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current transgender media portrayal
religion and educational systems
How religion influences education
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In the words of Ellen Wittlinger regarding transgender “...you can only lie about who you are for so long without going crazy” (“GoodReads”). It is a shame that society would force a person to hide their identity but many have concealed themselves in order to conform into social norms. One group that has been socially marginalized and forced to hide their true selves are the transgender community. The definition of transgender is “Appearing as, wishing to be considered as, or having undergone surgery to become a member of the opposite sex.” (“Free Dictionary”) People have many prejudices and ideas of what transgender is but many times these are erroneous. Transgender people have been in society since it began but have been forced into hiding due to society’s ignorance, tendency to categorize, and lack of knowledge.
Ignorance is a difficult barrier for anyone to overcome but many remain ignorant by closing their minds to new or atypical things. In Horrace Mann’s “From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848,” he explains the powers that shape our educational system (Colombo, p. 116). One power he concluded to be intertwined in the educational system was religion. This religious power in our school systems explains why LGBT, or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex individuals have been discriminated against and condemned. According to many religious people, being LGBT is immoral. If this belief is being taught in schools then LGBT people will continue to be marginalized. Also, when people see someone who is different they stare or mutter an ignorant statement regardless of how that person actually is. This ignorance and prejudice can turn into hatred and action. According to FBI statistics from 2010, of t...
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...viduals are normal humans just like everyone else and deserve to be treated as such.
References
Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1992.
"FBI Releases 2010 Hate Crime Statistics." Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI, 2011. Web. 6 Mar 2012. .
"GoodReads." Transgender Quotes. GoodReads, 2012. Web. 06 Mar 2012. .
"Sex Reassignment Surgery." Encyclopedia of Surgery. N.p., 2011. Web. 7 Mar 2012. .
"Transgender." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, 2012. Web. 7 Mar 2012. .
There is a great deal of confusion around this word because of the meaning behind it. There are two generally accepted root meanings of the word “trans” in transgenderism: across and beyond (Lund, 2012, p.8). In the case of gender nonconformists, this refers to the “beyond” definition, where they view themselves outside of the binary structure of male and female. The “across” meaning applies to those that do not believe they were born on the correct side of that line and seek to cross it, usually physically while some choose to simply self-identify. At the turn of the century, psychologists said at least 2% of American children feel this sense of “being born in the wrong body”, and with the U.S. Census of 2000 reporting over eighty thousand citizens under the age of 20, that means almost two thousand children fell into this group (Part Six: Transgender in America, 2001, p.75). While there has been a great deal of progress as far as resources and options for these “crossing” trans individuals, there have also been a lot of
In the beginning, there was man; at the same time (or shortly after, depending on who you ask) there was also woman. After those first men and those first women, there were more men and more women; evolving, shaping cultures, shaping practices, changing norms of work and of family size and of clothing. After hundreds upon hundreds of years, finally, gender began to change, too; the rigid lines between male and female behaviors started to blur, very slightly. As gender roles shifted, as the world got more progressive, as views of human sexuality evolved, people who understood gender not as a biological phenomenon but a cultural one felt safer to speak up; while being transgender was, and is, still not widely accepted and understood, it is significantly
Transgender is an umbrella term, meaning an individual’s gender-identity does not align with their assigned sex at birth. Although transgender is a protected class in eighteen states, these individuals still face discrimination within the country and around the world (“Non-Discrimination Laws”). Transgender is not a lifestyle, no one chooses to live their life constantly being discriminated against. Transgender issues should be more educated on and their lives should be more protected.
“The federal government and almost every state recognize transgender people’s right to change their name and to have identification documents with the gender marker that matches their gender identity.” (Jami Kathleen Taylor, 2007) There are a lot of misconceptions on what the meaning of transgender is, some think that they only become the person whether it is male to female, or female to male after surgery. What people fail to realize is that every transgender person transitions in their own way.
Transgender is defined by Wikipedia as, “the state of one's gender identity (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) or gender expression not matching one's assigned sex.” The article explains how a transgender individual may define themselves as having the characteristics that are normally associated with a particular gender but will choose to identify elsewhere on the gender continuum. It use’s the love story of Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker as an example. It took five years for Zackary to transition from male to female and Rhys from female to male. But both truly believe that they were born the wrong gender, and choose to correct this wrong with hormone treatments, surgery and personality changes that to the more tradition eye may seem absurd and abnormal. This is one of the main reason such transgender couples are talking about their transformations. To beach this gap between transgender’s and the rest of the population. It is believed that by educating society, we are more likely to accept something than if we do not fully understand the parameters that surround such an issue.
Over the course of this paper, we will take a comprehensive look at information regarding the transgender community issue in reference to four key sociology concepts. First, we will review information highlighting how transgender people come to the forefront of the public eye as well as the bathroom uproar continuously sweeping the nation. Next, we will examine the facts showcasing how transgender people go against the social norm of associating gender with a person’s given birth sex. Thirdly, we will review information showcasing the cultural inconsistencies throughout the nation when it comes to the acceptance of transgender people. Fourthly, the material will showcase the actions transgender people must face in several states throughout
Conformity seems to be the new silent killer. More and more people are choosing to conform rather than be themselves. Conformity is spread across the world and in our generation it’s starting to spread like a wildfire in dead grass. In the article “The Sociology of Leopard Man” by Logan Fey, Logan argues that conformity is becoming one of the world’s most dangerous psychological disorders. I will share my position and provide my own experience in terms of how I classify non-conformist and conformists.
Transgendered people have a different and unique fight than the rest of the community. Transgendered peoples not only have the issues of “coming out,” (as others in the communities do) but also becoming a different gender. There are different obstacles that Trans people have to face.
No one wants to feel like they do not belong or like they are not cared for. Transgender people are just like everyone else and deserve to be treated equally to cisgendered people. According to Sam Killerman, being transgendered means living "as a member of a gender other than that expected based on sex assigned at birth." This definition is extremely important because a transgender person is still a person.
When an individual identifies themselves as transgender, it means that they feel that their biological gender does not match with their psychological gender. To put that into a simple man’s term, the individual feels they “were born in the wrong body”. For example, a man feels that he was meant to be born a woman and vise-versa. It does sound rather unusual, but why should that matter? An individual should be able to make his or her own decisions about how they live their life. Unfortunately though, not everyone feels the same way about this. That is how the controversy is created. This is why transgender rights should be strengthened in America not only because it is morally correct, but also because it would ease the lives of the people within this group, reduce the discrimination and harassment rates of transgender individuals, and help establish awareness.
Currently the citizens living in the United States are imprisoned within the binary of two genders. It is only acceptable for a person to identify as a male or a female. Depending on the gender the person identifies, as there is an expectation of how that person should look and act. The person identifying as the specific gender, must maintain the gender norms that are in place. These gender binaries are so prevalent in our lives; it is to the point where a large group of Americans are being overlooked. This group of Americans identifies as transgender, which means they do not fit society’s expectations of how a specific gender should look and behave. (gaycenter.org, 2012). The trans population does not fit the expected gender molds that are
“What’s the big whoop?” asks a cute, blonde, elementary school aged boy when his teacher discusses homosexuality. He didn’t understand why people cared who other people loved. Little kids are perfect examples of how society’s negativity towards homosexuality creates homophobia. Children don’t understand why it matters who you love because they don’t see it as a problem and their opinions aren’t clouded by stereotypes. If LGBT issues were taught to these innocent, uninvolved children in elementary school, it would be more likely they would be accepting as they grew up. It is important to present LGBT in a positive light before parents, classmates, and media influence their perceptions.
In today's world there are many different sexual identities a person can adhere to, instead of just being heterosexual or homosexual. What a sexual identity is, is how one refers to think of oneself in terms of whom one is romantically or sexually attracted to. A type of sexual identity is when a person both male or female feel like they are inside the wrong body and they wish to have a sex change. Individuals who identify themselves as transgender aren’t usually adults, in some cases it is children who go through the stages of feeling out of place with there bodies and wish to change it. Some people in today's society would find it very odd that children would wish to be in a different body, in order to understand why this is happening you would have to know what exactly is transgender and transsexual, what causes transgenderism, and the early signs of transgenderism. This phenomenon has been around for a very long time and due to the fact that there is a large misunderstanding there is much confusion when faced with it. In order for one to understand how children become transgender or transsexual one must know what transgender and transsexual mean, what causes transgenderism, and the early signs of it and be mentally prepared for what is to come. Most of the responsibility in understanding transgender children falls on the parents of transgender children.
It’s upsetting to know that there are so many trans-phobic people out there who believe gender is natural and bash people of trans simply because they do not conform to society’s gender expectations. It’s important to realize that transgender people are no different from you and I they are humans just like the rest of society. It is also interesting to note a lot of people get uptight and uncomfortable when the topic of transgender comes up .Our society is so ignorant when it comes to the topic of sexuality and
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.