3. Gender Outlaws (Smith, 2010) breaks the laws of gender by defying gender normative rules that exclude trans, queer and other non-conforming gender expressions often oppressed by “gender-norming rules,” rules, “expected to observe” or be subject to ridicule and often times labeled as freak by those who consider themselves as normal (p. 28). A gender outlaw seeks to, redefine the notion of gender and are carving out spaces of their own” (p. 30). According to Gwendolyn Smith (2010), lesbians, gays, transgender, transsexual, cross-dressers, sissies, drags king and queens, have someone they view as freak. Smith considers this to be a human phenomenon, especially among marginalized groups. Smith expresses that those that consider themselves as gender normative finds comfort in identifying the “real” freaks, in order for them to seem closer to normal. Smith attempts to tear down the wall of gender normality as it is socially constructed as simply male and female. According to Smith (2010), “we are all someone’s freak” (p. 29). Smith asserts that there may be some type of fear in facing the self’s gender truth, “maybe I was afraid I would see things in my own being I was not ready to face, or was afraid of challenging my own assumptions” (p. 29). Smith’s, chapter (2010) was …show more content…
After discussing his concerns with the hospital staff, a decision was made that he should keep his gender identity as trans a secret. Not only did he loose agency, but his well-being, emotional and physical health was hindered. The danger in this is that the fire that fueled his eating disorder, or “starved it, since I was anorexic rather than a compulsive eater” was his gender identity (p. 122), but he was forced to keep the culprit in the closet. During his transitional phase, he used food intake to experience a sense of control of his
The definition of gender has become way more revolutionary and expressive compared to the twentieth century. Gender used to be similar to sex where someone would be identified as a male or female based on their biological genitals however, this day in age it is way more complex. Someone can be born a male but mentally they feel like a male. In “Sisterhood is complicated” Ruth Padawer explains the journey of different transgender males and the obstacles they face while attending Wellesley college. Wellesley is a women’s college that has been around for a very long time and is in the process of the battling the conflict of whether they should admit transgender students. Ariel Levy author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs” tackles the stereotypes and
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
Enter into any café on the UCSC campus for a prolonged period of time and you are likely to hear the words “gender is a social construct”. Initially you’ll think to yourself, “what a load of granola” this is an expected reaction because for most people the concept of “gender” is natural. Its not until you are able to see how the idea of gender is constructed from physiological differences between males and females as discussed by researcher Miller AE and his team of scientists. Or how men possess great privilege because of gender roles, and women are seen as objects, that you will truly be able to understand that gender is nothing but a social contract. Authors Gloria Anzaldúa, Marjane Satrapi, and Virginia Woolf discuss in their novels Borderlands,
From reading the first few lines of the book, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein, I was immediately hooked. I personally connected with the section “We are all somebody’s freak.” At first glance of the title, it implied something sexual to me. After reading the explanation I completely understood the concept. The concept is basically that we are all individuals, and somebody out there considers us to be a weirdo. In the same way I would consider somebody to be weird. It’s extremely eye opening because I never thought of that before. Also, within this section I learned that there is hate within the transgender, gay, and lesbian community. Initially, I was under the impression that all of that community would only be drawn
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Men and women are “correctively” raped, assaulted, or killed for presenting as the “wrong” gender. “[T]he Rules of Gender dictate that there are two and only two genders, and presenting in a given gender means that you have the corresponding sex” (101). Taking that a step further, the corresponding sex means that one shares the heterosexual desires associated with that sex. These assumptions are the reasoning behind the violence that plagues women, minorities, and the LGBT+ community. By presenting oneself as a gender other than that which corresponds to their sex—whether through clothing or mere behaviors—they are in essence misrepresenting themselves and attempting to confuse the people they interact with. According to Gilbert, “the physical mannerisms frequently presented by a sissy, that is, an effeminate male, must . . . elicit some sexual response programmed by the bigender rules” (101). This hypothesis is, by itself, problematic. It is based on the idea that we are socialized to associate certain mannerisms and body language to the opposite sex, so much so that we experience a Pavlovian response to them, regardless of who performs them. However, not all men are attracted to all women who flip their hair over their shoulder when they speak; not all women find all men who sit with their legs spread as wide as possible, or
If I were to tell my father at this moment that I am a lesbian he will call the school I am at, the school I used to attend, my friends, and anybody else that is in my life. He would be convinced that somebody brought this upon me; that somebody convinced me. He will ask me if I am joking. If I dress like a boy (baggy clothing) he will say, “You are going like that?” My father, along with millions of other parents, and people, think that homosexuals and trans genders are a humiliation to our society. Likewise, society has made me feel that after mentioning being lesbian it is crucial that I say that I am actually not. Maybe these people should read one excerpt from the analogy, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein. Or maybe,
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
Mental health professional have tried to correct their ‘‘gender identity disorder’’ with brutal aversion therapies. Tran’s youth who came out often faced crises throughout their family and social systems. Once out, developing a sense of realness about their new gender became extremely important. An urgent need develops ‘‘to match one’s exterior with one’s interior’’ In ad...
As previously said Butler describes a domain in which the social norms of gender, sex and desire all take part. This was constructed by formal and informal means which try to ‘normalise’ people who don’t conform to the social norm. In an interview Butler states that one of these institutionalised methods is psychiatric normalization, initially going against the social norm in term of sex and gender was considered and illness which led psychiatrists to try to ‘normalise’ their patients, this procedure has now been terminated but other informal methods such as bullying still exist. From this Butler aspires to a new idea of gender one which becomes a reality and one which is less violent and one which breaks the conventions and stereotypes put in place by social norms. This idea of a less violent idea of gender relates back to Butlers notion that in order for progression in feminist theory, the feminine gender has to transform. Digression, not violence, within feminism can still be identified, in 1997 Feminist Sheila Jeffrey’s branded transgenderism “deeply problematic from a feminist perspective and that transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights.” Although this remark isn’t violent, it definitely disrespects gendered women and men who haven’t conformed to the social norm much like Jeffrey’s hasn’t, yet her criticism still ridicules another sexual minority. Jeffrey’s is
Gendered spaces are not static locations found within a neutral social environment. As they exist within a patriarchal regime, these spaces have been structured to keep minority genders distanced from venues where knowledge is constructed and disseminated, and therefore power is kept (Spain 1994) or to prioritize minority genders through the “productive exclusions” of others (Brown 2010). Because of their constant usage, long- standing histories, and socially approved values, these sites carry the symbiotic capacity to not only be gendered by their users but in turn carry the potential to gender those who utilize them. In a society comfortable with a binary construction of sex and gender, it may be considered folkway “common sense” that those who access sites designated for women are females who have possessed vaginas since birth and those who enter sites for men have likewise been born with penises and so been designated male. Because it so visibly disrupts the essentialist sex/gender linkage, the transgender experience has called into question the meaning of unfettered access into gendered spaces. This has led to challenges at the threshold of such sites as to what constitutes “true” gender identities, who may be authorized to authenticate or invalidate them in the public or quasi-public sphere and how the process of substantiation takes place. As such, the entrance of gendered places becomes sites of gender verification where access can infer public gender-identity approval.
The documentary/ entertainment show follows them on their journey asking questions along the way such as ‘’do you think it’s your turrets that has stopped you from finding love?’’ , highlighting their differences to ‘normal’ people. Bogdan implies that in addition to presenting ‘freaks’ to society they are also flaunting their ‘normal’ accomplishments as extraordinary – such as finding love in The Undateables – and with appraising such achievements indicates that for people with differences it is an unusual phenomenon rather than a common one ; by continuing these ideologies in mainstream media it also fuels the current social stigma around people with differences and how they should be treated or exploited predominantly in the entertainment
Gender, in society today, is clarified as either being male which embodies traits of masculinity or on the other hand being female embodying traits of femininity. However the embodiment of these traits are just actions, decisions, or expressions rather than sexual anatomical features we are born and constrained by. Gender depictions are less a consequence of our "essential sexual natures" than interactional portrayals of what we would like to convey about sexual natures, using conventionalized gestures. (West, Zimmerman p.130) This excerpt reinforces the idea that society should view gender not as a absolute but rather a work in progress during your day to day routine. This capability to accept that gender is something you do rather than something that is leads opens up the tolerance to realize the implications that traditional gender views have impacted
Gender Theory in Everyday Life”, the various definitions of “trans” depict that it is not possible to place one’s gender into only two categories. In the definitions of “trans”, transformation or transitioning is a common theme. Transforming into their true self or transitioning from one gender to the other. In the third definition, transgendered individuals are seen as transcending gender, thus making gender non-existent; not only to them, but when they view other individuals (Kessler and McKenna 1-2). The individuals in “When Girls Will Be Boys”, had to create a safe space, and find allies that would provide them with resources to help them in their progression as a trans individual. Trans people truly want to be integrated into society, but they are cognisant of the social standards in place that make them othered (Quart 49-50). In the instance of the varied definition of trans and the experiences of people in “When Girls Will Be Boys”, they are all going against the social norms and actively fighting to create a seat at the table. They refuse to to fit in the status quo of accepting that there are only two genders, and one must stay in either category. Instead, they challenge that thinking by being themself, thus having a hand in creating the new norm. These individuals are not passively combating the misconceptions, miseducation, and misinformation. They are actively creating a space for others and themself to grow in self and in
Throughout history men and women have been put into the rigidly defined roles of feminism and masculism. This box that society has created has push back the true people and presented us with the societal image of what men and women should be. This is gender stereotyping. Through these stereotypes a feminist movement and a masculine movement have arisen to try to break those stereotypes.