Gender Identity Psychology

The Psychology Of Gender Identity

Leelah Alcorn story was heard all over the nation when she decided to end her life due to the difficulty of coming out as someone who is Male to Female Transgendered. There is a large amount of controversy surrounding the issue of gender identity and the perilous hardship for those who wish to express their gender identity. To adequately discuss the controversy of gender identity we must first understand the psychology. The purpose of this paper is to explore the psychology of gender and what affects one's gender expression either biologically, mentally or socially. The first item that needs to be defined is what is gender, sex and gender identity. Gender is the range of characteristics regarding, and differentiating

The biological function to one being either male or female or intersex lies within both how our chromosomes are configured. According to world Health organization “Humans are born with 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. The X and Y chromosomes determine a person’s sex. Most women are 46XX and most men are 46XY. Research suggests, however, that in a few births per thousand some individuals will be born with a single sex chromosome (45X or 45Y) (sex monosomies) and some with three or more sex chromosomes (47XXX, 47XYY or 47XXY, etc.) (sex polysomies). In addition, some males are born 46XX due to the translocation of a tiny section of the sex determining region of the Y chromosome. Similarly some females are also born 46XY due to mutations in the Y chromosome. Clearly, there are not only females who are XX and males who are XY, but rather, there is a range of chromosome complements, hormone balances, and phenotypic variations that determine sex.” Another aspect to consider is when a person has a chromosome pair is different than the two norms which is called intersex. Intersex is a group of conditions where there is a discrepancy between the external genitals and the internal genitals (the testes and ovaries) According to Medlineplus, there are many variations of this biological sex such as 46, XX intersex The person has the chromosomes of a woman, the ovaries of a woman, but

To better explore that spectrum some terms need to be defined prior to any global observations. A cisgendered person is someone who is born as and identifies as the sex he or she is born with example if your male and identify as a man or if you're female and identify as a women. A genderqueer person is a catch-all category for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine — identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity. In the USA there are only 2 forms of gender acknowledged which is man or women. In india there are men and women categories however there is a third gender recognized. The third gender that is recognized are called the hijra who is a sect of “male” this can be people who also intersex, who dress in very feminine clothing, often times they will not consider themselves either man or women. In hinduism the hijra are “male” individuals who castrates themselves in order to obtain a closer connection to God. This concept of the third gender is seen in many ancient culture like the incas, native american, and various other ancient societies as well. In inca rituals individuals called the quariwarmi (man-women) were a type of shamen who mediated between the symmetrically dualistic spheres of Andean cosmology and daily life by performing rituals that at times required