Rethinking Normal By Katie Rain Hill

The author, Coyote, of Gender Failure, demonstrates what is it like to be a transgender

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.

The main setting of Trans-Sister Radio is within the small town of Bartlett, Vermont. The primary focus is set on Dana, a chromosomal-male college professor who is in the process of transitioning into the female gender. As a male, Dana is well-received by her community, even though she is perceived as strange and effeminate. She forms normal romantic relationships with women, has a fulfilling career, and is admired by those surrounding her, however she still feels incomplete. Unfortunately, what is missing from Dana is not externally noticeable, it is intrinsic happiness. From a young age, Dana suffered from gender dysphoria, a mental disorder that causes individuals to experience serious distress due to frustration with the sex and gender assigned at birth (APA, 2013). To alleviate the traumatic pain that has burdened her for decades, Dana makes the bold decision to partake in complete gender reassignment surgery. Trans-Sister Radio challenges the prototypical ideologies of character growth, morality, and relationships through its descriptive insight on transsexuality and thus gender.

He had achieved the shock value not only with myself as the reader, but ultimately who he was addressing. Jamison had been an educator of trans people, speaking out to audiences of college students of all ages. His goal of educating the public stemmed from his own experiences with choosing to change genders as well as a broad overview of the ideas that surrounded transsexualism as a whole. He communicates well that his experiences do not encompass all transgendered people’s experiences and that transformation from male to female (MTF) is quite different from female to male (FTM) transformation. The societal complications from FTM are well examined from Jamison’s view. Many people believed that females that wanted to become males could

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.

The testimonies of the transsexuals and would-be transsexuals were more than a kid from Wilkes-Barre was used to hearing. What was even more difficult to understand was how the psychiatrists in attendance seemed to be endorsing alternate lifestyles and even treating transsexuality as a normal variant of the human condition.

In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.

However, despite the new perspective she’s obtained and the time that’s passed, she doesn’t feel like she has undergone any extreme changes since she was a kid. As she puts it, she has simply become “more”—more confident, more independent, more experienced. And with this “more”-ness, she shares with me some advice she feels would have helped her: “Stop worrying about what the media wants you to look like or be like because that doesn’t matter. As long as you feel good about yourself, that’s all that matters… Just be you and love you and not worry about anything else.” Thanking her for both her time and this advice, I decided that whether I have to fit in or stand out, I will do my best to be myself. Because Emily Wilson is right: that is all that truly

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.

Argued in Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003:15), living up to our gender is learning through a life-long process of socialization. Further supported in Kulick and Schieffelin (2006:352), one’s gender emerges over a lifetime through interactive process in which one accepts, rejects, or modifies the cultural and gender norms they are socialized in. These two arguments supported the idea of this essay’s research question in which cultural and social factors do contribute to gendering an individual, and in turn implicating the creation of a boundary that exclude transgenders from the society.

There’s been a lot of debate on the treatment of transgenders, in efforts to better the lives of those who suffer from gender dysphoria, both in a social and medical context. However, there isn’t much scientific understanding of the important ideas and questions that have sparked these debates. For instance, there haven’t been any explanations as to why, even after gender affirming and sex reassignment, transgenders are still at higher risks of mortality and suicidal behaviour than the general population (Dhejne et al. 2011). Despite this lack of understanding physicians and mental health care providers have arrived at a number of methods for treating individuals with gender dysphoria. One such practice is “gender-affirming,” rather than challenging, the therapist accepts

Throughout the book, Becoming Nicole – The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt, there were many topics and vocabulary that were semi new to me. With that in mind, there was a lot that I learned from the book itself, relating to what it actually meant to be transgender, and the glossary in the back helped to even further my understanding of different vocabulary.

Being normal can protect you from judgment, but you disappear into the crowd. There was a time when all I wanted was to be normal. Coming from a tiny school with very little exposure to the media or the news, I had been living in a quiet, sheltered bubble all my life. After changing schools, my former lifestyle bored me. My bubble became a hole, and as the first year passed I became desperate to dig myself out of it.

It is 8:15 in the morning. I’ve hit snooze since 6:45 and I now find myself tripping over dog toys and miscellaneous clothing items in a struggle to be office appropriate, and actually in said office, within the next 45 minutes. I pull a pair of black slacks out of the dryer and hop onto the scale next to the washer. God damnit I think to myself as I look down at the red number staring back at me. Guess my food binge yesterday decided to bless me with an added 3 pounds. I find a matching blouse, coordinating blazer, and check myself one last time in the mirror before heading out the door. Laying open, page folded, on my bed rests the memoir of Rajee Narinesingh, a transgender advocate and woman of color. On my nightstand, the trans* narratives of Alana Sholar and Aaron Raz similarly sit. There is something raw and refreshing about demanding the ability to live comfortably in your own skin. That might sound crazy coming from a cis normative person such as me, but I actually mean it. Whether it is letting go of spiritual and cultural footholds, physically altering our the body, or allowing others in to experience our true self, changing our lives to match who we are, although scary, allows us the opportunity to live unapologetically for who we actually are.

The most obvious challenges I have faced living as a transgender male have been physical, but the hardest I have faced have not only been personal, but emotional. I have encountered countless overly personal inquisitions, questioning looks, and awkward introductions. Existing as a biological female for a large portion of my life imbued that period of time with many challenges. As a child, I fought passionately with my parents to shop in the “boys” section of the store, to play hockey and lacrosse, and to never step foot in a dress. I often wondered why other children would point and snicker at my choice of clothing. I even asked my distraught mother why I was “put in the wrong body” at the age of three. I had to grow up and not only learn, but understand and accept that I am not the same as everyone else. I had to come to terms with the fact that most people do not face the challenge of waking up every day and overcoming the feeling that something is fundamentally “off” that cannot truly be “fixed”. “Average” is a description I often longed to be labeled in the past, but over the years I have discovered that striving to be above average is the true key to success.