The True Story of Joan/John

A gender ideology is a “set of ideas widely shared by members of a society that guides identities, behaviors, and institutions” (Wade, et. al. 2015). Until Brandon’s sex was discovered, almost everyone that he interacted with daily believed that he was a male from birth. Nobody really questioned Brandon’s gender or sex because they believed that he exemplified the typical idea of a man. In the film, Brandon’s friends and ex-girlfriends all described him as a male based mostly on Brandon’s gender expression, looks, and hobbies. The people in the film all described how Brandon would wear clothes for men, sit with his legs open, and talk about girls and cars. Even Nissen’s sister described how one time her, Brandon, and others, were in a van and Brandon had to go to the bathroom and tried to pee out of a window. All of these factors made up the people who Brandon interacted with schemas about gender. Nobody ever thought about Brandon maybe being a female because their cultural lens, a male does everything Brandon does, so he is a male. This concept also shows up later in the film when Brandon was questioned by a woman about whether he was truly a male. The deciding factor for this woman on whether Brandon was a man or not, was determined by if he had a penis. This woman’s idea of a traditional man involved a penis; so if Brandon did not have one Brandon could not have been a man. However, the woman, because of her pre-existing conceptions, she did not think that maybe one does not need a penis to be a male. For example, disregarding transsexuals and transgendered people, a male could have been castrated, effectively removing his penis. However, just because his penis is gone, he is usually still seen as a male. Castration of males was done throughout history whether it was Chinese or Roman Slaves (Tougher 2013), or as a dedication to one’s religion

Dr. Money developed a theory that argued while genetics are important, a baby is born neutral in regards to gender for the first few years of life and during this time the child’s environment would determine their ultimate masculinity or femininity. Money derived this theory from his research on intersex individuals, but the outcomes of these studies cannot be correlated to this type of case. This

This was a problem because they only judged the babies on their external genitalia, not their hormones or chromosomes. In more recent days there are clinics that specialize in the treatment for intersex babies. John money was in charge of this new wave, and believed that gender identity is changing for about 18 months after birth. He suggested that the surgeons should do the surgery that makes the most sense for each child, and then the parents should raise them to be the gender that the doctors surgically transformed them into. He thought his treatments were working until one of his patients became an author and told the story of his life. Since John/Joan lost his male parts at birth, Dr. money gave him female genitals and suggested he be raised as a girl. The problem was he wanted to be a man. John/Joan’s story sparked other people to speak up about their rejected sex assignments. Next, McCullough gave a speech at LWPES that argued all the forms of intersexuality should be seen as normal, and doctors should avoid irreversible assignments. The author Sterling believes that treatment should be ethical and medical principles with a more casual approach (Sterling,

At a very young age we are introduced to a gender identity based upon the sex we were born with. Girls are associated with the color pink, dolls, nurturing tendencies, and inclined to be more emotional. While boys are associated with the color blue, the nature of masculinity, sports, and said to be more outspoken. However, gender and sex are two different things. Sex is the biological differences between female and male, while gender is social construct attached with social roles

One gender principle that was displayed in the film was bromance, Bromance is a friendship where men are capable of incorporating a deeper more understanding friendship and they use a lot of language and actions to express their feelings (Kimmel 385). A great example of Bromance is the scene where Jeremy had a horrible night and wanted to leave, John pleads him to finish the weekend with Claire. When Jeremy agrees to continue with their plan, John replies I Love You, which is a great indication that they love one another. As time progresses society is learning to accept it and this film did a great job in advertising that men can use their softer side, and that they can express love for their

Gender is a concept constructed entirely by society. We base gender off of what we perceive and what others perceive of us. Until fairly recently, it has been categorized as one of two things: male or female. When we watched the documentary in class, we saw evidence of society 's socialization of young children. Commercials for Nerf Guns, action figures, and cars and trucks were all depicted with young boys as their users. Never did we see a girl playing with GI Joes or with Hot Wheels, only boys played with those. Meanwhile, dolls, baking sets, and make up kits were only advertised to girls, and no boys were shown playing with Barbies or Bratz. Society begins to shape gender notions from a very early age, where people are shown that they are one or the other, either male or female.

Gender has been described as masculine or feminine characteristics that encompass gender identity sex as well as social roles (Nobelius 2004). According to sexologist John Money, there is a difference between gender as a role and the biologically of differences in sex (Udry 1994). Within scholarly disciplines, cultures and contexts, gender frequently has its own mean, contextual frame of reference and the manner in which it is used to describe a variety of issues and characteristics. The sociocultural codes, conventions and the suggested and literal rules that accompany the notion of gender are vast and diverse. There has been and continues to be much scholarly debate regarding the idea of gender and how it has been viewed historically; as well as changes in the grammatical use of the

In regards to the theory of social constructionist, gender roles and stereotypes are a creation of society and its culture. This creation of social roles

In the past gender and sex use to be considered synonymous in context. Gender was often just a compassionate, moderate, more socially acceptable way of evading the word sex. However, there is a good motive for them to be

When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.

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

John identifies as a man, pointing out his appearance as a give away. Standing six foot - five inches with a full grown beard, he has always been identified as a man, particularly an older one. He recalls at fifteen, being invited to a bar with

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

The term ‘gender’ was coined by John Money in 1955: “Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively” (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits