3. Gender Outlaws (Smith, 2010) breaks the laws of gender by defying gender normative rules that exclude trans, queer and other non-conforming gender expressions often oppressed by “gender-norming rules,” rules, “expected to observe” or be subject to ridicule and often times labeled as freak by those who consider themselves as normal (p. 28). A gender outlaw seeks to, redefine the notion of gender and are carving out spaces of their own” (p. 30). According to Gwendolyn Smith (2010), lesbians, gays, transgender, transsexual, cross-dressers, sissies, drags king and queens, have someone they view as freak. Smith considers this to be a human phenomenon, especially among marginalized groups. Smith expresses that those that consider themselves as gender normative finds comfort in identifying the “real” freaks, in order for them to seem closer to normal. Smith attempts to tear down the wall of gender normality as it is socially constructed as simply male and female. According to Smith (2010), “we are all someone’s freak” (p. 29). Smith asserts that there may be some type of fear in facing the self’s gender truth, “maybe I was afraid I would see things in my own being I was not ready to face, or was afraid of challenging my own assumptions” (p. 29). Smith’s, chapter (2010) was …show more content…
After discussing his concerns with the hospital staff, a decision was made that he should keep his gender identity as trans a secret. Not only did he loose agency, but his well-being, emotional and physical health was hindered. The danger in this is that the fire that fueled his eating disorder, or “starved it, since I was anorexic rather than a compulsive eater” was his gender identity (p. 122), but he was forced to keep the culprit in the closet. During his transitional phase, he used food intake to experience a sense of control of his
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
Enter into any café on the UCSC campus for a prolonged period of time and you are likely to hear the words “gender is a social construct”. Initially you’ll think to yourself, “what a load of granola” this is an expected reaction because for most people the concept of “gender” is natural. Its not until you are able to see how the idea of gender is constructed from physiological differences between males and females as discussed by researcher Miller AE and his team of scientists. Or how men possess great privilege because of gender roles, and women are seen as objects, that you will truly be able to understand that gender is nothing but a social contract. Authors Gloria Anzaldúa, Marjane Satrapi, and Virginia Woolf discuss in their novels Borderlands,
As previously said Butler describes a domain in which the social norms of gender, sex and desire all take part. This was constructed by formal and informal means which try to ‘normalise’ people who don’t conform to the social norm. In an interview Butler states that one of these institutionalised methods is psychiatric normalization, initially going against the social norm in term of sex and gender was considered and illness which led psychiatrists to try to ‘normalise’ their patients, this procedure has now been terminated but other informal methods such as bullying still exist. From this Butler aspires to a new idea of gender one which becomes a reality and one which is less violent and one which breaks the conventions and stereotypes put in place by social norms. This idea of a less violent idea of gender relates back to Butlers notion that in order for progression in feminist theory, the feminine gender has to transform. Digression, not violence, within feminism can still be identified, in 1997 Feminist Sheila Jeffrey’s branded transgenderism “deeply problematic from a feminist perspective and that transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights.” Although this remark isn’t violent, it definitely disrespects gendered women and men who haven’t conformed to the social norm much like Jeffrey’s hasn’t, yet her criticism still ridicules another sexual minority. Jeffrey’s is
The author’s intended audience is most likely to people who are experiencing the disorder or are interested in knowing more about eating disorders. When Lia was admitted to New Seasons, her rehabilitation facility, she relates her experience to someone who has gone through the struggles in that kind of facility. Lia was expected to be “a good girl [by not poking holes] or write depressing poetry and [eat and eat]” (Anderson 18). Her struggles in the facility allowed the audience who experienced this disorder to relate their experiences. In addition, people who choose to starve...
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
From reading the first few lines of the book, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein, I was immediately hooked. I personally connected with the section “We are all somebody’s freak.” At first glance of the title, it implied something sexual to me. After reading the explanation I completely understood the concept. The concept is basically that we are all individuals, and somebody out there considers us to be a weirdo. In the same way I would consider somebody to be weird. It’s extremely eye opening because I never thought of that before. Also, within this section I learned that there is hate within the transgender, gay, and lesbian community. Initially, I was under the impression that all of that community would only be drawn
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
Mental health professional have tried to correct their ‘‘gender identity disorder’’ with brutal aversion therapies. Tran’s youth who came out often faced crises throughout their family and social systems. Once out, developing a sense of realness about their new gender became extremely important. An urgent need develops ‘‘to match one’s exterior with one’s interior’’ In ad...
Men and women are “correctively” raped, assaulted, or killed for presenting as the “wrong” gender. “[T]he Rules of Gender dictate that there are two and only two genders, and presenting in a given gender means that you have the corresponding sex” (101). Taking that a step further, the corresponding sex means that one shares the heterosexual desires associated with that sex. These assumptions are the reasoning behind the violence that plagues women, minorities, and the LGBT+ community. By presenting oneself as a gender other than that which corresponds to their sex—whether through clothing or mere behaviors—they are in essence misrepresenting themselves and attempting to confuse the people they interact with. According to Gilbert, “the physical mannerisms frequently presented by a sissy, that is, an effeminate male, must . . . elicit some sexual response programmed by the bigender rules” (101). This hypothesis is, by itself, problematic. It is based on the idea that we are socialized to associate certain mannerisms and body language to the opposite sex, so much so that we experience a Pavlovian response to them, regardless of who performs them. However, not all men are attracted to all women who flip their hair over their shoulder when they speak; not all women find all men who sit with their legs spread as wide as possible, or
After rejecting a butch woman’s advances, Molly questioned, “What’s the point of being a lesbian if a woman is going to look and act like an imitation of a man?” Her apparent disdain for butch lesbians seems to originate in her perception that butch lesbians uphold the gender binary she puts so much effort into resisting. Literature, however, argues that butch-fem relationships are much more than a personal preference (Davis). She argues that these relationships are a “powerful social source.” The visual representation given by women in these relationships establishes and announces to the public that they are in fact in a relationship, whereas fem-fem couples might get mistaken for close friends.
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, intersexed, 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.
If I were to tell my father at this moment that I am a lesbian he will call the school I am at, the school I used to attend, my friends, and anybody else that is in my life. He would be convinced that somebody brought this upon me; that somebody convinced me. He will ask me if I am joking. If I dress like a boy (baggy clothing) he will say, “You are going like that?” My father, along with millions of other parents, and people, think that homosexuals and trans genders are a humiliation to our society. Likewise, society has made me feel that after mentioning being lesbian it is crucial that I say that I am actually not. Maybe these people should read one excerpt from the analogy, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein. Or maybe,
Likewise, it is critical to recall both are responding to the Benjamin Standards of Care (SoC) for transsexuals - an ethic of care that, by seeking to protect the transitioning transsexual from anticipated harms by erasing their pre-transition past inadvertently reinforced the beliefs and mechanisms that would create those harms – that was codified during this same period. Raymond successfully highlights the revealing alignment between the SoC and the overarching hetero-patriarchal ideology it was created within, even though that alignment does not fully explain transsexual phenomenology and imperatives. Paradoxically (if not ironically), Stone envisions the potential for repurposing that alignment to challenge the essentialism of both Raymond’s argument and the binarism of gender – yet at the unremarked cost of objectifying and totalizing transsexuals. This convergence of means to reach divergent ends is too notable to leave
In her online article “What Makes a Woman” (2015), Elinor Burkett asserts that the trans society should not reduce being a woman down to the genitalia and that a woman is created through the experiences she endures in her lifetime. Burkett supports her claim about what creates a woman by presenting the reader with evidence taken from trans-genders who are fighting against women’s rights and goes to challenge them by sharing her view on the topic. Burkett’s purpose is to dissipate the undermining of women’s characteristics by silencing their experiences in order to generate awareness of what a woman’s identity is. She has a young adult audience that is aware of current events in the trans-gender movement in mind because she writes with a tone
Throughout history men and women have been put into the rigidly defined roles of feminism and masculism. This box that society has created has push back the true people and presented us with the societal image of what men and women should be. This is gender stereotyping. Through these stereotypes a feminist movement and a masculine movement have arisen to try to break those stereotypes.