Imagine that you had a job where you had to dress, look, and act a certain way but you didn 't like it and had no choice but to remain that way or your boss would get mad and fire you. It is obvious that one would not be happy being like this because it is not who one is but one is scared to go against it because one is afraid to face the consequences. This is about the same thing that transgender individual 's experience where they have not been allowed to become like the opposite sex because society does not allow it. Every individual is different and therefore not everyone will want to accept the sex that they were born with primarily because they feel that it is not the real them. These individuals cannot burst their bubble and demonstrate who they truly are because society is watching their every move and just waiting for the perfect opportunity to come out and punish them. This is supposed to be a free country and because it is the twenty-first century, people should to learn to live with change. I have learned that gender identity is the …show more content…
Society is very powerful in influencing an individual 's behavior ever since they were small which is why it has become very difficult to do the opposite. However it is incredibly amazing for all those individuals who want a new change and are fighting for their personal benefit of being comfortable with their selves. It is not a time to further agree with society 's rules but to go against it and say that these rules do not exist but only exist because everyone believes so and does not do anything to come out and change it. Gender identity is not only about being who individuals want to be but individuals who are willing to change society 's point of views to a way where everyone can decide what they want to do with their future
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.
In order to answer whether transgender children be allowed to use the restroom they identify with I would first like to identify what transgender means. According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary “The Medical Definition of TRANSGENDER.: of, relating to, or being a person (as a transsexual or a transvestite) who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person 's sex at birth.” I believe the knowing what transgender means is important because there are misconceptions about someone being transgender. This definition is also important as it helps support the pros and cons of my argument. I was confused about transgender individuals before doing research for this paper. However, based on the article “From Jack to Jill:
Around the world gender is genuinely seen as strictly male or female. If you step out of this “social norm,” you could be considered an outcast. This disassociation includes, biological males/females, interssexed, and transgendered individuals. These people are severely suppressed by society because their gender identification, behaviors, and even their activities deviate from the norm. Most Americans are exceedingly devoted to the concept that there are only two sexes. Therefore, the constrictive American ideals of male and female gender identities inhibits growth and acceptance of gender expression.
It is a fact that our society faces many issues regarding gender identification today. I believe many of these issues come from the differences in a female brain and a male brain and the standards our society has set for each. The hormones that run through our bodies help shape the gender that we identify with and our society tells us what is “normal or acceptable” for each gender. When the brain and hormones do not match the sex we are assigned at birth chaos arises. No matter how hard our environment tries to enforce the physical gender that our body represents, our mind can reject it, even if we are consciously trying to accept the assigned sex.
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.
Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.
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).
It feels like that’s all there is and there isn’t anymore. You’re either a boy or a girl and that’s how your parents raised you. The gender role as a male or female is just the “natural” way of doing things. If anyone diverges from their assigned role, it is considered unnatural and even immoral by many. I agree with Devor’s opinion that gender roles are taught at such an early age before the child can even realize that they don’t have to follow these societal norms. I am not saying that a person should be able to choose if they are male or female, one should just accept who you are and what gender you were born with. My point is that you should be able to choose your behavior as a male or female. Individuals should be able to decide for themselves if they want to be more masculine or feminine regardless of their genders. In addition, their parents should be supportive of their choices despite of what seems “natural” according to
Gender-identity is a person’s perception or identification of their gender, which does not always correspond with their physically gender assigned at birth. Some men identity as women, and some women identify as men. Some people believe they aren’t meant to be either gender; in this case they can identify as genderless, bigender, genderqueer, or whatever they choose. People who don’t identify with their assigned gender and identify as another are often times discriminated against. Some people don’t agree with people changing their gender because it wasn’t the way God intend them to be, and it isn’t natural. However, in this day and age, it has become more common to identify with a different gender and change your gender complete. Some people are very against this, while some people continue to fight for their gender identity rights.
Now I am going to describe why some men and women want to change their gender, what are the impacts on individuals and in the society? According to the research by American Psychological Association, a transsexual is a person who changes his or her sex—physically, legally, or both. Clinically speaking, a person who was assigned female at birth but identifies and lives as a man is referred to as a transsexual man, or transman, or female-to-male (FTM); a male-to-female (MTF) person is a transsexual woman or transwoman (Glicksman). Some people drop the transgender label after they have transitioned to their new gender.
The sex and gender binary is a socially-constructed classification of sex and gender into two distinct and biological forms of masculine and feminine. The binary is a restricting concept that enforces the ideology that solely two genders exist—it is a social boundary that limits people from exploring gender identity or mixing it up (Larkin, 2016). As Mann depicts it, the binary constrains us to take on one gender identity, and to follow through with the expected roles assigned to that gender. The implications are that it compels people to fit into the binary and follow the patriarchal, heteronormative traditions of society (Mann, 2012). However, the binary was not always so clear-cut, but certain concepts from scientific research such as the
“Self pity becomes your oxygen. But you learned to breathe it without a gasp. So, nobody even notices you're hurting.” Every person who identifies as any of LGBTQPIA, (or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, Questioning, Pansexual, Intersex, and Asexual) can connect directly to this quote by Paul Monette, who wrote it specifically for this group of people. Thousands of people daily are shamed for being a part of it. They are taught to despise themselves for who they are. “Gay Pride” is a common LGBT phrase for a reason: to teach people who are a part of the LGBTQPIA community that they don’t have to be ashamed of themselves. LGBT rights need a lot of work, but before we can make the commitment to do so, we need to make these groups accepted in all of America, not in only a few rare “safe places.”
Everyone is afraid that their children will turn out gay like it's a choice or a disease, everyone should get the right to love who they want to. People should be allowed to experience love without being accused of going to hell for who they choose to sleep with or want to marry. People deserve to be able to love without religion interfering or afraid that they could be harmed at any given moment. People constantly have to go through harsh words and environments, but people who aren’t straight, white, and Christian or Catholic get attacked in some way and it’s not fair. The LGBT is constantly asked, how did you know you were gay? Well, it’s simple, how did you know you were straight? You just always knew.
Individuals who do not know what gender role they are disliked and shamed by society because they are not what society calls “normal”. The definition of normal is conforming to a standard or conforming to the expected. Society should not have the power to make an individual conform to anything. Does a person have to be born female to be female? The answer is simply no. Jenna Talackova is a prime example of this because she was born a man but knew he was a female from the beginning. These people who were born with a specific genetic gender have no control over their chemical make-up, but they do control what gender role they decide to be and no one should tell them to pick one that fits the normal standards of society. Judith Butler writes about gender is her book and how it should not be a preconceived notion. People who have non-normative gender roles struggle daily with the fact that they cannot express who they are because the public would disgrace them and society would not accept them, which are problems that can be solved by a simple lesson of not judging a book by its cover.
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our