Upon arriving the first day of class I initially realized, this is a female dominated class. I immediately went and sat next to another male and proceeded to talk about sports; anything manly to be honest. Going through the syllabus pegged some social challenges for me, however I decided to push through in order to gain a closer insight to this growing social construct. Upon reading “Just One of the Guys” by Kristen Schilt, I started to become aware of many instances in my own professional life where I acted inappropriate or standoffish for no reason. This book pegged an important question and analyzed the unique occurrences of the transgender man. Through the use of profound interviews and many observational data collections, Schilt accomplishes …show more content…
In a more specific setting a natural difference schema is defined as men and women maintaining two separate groups on the gender binary. This meaning that the difference between genders is specifically biological and not based on feeling and personality. Schilt continued to amaze me by utilizing these interviews in strategic ways, which overlaid perfectly to show the odd shaping of gender in the workplace. The utilization of this natural difference schema corresponds and guides individual behaviors, which inherently affect certain human interactions. Schilt also began to make it clear that today’s society stills views men as fundamentally better than women. For example, in my personal workplace a female worker was told not to do something that could potentially benefit her in the long run, simply due to the fact that a male worker could perform that task faster and better. We as a society are denouncing the hard work these women add to the world simply due to their “biology”. This novel has also brought to light the naïve fact that men cannot accomplish everything that women can and once we figure this out the better society may …show more content…
In today’s society we have not been able to come up with ways to eradicate the evil that is certain societal views. Before reading this book I created pictures in my head that made me cringe at upon inspecting the cover. I turned a blind eye to all the mayhem going on in this world; it just made life so much easier to not be worried about someone else’s life that had no impact on my own. During this class having assigned readings made the task of reading this book somewhat more tolerable. However, at about the half point of the book something seemed to click inside my head that gave me a different sense of understanding. My younger brother had just come out gay. I have known him since he was born, we have played sports together and have been by each other’s side through thick and thin. This moment for me was life changing. It gave me the opportunity to change my mindset and become more involved in the everyday life of people who feel different and some who are different. Schilt has helped guide me into the accepting and caring man I am now. She has shown me that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and that is how I plan to live the rest of my
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
Transitions in life come in many forms. Some people may graduate from high school and move out for college. Other people get married and buy their first house. Although all of these examples seem fairly ordinary, some transitions that people may go through are not as common. In the book Just One of the Guys? by Kristen Schilt, Schilt depicts the truth behind gender inequality in the workplace from the perspective of transgender men who were once biological women. Through their transition, these people experienced natural difference schemas, inequality depending on race and class, and differences between stealth and open transitions.
In this paper, I will discuss Wasserstrom’s arguments relating to the unimportance of gender and how differentiating people based on their gender promotes the harmful ideology of sex roles. I will then present Schlafly’s arguments which regard the differences between men and women as justifiable due to the fact that these differences are not only natural, but also practical and obligatory, and show that they are inferior to Wasserstrom’s arguments. I will argue this by elaborating on Wassertrom’s argument of how there is no such thing as “natural” while providing reasons for why this is so.
Being Trans gender is when a person’s self identity does not conform with their conventional sex. Talking about people identifying as a transgender individual is a difficult and very controversial topic to discuss. One author, Ruth Padawer has brought the topic to light, presenting us with examples from one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States. In her piece, “Sisterhood is Complicated” from 2014, she ponders on the idea of if people who identify as transgender should be allowed in an all women’s college. In her piece, she states that “Some two dozen other matriculating students at Wellesley don’t identify as women. Of those, a half dozen or so were trans men, people born female who identified as men, some of whom had begun taking testosterone to change their bodies.” All of which made the switch to be transgender after being accepted into the school. So, in a college of all women, some are switching genders and it challenges the idea of an all women’s college. The piece continues to go through and tell us the story of three trans men and their experience at Wellesley college.
Matza, Alexis Ruthg. The Boston "T" Party: Masculinity, Testosterone Therapy, And Embodiment Among Aging Men And Transgender Men. Thesis and Desertation. Iowa: The university of Iowa press, 2009.
The eye opening article utilized for this analysis is titled, “Trans Women at Smith: The Complexities of Checking ‘Female’” ,written by contributing writer, Sarah Fraas on August 24, 2014 (pg 683-685). Fraas starts off by introducing the audience with a school that accepts trans women, Mills College, and talks about how glorious this decision is. The author then begins to talk about other schools not as accepting as Mills, especially Smiths College. She spews many facts and analysis on the issues trans women face today throughout the article including how transgender women are not gaining enough support to succeed, most transgendered women are neglected in school, and the fact that many have been accused of being a woman for the “wrong” reason. She also mindfully includes the image of a woman of color holding up a sign saying, “Support your sisters, not just your CIS-ters!”. The author utilizes this image to show people that we are all one whether we
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).
Just one of the Guys? How Transmen make gender visible at work by Kristin Schilt asserts that female-to-male transsexual (FTMs) as transgender can experience gender inequality in workplace with an outsider-within perspective on society which bases on patriarchal culture. Cultural beliefs toward gender disparity between males and females are already ingrained in the different structures of workplace that advantage for men, on the other hand, disadvantage for women. In other words, tall and white FTMs are more likely to experience more advantages in workplace than short or colored FTMs, which bring up male’s gender characteristics such as race, body structure advantage with gender characters than female’s characteristics in society.
Furthermore, the article clarifies that many transgender people experience a stage of identity development that aids in helping them better understanding their own self-image reflection, and expression. More specifically, they reach out to professional...
The Ridgeway concept of gender as a frame and background identity also designates power and agency of groups in establishing and enforcing the cultural knowledge and norms applied in the construction of identity within interactions and relations. Deutsch shifts agency back to the individual while examining the concept of undoing gender. Her research finds that attempts to undo gender and challenge the legitimacy of the sex binary are undertaken by individuals in interactions. Individuals can seek change and gains towards equality by reclaiming agency and actively rejecting gender norms and expectations in their interactions. Connell’s research on transgender individuals in workplaces also explores the agency of individuals who attempt doing, undoing and redoing gender. She finds that only undoing gender is the agency of the individual and that many transgender people challenge sex but reinforce gender norms in their interactions. Social groups and institutions have the power and agency over individuals doing gender. The power to inform cultural norms and expectations still belongs to the groups and institutions when individuals undo gender but the individuals express agency in their attempts to undo gender and challenge the binary
Living life as a transgendered person is not easy. There are very few times when someone comes out as transgender and their lives are still relatively easy to manage. There are a copious...
Bilodeau, B. (2003, October). Genderqueer: Understanding transgender student identities. Presented at the American Educational Research Association Research on Women in Education Annual Conference, Knoxville, TN.
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
...d women’s biological purpose has provided men a source of comparative advantage in work. It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participative and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market.
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