Can you imagine being born a male, but ever since you were a child feeling as though you
are a female? Well, this is the story of a sports icon and his final moments of being a male athlete.
This is the story of Bruce Jenner now referred to as Caitlyn. At the age of 65, after being married
three times over the course of 42 years and fathering six children, and raising four step-children
Bruce made an unflinching decision to transition from a male to a transgendered female.
In the late 1970’s, in order to feel some sort of a connection to his gender identity Bruce
secretly wore panty hose and a brassiere underneath his suits. He mentions finding pleasure in
wearing his sister’s clothing as a child and did so privately every chance that
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Eventually, after 23 years of marriage and raising
six children together (two are biological and the other four are Kris’ children from her previous
marriage to Robert Kardashian) they divorced. Bruce also admits that this divorce gave him the
liberty and the opportunity to live more openly as a woman. Hence, on June 1, 2015, Bruce Jenner
Olympic Gold Medalist and sports icon made his public debut as a transgendered woman.
Personally, I have empathy for Bruce Jenner to an extent. He endured a tremendous amount
of pressure over the course of his lifetime. It would be difficult for anyone to keep such secrets
hidden for so long out of fear of being unloved and unaccepted. The thought of such loneliness is
an uncomfortable one to say the least. I would not want to have been in his shoes.
On the contrary, I feel that this is a man who is selfish, deceitful and extremely
manipulative. It was outright wrong for him to have married three times and to have fathered six
biological children knowing full well that he was struggling with his gender identity. Why pull
all of these individuals into his ball of confusion against their will? How come he did not
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Caitlyn’s offspring both biological and step-children appear to be overly-supportive of their
father’s decision to become a transgendered female. He has chosen to bring his personal life into
the spotlight so naturally his offspring want to show the public how much they love and support
their dad. It is understandable why they have expressed their acceptance of Caitlyn’s
There can be no question that sport and athletes seem to be considered less than worthy subjects for writers of serious fiction, an odd fact considering how deeply ingrained in North American culture sport is, and how obviously and passionately North Americans care about it as participants and spectators. In this society of diverse peoples of greatly varying interests, tastes, and beliefs, no experience is as universal as playing or watching sports, and so it is simply perplexing how little adult fiction is written on the subject, not to mention how lightly regarded that little which is written seems to be. It should all be quite to the contrary; that our fascination and familiarity with sport makes it a most advantageous subject for the skilled writer of fiction is amply demonstrated by Mark Harris.
In today’s society, it can be argued that the choice of being male or female is up to others more than you. A child’s appearance, beliefs and emotions are controlled until they have completely understood what they were “born to be.” In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell- Ginet speaks out on how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, creating our appearances, names and behaviors and distinguishing them into a male or female thing. Eventually, we grow to continue this action on our own by watching our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits them best unless our society approves.
deep fear that everyone want to take advantage, useadn then betray him. ladek Spiegleman is a disturbed,
He went his whole life knowing biological father as his father then suddenly his world is turned around with his father having gender reassignment surgery into a woman. Looking back at the memory now in life he probably regrets how has treated his mom. When this was going on in his life his mind was in a certain mentality. He was very hateful to his mom during her change: he refused to look at her, refused to acknowledge her. Towards the end is when he starts looking at his mom in another light. He even goes on to say, “They’d cough and choke calling her a queer, a he-she, and it. They couldn’t understand because they’d never live with two identities. If and when they would ask me why I wasn’t disgusted, how I could stand to be around him, what answer would I have? She was my Mom.” In the end it did not matter what other people thought in the end it was his mom and would always
I was assigned to the female sex category at birth and raised as a girl; the very fact that I can state that simple statement and people can get a fairly clear idea how I was raised shows just how intertwined we are with the social construction of gender. Women can relate because they were probably raised in a similar fashion, and men know that they were raised differently than I was. This is one of the many ways our society supports Lorber’s claim that gender translates to a difference among the binary American society operates on (Lorber, pp. 47-48). My parents kept my hair long until I decided to donate it when I was 12 years old, my ears were pierced when I was 8 years old, and
He knew that for him to kill this thing, it would be like killing his own
was trying to do. His last years of his life were dedicated to convincing the
Walking down the street, Skylar seems like an ordinary man going about his daily business, but looks can be deceiving. Skylar was originally born as a female, and feeling he was supposed to be a male, started transitioning to male at the age of 16. “He’d just been burdened with a body that needed medical and surgical adjustments so that it could reflect the gender he knew himself to be,” writes Margaret Talbot (2013). Skylar’s family was very accepting, as they had already expected this from the time he was quite young. They gave Skylar time to think over whether he really wanted to transition or not, and when he decided he did, they were extremely happy for him and helped him through the transition. Skylar’s testimony shows the positive influence that having a transsexual family member can have on a family. Having a transsexual person in a family will positively influence that family and educate them on more conservative issues dealing with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.
Many people's dreams include being a large sports star and constantly being within the spotlight. Whether it is to get the winning touchdown or break the new record, most people dream of these special moments where the crowd goes wild with cheers. Most people picture themselves getting the overall credibility for their achievements. What happens, though, when it all comes crashing down you lose your abilities or you lose your place within the madness. A.E. Housman was raised under harsh discipline, but when it came to the gentle regret of someone losing their fame he was able to address the issue. A.E Housman wrote a poem entitled To an Athlete Dying Young, within this poem he addressed three key messages it is better to die young while you are famous rather than to die old, glory fades with age, and it is better to die before you can witness your records being beaten by someone else.
He grows up being taught to act and talk in certain ways and play certain sports that meet the social expectations about gender role. He seems to tick all the boxes of his parents’ expectation on their eldest son, except beside cycling and body building, he also likes makeup and he is homosexual. He was first introduced to cosmetics and makeup through his close female cousins. They certainly have an influence on him, but he was the one that found makeup interesting and kept coming back to it. Given he was assigned male at birth, the way he acts gender conforms and contests the expected gender identity at the same time. Though he does not conform to the normative culture, he has broad shoulders and a deep voice, and he does not “feel feminine” enough to consider himself effeminate. He also had a female partner in the past but he came to the realisation that that kind of relationship would not work out for him. It is his historical and lived experiences that progressively and continually shape him into doing what he does. There was definitely a shift in his gender identity though he as the subject is not entirely in
Jody was born biologically with male genitals and he was brought up as a boy. Unlike his more gender-typical older brother, Jody’s childhood behavior was considered “sissy”. Jody genetically preferred the company of girls compared to boys during childhood. Jody considered herself a bisexual male until the age of 19. At 19 years of age, she became involved with a man, and her identity would be transgender, meaning that Jody was unhappy with her gender of birth and seeks a change from male to female. It would seem that there was some late-onset dissatisfaction, and late-onset is linked to attraction to women; in comparison to early childhood-onset, which are attracted to men. Jody identified herself as bisexual. The relationship with the man ended; nevertheless, Jody’s desire to become a woman consumed her, and Jody feels that’s he was born in the
following his religon. As he gets older he endures much pressure to follow the exact teachings of
In all these stages in life, there can be isolation, hiding and secrets, which may lead to depression and anxiety. Transgender adults are much more likely to have suicidal thoughts, with 50% of adults reporting some suicidal ideation. It has been observed that there are two paths that people take early on: either one tries to hide their inner feeling of being the wrong gender and “passes” for what looks like a boy or girl, or one is incapable of hiding and presents as either a tom-boyish girl or a feminine boy. Either path comes with problems for one’s emotional development. The second scenario is that a person may opt to present as gender non-conforming and is known to elicit harsh responses from society. This is true for non-transgender
One in every 2,000 babies born every year are neither male nor female, they are what is known as hermaphrodites. These children and their families are forced into a life of hardship and encounter many conflicts, which need to be addressed. Should the parents choose the assignment of the sex to a newborn child and subject them to a life of surgery and doctor visits? There are 100 to 200 pediatric surgical reassignments every year. Many of these children are subjected to doctor visits for the rest of their childhood. Worst of all, many of these children find themselves resembling or identifying with the gender opposite of that which their parents chose for them.
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s sex and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision whether accidental or genetic can effect that child’s life style views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors.