An Analysis Of She's Not There And Orange Is The New Black

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Recommended: Gender role in literature

She’s Not There and Orange is the New Black
As I was reading She’s Not There, I found it to be very interesting because I had not heard such a personal narrative pertaining to the life of a transgender woman. Her story really allowed me to widen my perspective on the idea of being transgender in a society that considers it wrong.
Throughout the book I began to realize that sex is biological and gender is part of a cultural and societal construct. In Fausto-Sterling’s Dueling Dualisms, he talks about second wave feminism, which made it clear to me that sex is distinct from gender. Sexologists differentiate between sex and gender by defining sex biological, while describing gender as something that is more psychological and dependent on a person’s behavior. …show more content…

After reading and watching videos about transgender people, I have a better understanding of the emotional aspects that come with the transition. Over the summer I watched all the seasons of Orange is the New Black. Sophia Burset and Finney-Boylan’s stories are very similar in a sense that they are both male to female transgender.
In Orange is the New Black, Sophia is married to Crystal and they have a son named Michael. Sophia’s life changing transition made it very hard on Michael to accept. Crystal was supportive of her but had one favor, and that was to keep her male genitalia. In order for Sophia to be happy and to find worth in her transition, Crystal realizes she has to sacrifice her own happiness for the happiness of Sophia. Sophia really allowed me to see how a transgender relationship plays out in the media. I thought the show was a great example of desensitizing the western eye to the life of a transgender

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