Transgender History

Instead, the article further educated me on the inner thoughts and experiences that are associated with being FTM transgender or transsexual. As a cisgender individual, or someone whose gender and biological sex are the same, I am unable to empathize or related to the experiences of transgender and transsexual people. The inside look that the article provided me was appreciated and granted me a deeper understanding of what it is like to be transgender or transsexual, especially regarding how they are socially perceived. Before reading the article, I knew that transgender and transsexual individuals did not feel that their gender matched their biological sex. Through the article, I learned that while that may be true, they do not always feel pressured to change how they physically appear to identify as a gender other than one representative of their biological sex. There are many factors they consider when choosing to transition or not. The factors include: how they want to be perceived in social interactions – as a man or not as a man -, family and friends, loss of their trans or queer identity, and feeling like their gender and sex match (Dozier, 2005). However, regardless of if they transitioned, once the individuals were accepted as their desired gender, the individuals felt more comfortable breaking gendered norms, like presenting as a male but wearing nail

Imagine, you go to work in your dress shoes, black suit, buzz-cut hair, red power tie, and nobody pays you a second look. But, the second you get home, you kick off your shoes, and don high-heels, the suit is replaced with a dress, your short wig is taken off, and you let your long curls fall, and your tie is in the closet, with a necklace in its place. Such hiding of true feelings is not an unheard concept in the transgender world. Millions of transgender people will never express their true feelings in their lifetime. This is similar to The Intruder by Andre Dubus, Kenneth Girard a

Spade’s critique of Billings and Urban also exemplifies the study of transgenders—distinct from transgender studies—Stryker introduces of “people who occupied transgender positions [being] compelled to be referents in the language games of other senders and addressees”. In addition, Stryker’s notion of gender as a “mashup” is brought to life in Mutilating Gender as Spade highlights individuals (himself included) who “seek to occupy ambiguous gender positions in resistance to norms of gender rigidity” and exist counter to a mirror representation. By integrating knowledge such as this into public consideration, those without access to SRS or without the means to pursue cosmetic surgery are not left out of what is socially perceived as masculine or feminine, or are even able to expand gender and deconstruct the

In “Intro-How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States,” Joanne Meyerowitz writes about the beginnings of transsexuality. She beings the article by defining cross-gender identification, as “the sense of being the other sex, and the desire to live as the other sex” (Meyerowitz 432), while transsexuality, “being the quest to transform the bodily characteristics of sex via hormones and surgery” (Meyerowitz 432). According to Meyerowitz, transsexuality began in the early 20th century. Experiments on changing sex, began in europe on animals. Then in 1920, on humans. Joanne Meyerowitz writes that “the debate on the visibility and mutability of sex” began after Christine Jorgensen, an american who went to Denmark to get a sex change in 1950, became a media sensation in America. While professionals were figuring this out, people “who identified as transsexuals, transvestites, lesbians, and gay men” (Meyerowitz 433) were having the conversation and creating the language within themselves. This conversation on sex change, occurred alongside the sexual revolution in the 60’s, opening “the movement of the organizing of programs, clinics, conferences, and associations to promote study of and treatment for transsexuals” (Meyerowitz 434).

In the article “America’s Transition” Steinmetz reports that George traveled to Denmark to begin his transition to a woman named Christine Jorgensen (40). In the 1950s the transition from male-to-female was very rare. The subject of transition from an assigned sex at birth to the opposite was taboo. After Christine’s story was published in the New York Daily News and Time, American society began to question the definition of gender and why George was now Christine. Deceptively like today, as Time magazine mentions, “history is filled with people who did not fit society’s definition or gender (40).” Media talks about transgender, and it seems new, but it is not. Transgender is not something that just occurred today and had never been heard of before. This subject is just now coming out into the open more often than usual. In parallel to the “coming out” from transition, society is not far from the 1950’s because there is still stereotypes and discrimination against the transgender

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

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

Oppression is prolonged unjust and cruel treatment. The LGBT community has faced oppression for a very long time. Transgender individuals face oppression in a different way and are often overlooked by LGBT groups because they are finding themselves in a different way. Transgender people are treated cruel and even murdered because of their choices and decisions. These individuals are facing oppression based on themselves but also in ways such as poverty. With discrimination comes the difficulty to keep a job and a safe work environment. This group is one of the main groups forgotten about and misunderstood. Instead of facing oppression for one reason these individuals face cruel treatment just walking down the street. It is impossible

The most obvious example is the differentiation of “transsexual” and “transgender.” In the article, “transsexual” is used to refer to someone who has specifically had treatment to physically change their body to match their gender identity; “transgender” is someone whose gender identity does not match the gender they were assigned at birth, regardless of whether they have made physical gender-related changes to their body (155). Today, the term “transsexual” is almost obsolete. Interestingly, however, Halberstam briefly presents conflict between “transsexuals” and “transgenders” that is mirrored somewhat today in informal conflicts between “truscum” and “transtrenders/tucutes” (154-155). In today’s transgender communities, people called “truscum” (generally by other people) feel that people they call “transtrenders” or “tucutes” are not truly transgender; they feel these people are merely pretending to be transgender for the sake of attention. On the other hand, those called “transtrenders” or “tucutes” (generally by other people) feel attacked and policed by “truscum” and insist that they are transgender regardless of whether they meet the standards set by truscum. Halberstam cites some identity politics (154-155) that are reminiscent of this, which suggests that even as terms change, identity policing remains a consistent issue in transgender

I think this paper was arguing about the violence that is reinforced through Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) and its inability to look beyond gender identity as the sole contributor for violence afflicted on transgender individuals. This paper is also arguing beyond the issues of sexism, racism, and classism TDOR engages in total erasure of those who experienced violence by ignoring intersecting identities through memorialization. I have highlighted in yellow all of the sections/sentences that I though were particularly strong at setting a tone for the paper, as well as getting your point across clearly and powerfully. You do this on page 1 and 2 by discussing the unmarked barriers of systems of power and their effect on transgender people,

Transphobia and trans prejudice manifest in the objectification, misunderstanding, and pathologizing of a transgender’s physical appearance.

According to Jonathan Alexander’s chapter “ Transgender Rhetorics: Sex and Gender” he notes that “acknowledging the presence of the transgendered is useful not only for understanding those who are differently gendered or whose presentation … falls outside our ‘norms,’ but also for helping us interrogate the constructs of gender that we often take for granted as ‘natural’” (Alexander, 2008, pg. 130). Ways that the cisgendered public attempts to normalize gender roles is through literature where “male authors… depict a young woman as frightened and helpless, and the female authors… poke fun of the muscle-bound idiocy of a “macho” man”( Alexander, p. 137). The idea as the female being weak and terrified and the man as muscular moron help to reaffirm the cycle of “gender tied narrations” that are tied to society’s dominant public. This is important because society’s cisnormative narrative teaches that gender expressions have strict guidelines that are “innate” in us at birth. These instincts dictate a lot about an individual; however, the recognition of transgender individuals cause the cisgendered to think that “gender is not necessarily an essential and natural given, but rather a sociocultural construct whose repeated performances—as masculinity and femininity” (p. 131). The transgendered attempt to create a discourse to disrupt these social categories and show that there is more to one’s identity than what is socially constructed and self

My Biological sex is female, my gender identity is female, but is my gender expression what I am starting to question. It was after I read Janet Mock’s book and I listened to an interview with Joy Ladin that I became aware of the similarities transgender women undertake in their process to come out, and my own process of redefining the expression of the woman that I am. I feel that the coming out of transgender people is encouraging us, especially women, to deeply question our woman expression. Trans-women like Joy Ladin and Janet Mock are raising a new conversation about gender identity and gender expression…..

Many members of the transgender community treated harshly and unfairly in professional and social settings. This leads to violet mental health problems, and devalues the lives of many productive members of society. A term used for people who identify as a different gender than the sex they were born with. Gender Identity- One 's personal concept of whether they are a man, a woman, gender non-conforming, bi-gendered, etc. Gender expression- The external representation of one 's gender. Sex- The anatomical categorization of male or female that one assigned to at birth. “I do not look like a little girl. I am a little girl. This is what five year old Josie Romero claimed in National T.V (Innes 5) Biologically Josie was born as Joey a male but now she identifies herself a female (1). Many accuse and criticize

What does it mean to be transgender? Does it mean that you don’t agree with how you look? Does it mean that you don’t think the way your gender should? No, transgender means that your body doesn’t match the way your brain thinks you are.