Theory Description And Key Terms

One who claims any gender other than male or female would be considered taboo or highly unusual by our society. Biological sex is often thought to determine one’s gender identity. Though sex and gender align for the mass of our population, there is a minority group that does not feel that they belong to either male or female genders. To understand gender fluidity, one must recognize that sometimes a person’s gender and sex do not align. A person may not feel that their biological sex reflects who they are, they may feel uncomfortable with the expectations and roles placed on them due to their sex. These gender roles are created by social expectations of our western society. Gender roles are merely social constructs, and if one does not want to conform to societies conjectures placed on them due to their biological sex, they should have the freedom to non-conform.

We tend to put everyone in one of two categories when in actuality there should be many more because someone's gender identity could differ from their sex, but the common belief is that gender identity pairs in accordance with one's sex.

In the college environment today there are new advancements and improvements happening that have an effect on how schools function overall. With Fitzpatrick’s essay, it shows the pros and cons of how a big aspect of the society today such as being transgender can have a huge impact on the past and present of the course of how colleges work. There are three reasons I would recommend the essay “A Room of Her Own: Women’s Colleges and the Transgender Revolution” to my peers. Firstly, this essay gives the readers specific reasons and opinions regarding how the idea of accepting transgender students in women colleges can have a bigger impact on the female society. Secondly, regarding college students, Fitzpatrick’s argumentative essay puts the transgender

Relevant Terminology: Gender identity: refers to an individual’s sense of gender, may be different from one’s assigned gender at birth

A review of McKibben, Sarah (January 2016) Charting a Course to Transgender Inclusion, Education Update, volume 58, number 1, pages 2-3,15 reviewed by John A. Kelley. Also found online: http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/jan16/vol58/num01/Charting-a-Course-to-Transgender-Inclusion.aspx

The term transgender is used to define individuals who do not identify with the sex that they were assigned at birth. For example, if a person who is born female decides later on in her life that she would like to identify as a man, that person would identify as a trans-man, and would most-likely use the pronouns “he” or “him” when describing himself.

According to Hagg and Fellows (2007:4), sex generally refers to anatomy and biology such as male or female, whereas gender refers to the qualities and behaviours society expects from a boy or girl, a man or woman. The definition of transgender refers to a person having no identification with, or no presentation as, the gender one was assigned at birth (Hagg and Fellows 2007:4). The definition of transsexual in Hagg and Fellows (2007:4) refers to a person who had undergone a sex change operation or a person identifying with the opposite sex.

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.

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.

The transgender community has been particularly outspoken about the injustices they have faced as transgender individuals as of late. Due to this, the public’s attention is drawn to what can be done to help these individuals gain the same rights that cisgender people have. A particularly potent topic is that of transgender students in high schools. On account of the attention, schools and teachers are faced with whether they will help or hinder the lives of their transgender students. Unfortunately, it has been made clear that high school teachers and high schools in general are not doing enough to accommodate their transgender students.

Ensuring support to transgender students within the school system is relevant for the US Government. Therefore, the Department of Education has compile examples of policies to support transgender student. In addition, to ensure that transgender students are called or identified by the appropriate name and pronouns; informed school officials determine which name and pronouns a transgender student prefers. Moreover, consistency with a student gender identity is essential; thus, some schools embraced policies to capacitate school faculty and students to adopt the newly name of a transgender student.

A person who identifies as transgender is one who expresses a gender identity that differs from the one that corresponds with their assigned sex. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or any other gender. Gender expression refers to the way someone communicates their gender identity, whether it’s through the clothing they wear, their hairstyle, or their voice and body characteristics. Although some may not be aware, sex and gender aren’t synonyms. Sex is assigned at birth and refers to a person’s biological status whereas gender is based on socially constructed roles, behaviors and attributes that given societies consider appropriate for men or women. People who fall under the transgender umbrella may identify

The issue of transgender students and their right to public restrooms has recently been brought into the political spotlight. Transgender being defined by the authors of the article Experiences of Transgender-Related Discrimination and Implications for Health: Results from the Virginia Transgender Health Initiative Study as, “…an umbrella term used to de- scribe people whose gender identity or expression does not conform to that typically associated with the sex they were born as or assigned to at birth” (Bradford, Reisner, Honnold, Xavier 1820). It is statistically clear that transgender students are at greater risk of harassment and physical harm than their cisgender peers. Not allowing these students to use the restroom of their gender

An individual can either identify themselves with a subculture or social group which results in them having diverse gender roles.

Transgender inequality has been the topic of controversy within recent years. As time moves on, rallies become more frequent, organizations are becoming more widespread, and legislation is being passed to help integrate transgender citizens within society. At the root of most of this controversy seems to be transgender students’ rights within education, and what progress can be made to expand upon those rights, or even sometimes the lack of them. While this controversy is vibrant and spreading like a wildfire, it is nowhere near a recent occurrence. Within education, transgender students have been the subject of exclusion in education throughout history, causing further controversy.