Gender: Transgender and Twentieth Centuries Essay

Submitted By carlito713
Words: 1968
Pages: 8
Open Document
Troubling Conceptions of Gender and Sexuality As children many of us are socialized to believe that we are ‘normal’ and that to be ‘normal’ is the ultimate goal. We are taught by our parents, teachers and the media how to act in ways that are socially appropriate for our class, race, nationality and gender. It is assumed that we are cisgender, heterosexual, patriotic beings that will maintain that identity throughout our whole life. However, as we grow up some of us realize that perhaps there isn’t an actual ‘normal’ and that there are other ways of being that fall outside the norm of what we are assumed to be or assigned at birth. The way that we perceive our gender and sexuality has been shaped by social, legal and political narratives throughout history. Perhaps we would not view ourselves as falling outside of the norm if we had not been taught by our parents who had been taught by their parents and so on what the socially accepted definition of a normal person or body was and still is. From the moment we are born labels are placed on our bodies and we are socialized to act in certain ways that correspond with our assigned gender. If we stray from these guidelines then our bodies are looked down upon and devalued. An abnormal gender or sexuality leads to a person’s legal rights being trampled on simply because they fall out of line with the ideal body and personhood. Those that create the laws, politicians, often employ the rhetoric of ‘family values’ to disregard and punish the queer body in a public forum. We must ask ourselves if our conceptions of gender and sexuality have actually improved over the course of history, specifically the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and we must also ask what led to the marginalization of queer bodies and in turn a need for improvement in understandings of different genders and sexualities. In our society we sometimes think of ourselves as very forward thinking and accepting of alternative lifestyles. But why must we label certain lifestyles as ‘alternative’ and have to ‘accept’ them? Why are cisgender hetero people given the authority to legitimize somebody else? It is because their bodies are viewed as more valuable. Boyd purports that “Bodies that inhabit or enact naturalized states of being remain culturally intelligible, socially valuable and as a result gain and retain the privileges of citizenship and its associated rights and protections”.# We place too much value on a person who displays ‘normal’ gender characteristics and in turn devalue genders and sexualities that don’t fit neatly into that norm. Those ‘naturalized’ bodies are rewarded through varying institutions of power and by society as a whole. The French philosopher Michele Foucalt coined the term biopower to mean "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations".# More simply put biopower is the control and manipulation of bodies through institutions such as schools and hospitals to create a more productive body and in result workforce. In the nineteenth century following the incredibly repressive Victorian Era sexuality became much more important for identifying people as abnormal and pitting them against those that were perceived to be normal. Foucalt believed that it was due to our sexual repression that we placed such a high importance on people’s sexual behaviors. In the seventeenth century sexual practices were not as inflated with meaning and secrecy as they were in the following centuries. According to him, the less public sex and sexuality became, the more important it was to classify it.# In the Victorian era it was viewed to be against the moral code of the time for a person not to conform with state accepted expressions of sexuality. Sex had only one real purpose: reproduction. Those that did not conform were ostracized from society and treated as lepers. The belief that discussion of sex was taboo prevailed in the
Show More

Related Documents: Gender: Transgender and Twentieth Centuries Essay

Essay on Everyone Has A Gender

Core-1001-27 Transgender: A Sexual Paradox Everyone has a gender; it is a thing affects everything in our lives. It affects how we act like and look like every day. However, have you ever thought about what is gender? Gender is the thing that describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine (Nobelius). Today, most of the countries define gender base on the physical and genetic sexuality at birth. There is at least one transgender person, whose self-gender identity…

Words 3194 - Pages 13

Dsm V Essay

The DSM-V and Gender Identity Disorder UVIC April 5, 2012 Table of Contents Introduction 1-2 Diagnostic and Statistics Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) 2-3 Problems with the Current Diagnostic Criteria for GID Support of Keeping the GID Diagnosis in DSM-V Therapists Role in Transgendered Issues Introduction Although Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and homosexuality has been in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders…

Words 1926 - Pages 8

Essay on Philosophy: Transgender and Radical Freedom

status as final, as that for the sake of which other things are done. This points up that Aristotle's notion of happiness is different from ours 1. What led Macrina of Cappadocia to conclude that the pathe are not part of the soul’s essence? What gender is the pure soul? The pathe is not part of it & it's genderless. 2. Who is Proteus? How does the “Protean Self” respond to discontinuities in life and the loss of unitive meaning? Does the idea of having many selves, frighten you? Proteus…

Words 1134 - Pages 5

Eth125 R8 Wk7 Diversity Organization Worksheetpaper

Associate Program Material Diversity Organizations Worksheet Search the Internet for information related to the following: Women’s rights organizations Equality organizations Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) rights organizations Note. You may also refer to the Internet Resource Directory of Racial and Ethnic Groups. Complete the following table with notes and thoughts related to your findings: Site Thoughts/Notes www.nowpac.org “NOW PACs are determined to elect a majority…

Words 1118 - Pages 5

Non-Binary Gender Diversity

000 people in the UK alone don’t identify as a traditional gender (Knight). Today, “gender” is defined as the interrelationship between a person’s genitalia, their sense of being male, female, both or neither, and their physical appearance and behavior as male or female. Western cultures advocate a binary system for genders, meaning that someone can be identified as only male or female. However, there are many cases of non-binary gender diversity that can be recorded by historians and anthropologists…

Words 1504 - Pages 7

Gender Identity Week 5 Essay

Gender Identity PSY/340 Introduction “Both sociologists and psychologists define gender identity as the differing cultural and social roles that men and women inhabit, as well as the ways in which individuals experience those roles, both internally and in terms of the ways they present themselves to the world through their manner of dress, behavior, physical comportment, and so forth. Both distinguish between a person's biological sex (male or female) and gender identity (masculine…

Words 1492 - Pages 6

Women's Rights Movement Research Paper

Given the record inadequacy concerning women’s rights throughout early history, it is difficult to call upon any faults when one glances upon the emergence of feminist movements. Additionally, without an in depth analyzation of each feminist revolution and its accomplishments and restrictions, it is nearly impossible to place one movement above the other. Each “wave” of feminism has shifted in order to adapt to separate time periods, bringing upon another set of improvements with the hopes of defining…

Words 1754 - Pages 8

Essay about Goffman's Thesis on the Stigmatized Body

For example a person identified as a girl may actually act like a boy. The person experiences significant discomfort with the biological sex they were born. (PubMed Health, 2010). The term gender identity disorder was not used until the 1970’s by Laub and Fisk. This definition represents a new threshold of discrimination. Transsexuals themselves argue that this condition is not a lifestyle choice. A case study based on stigmatization towards…

Words 1774 - Pages 8

Essay about Gay Marriage-Human Rights or Religious Issue?

Gay Marriage-Human Rights or Religious Issue? All over the world there are many leading issues that are occurring. These issues may involve religious beliefs, people’s rights, or the laws of that specific region. Over the past few years, same-sex marriage has been one of these very controversial issues in America, however, many people argue the legalization of it. Marriage is traditionally viewed as the legal relationship of a man and a women to become husband and wife. Do these views change is…

Words 2803 - Pages 12

Gay Marriage: Introduction To Ethics And Social Responsibility

gay marriage. Gay marriage does go against tradition, but tradition and the world are changing and we need to both evolve and adhere to the needs of the present. Back in the day they did not have any TV shows that acknowledged gay, lesbians, transgender or bisexual, such as Will and Grace or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. If you were gay back in the day, it was something that you kept a secret, because if you did let anyone know then people looked down upon you for it. . “Thousands of men and…

Words 2216 - Pages 9