Transgenderism in Japan

In the late 1950’s to mid-1960’s, the transgender community faced discrimination such as physical and verbal harassment, denial of social spaces, and alienation in the media. This matters to us today because transgender individuals are still existing and are a part of our human population today. The community is also still struggling to find their representation in the media and in society. The transgender community is still facing a wide array of types of discrimination, from nasty looks to denied access of education. Gender identity should not be taken into consideration when determining another person’s worthiness of respect.

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.

“Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She” is a documentary that shows a brief explanation on human sexuality. It shows how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people fit in society in various places such as U.S, India, and Thailand. Most transgender people have been struggling to define differences. Most of all, it is not a choice they made to be a transgender, rather it comes naturally. Transgender people face severe discrimination in every day aspects of their life. Based on the documentary, I would like to focus on the discriminations that is happening on transgender people. I would like to see transgender people in at work place, at schools, and at the public.

Fifty years ago, nobody could ever have imagined how widely accepted transgender individuals would be in modern times. Countries all around the world had only ever known about the social distinction between men and women, which is known as ‘masculinity vs. Femininity’. However, now it is much more complex than that; as transgender and gender confused individuals are more widely accepted, it has become more of a case of sex vs. gender. “Sex is the biologically based distinction between men and women centring on sexual organs, while gender is the social and cultural rendering of masculinity and femininity.” (Oakley, 1972) And even though transgenders are accepted into society they still face inequalities such as not being accepted into a particular community, ostracised by families and friends,

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.

According to Michael Bronski’s, Ann Pellegrini’s and Michael Amico’s book “You Can Tell Just by Looking” federal anti-discrimination laws do not protect trans-gendered people or other LGBT members. Transgendered people can lose their jobs just because of their gender identity in 34 of the 50 states. According to the APA, the National Gay and Lesbian Task force did a study that a vast majority of the 6500 hundred surveyed

Throughout the past decades sex and gender have remained in major taboos and impacts within the transgender communities. Indeed, after participating in a Transgender Panel Discussion at Fresno State University, reading articles like Meet the Muxes, class discussions and the conclusion for all four sources lead to words like exclusion, discrimination, and oppressions because those define the lives of transgender, Muxes, and that for following their gender identities become the target for judgement and for countless . However, I never imagined that I could put myself in the shoes of these diverse identities until I visualized the challenges that fill their lives everyday for simply

The three explanatory frameworks that Schilt’s examines to breakdown transgender differences in the workplace are used to shed light on the inequalities that women experience in the organizational structure. Schilt’s compares and contrasts the different experiences of transitioning genders in the work place for transwomen and transmen. By comparing these gender patterns, we can see the cultural, interactional and structural evidence that contribute to the persistence in work place inequalities, for not only transgender but cis gender individuals as well (Schilt pg. 133). These frameworks are Individual Differences, Between-Group Differences and The Cultural Logic of Gendered Organizations. Individual Differences, shows us that employers and co-workers feel that transwomen are a detriment to the work place, and that transmen are much more of an asset.

Stories involving transgender people have been in newspapers, magazines, and tabloids for over fifty five years. These stories have captivated and intrigued American culture from the start, but not always in the most positive light. It began in 1955 when Christine Jorgensen, born George, publicly announced her gender confirming surgery and began life as a legally recognized woman. There was a media frenzy with headlines such as “Bronx GI Becomes a Woman!” and “Bronx ‘Boy’ Is Now A Girl”. But instead of “withdraw[ing] from public attention [Christine] turned the notoriety to her advantage with a series of lucrative tours on the lecture and nightclub circuit” (McQuiston 1989). “By cultivating the demeanor of a lady and refusing to call herself

adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired or denied a promotion because of being transgender/gender non-conforming; 26% of respondents said that they had lost a job due to being transgender or gender non-conforming.

Media coverage of transgender people and their medical transitions appeared as early as 1952. Sweeping headlines across the country, including in The New York Times, Christine Jorgensen became a household name because she was the first American to ever to have a sex change. Former Army Private Jorgensen was featured in the December 2nd, 1952 article “Bronx ‘Boy’ Is Now a Girl”. For her sex changed she had to travel to Denmark. Although people had begun to speak publically about transgender people and it was a known mental and medical condition, it wasn’t until 1966 when Doctor Henry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, that doctors in the United States had a guide to follow in terms of treating transgender

Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender-Nonconforming People, Version 7. (2011). International Journal of Transgenderism, 13:165–232. Routledge. ISSN: 1553-2739 print / 1434-4599 online DOI: 10.1080/15532739.2011.700873

In America today, change is occurring all the time. It seems so simple just to make a change in the world or within ourselves, but in reality, the people of our society are terrified of the idea of change. Change can come in many ways, such as in technology, education, the workforce, etc., but a big change that seems to be an issue in the world today is the idea of change in gender, also known as transgender. Transgender can be defined as, “denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex” (Merriam-Webster). People struggle to wrap their head around those who are transgender because it is not what they were taught growing up. Even though being transgender is becoming more and more familiar today, the concept of changing gender is difficult for people to obtain and is negatively impacting society and the workforce today.

Culture and society shape and mould us into who we are in today’s world, and it is apparent that the fluidity of culture and society is held responsible for one’s gender to change over time. In the East, most transgenders in countries such as India and Thailand challenge cultural and social norms to claim alternative gender in this world. In the West, however, most transgenders define themselves as the opposite gender than the one others would consider as matching the one they were born. Looking at the example of a male identifying as a female, Lewins (1995:48) mentioned the tensions intertwined to the culture one was born into to the confusion of one who

People who have gone through a successful sex change have been able to do influence the mind of many, in a positive way. (3) Studies show that amount of suicides decrease after an individual is able to have the sex change. The happiness of those individuals also seemed to increase as well. A Swedish study set over the course of six years showed 3 out of 175 patients of the sex change operation died of suicidal cause. Average rate of deaths in the transgender society are more than that in a twenty-four hour cycle and increases every year anyone in the transgender society go unaccepted. (4) There have even been accounts of trans genders having a noticeable impact of society. Some of the most influential trans genders characters in today's society are: Laverne Cox, Fallon Fox, Janet Mock, Amanda Simpson, Jazz Jennings, and many more. Laverne Cox might be known originally as her amazing role as Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black. She was able to win an Emmy through hardship and torment by many people even though she'd had a sex