrating two married and prominent artists living in Copenhagen, Denmark. A linear storyline illustrated the life of Einar, a landscape painter who gradually transformed himself into a woman. The film successfully elaborates the notion of true and undivided love. Although Gerda, complied with her husbands needs the narrative suggested a sense of loneliness within her. She embraced her husband’s true identity and came across as a nonjudgmental and understanding wife in a time where traditional representation of marriage was highly regarded. Throughout the film beautiful scenes where shot in an old-fashioned manner. Camera movement, light and setting were suggestive of a vintage era. Perhaps the most striking qualities of this film are the fact that this subject manner is still relevance till this

Recently I watched a documentary that was really eye opening. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone and showed a different side of the world that I have never been exposed to. It is a documentary called Mala Mala directed by Antonio Santini, and Dan Sickles. I came across it on Netflix and thought I’d give it a chance. It really surprised me. Santini and Sickles interview a variety of individuals who represent a wide spectrum within the trans-gender community in Puerto Rico. Each individual has different motivations, different lifestyles and different ways of seeing themselves. While some are very flamboyant, others do their best to blend in with society and lead ordinary lives. The one thing they all have in common is that they want their

The Virgin Suicides, a morbid, yet love-tinged reverse coming-of-age story written by Jeffrey Eugenides in 1993, was beautifully captured 6 years later on the silver screen thanks to its director, Ms. Sofia Cappola. In 249 pages, Eugenides tells the story of the fatal repression of the Lisbon sisters and the desperate lengths they go to for a taste of freedom before bringing about their own deaths. Although one of the novel’s two main themes, mortality, was ignored, and the ‘boy-next-door’ narration of the book was exacerbated in the film to the point of deifying the Lisbon sisters, most of the dialogue was maintained word-for-word and the plot remained intact, creating a unique adaption that could stand alone if need be.

It is this first sexual encounter that has fueled the intense self-destructive activities of Nastasya Filippovna. Resting quietly for four years, the young girl becomes a woman. Upon hearing a rumor that Totsky is to be married, the fierce fury of Nastasya Filippovna is wakened. Up until this point we have accepted the ³Totskian² version of who Nastasya Filippovna is. However, like Totsky, we find Nastasya Filippovna is no longer a girl, but