Sociological Analysis Of Transgender Issues

I find gender to be an interesting topic. It is common for people to use “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. However, sex is a biological concept, while gender is more of a cultural concept involving social roles and expectations. For example, a person who is biologically a female may not identify with the cultural norms that are associated with being a woman. Therefore, “she” may identify as a “he’ instead. This person would be transgender.

The transgender population faces many challenges. For one, according to the minority stress theory, racial, sexual, and gender minorities are at a greater risk for physical and mental health problems. In the transgender population, this often presents as anxiety and depression. For example, there is a

However, I do not think that society handles this well. For example, from the moment a woman finds out she is pregnant, she starts planning for the baby. She first thing she considers is whether it will be a boy or a girl and goes from there. If it is a girl, her room will be pink and princess themed and she will be a ballet dancer and so on. If it is a boy, his room will be blue and car themed and he will play football and so on. There is rarely any consideration that a girl may not like the color pink or that a boy might prefer to be a cheerleader instead of a football player. I encourage this kind of thinking. As a society, we should be more accepting of unconventionalities. In some ways, this has already begun to take place. For example, our military has typically been composed of men, because culturally men are expected to be brave and strong. That is their gender role. However, women are becoming a large part of our military. Therefore, they are breaking away from gender based expectations and fulfilling roles in a way that is inconsistent with cultural norms. We, as a society, do not shame them for this, just as how we should not shame children for not identifying with cultural gender

Therefore, for children who are transgender, it is most beneficial to start the transition process early while they are able to receive medical interventions, such as puberty suppression and transgender hormones, instead of later in life when surgery would be needed. On the other hand, the primary argument against the use of medical interventions to influence the development of secondary sexual characteristics in transgender children is that it cannot be undone. The majority of children who express gender identity issues before puberty do not persist and they become more comfortable with their assigned gender role during the early stages of puberty. Therefore, implementing medical interventions with children before puberty may actually be detrimental to the