Transgender

Transgender: a Definition

The World Book Advanced online dictionary defines the word "transgender" as an adjective which means "a term for individuals whose identity or self-expression does not match their assigned gender," which, as opposed to the word "cisgender" (meaning being born and raised as the gender you actually are), rather involves identifying as a non-birth gender. These can involve transitions such as female-to-male (FTM), male-to-female (MTF), female-to-genderfluid (FTGf), etc. Despite this disconnect between gender and sex, however, many people remain transgendered without physically transitioning and becoming transsexual (which involves actual changes to the body, not limited to hormonal therapy or genital reassignment surgery). 

Transgender: a History

The earliest example of a transgender person in recorded American history originates from a Virginia colony in the 1620s, "who claimed to be both a man and a woman and, at different times, adopted the traditional roles and clothing of men and women and variously went by the names of Thomas and Thomasine Hall," (Transgender History in the United States, page 3). After confusion amongst the local citizens rose too high, "the court ordered Hall in 1629 to wear both a man’s breeches and a woman’s apron and cap" (Ibid, page 3). This memorialized Thomas(ine) Hall as the first transgender person in American history.

Meanwhile, 1952 marked a historical moment for trans people worldwide. Christine Jorgensen became one of the first people to medically transition, and though not truly the first, "Jorgensen's fame allowed many people to learn about trans lives for the first time" (Timeline: A Look Back at the History of Transgender Visibility). This was vital because it opened the gates for people to learn more about a topic which many had never even heard of prior. The timeline below provides more helpful information about the history of trans people worldwide.

Transgender Visibility Timeline (Click link for full size)

Works Cited:

Beemyn, Genny. "Transgender." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2015. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

<http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar756231&st=transgender#tab=homepage>.

---. Transgender History in the United States. Ed. Laura Erickson-Schroth. U of Massachusetts Amherst, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

<http://www.umass.edu/stonewall/uploads/listWidget/32733/trans%20hist%20ebook.pdf>. 

Townsend, Megan. "Timeline: A Look Back at the History of Transgender Visibility." GLAAD. GLAAD, 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

<http://www.glaad.org/blog/timeline-look-back-history-transgender-visibility>.

Androgyny

Merriam-WebsterDictionary defines “androgynous” as “having the characteristics of both male and female.” Someone who is androgynous cannot be defined as male or female, but rather lives in a “spectrum” of gender. Some androgynous people are mentally between the state of man and woman, and would rather not make a definitive choice. Some decide to live without gender at all. Through media attention and pop culture, androgyny has gained more attention. Androgyny is seen often in pop culture, coming into view through fashion, name choices, and so on. It is becoming popular in the fashion industry to use androgynous models in order to not assign articles of clothing to certain genders.

Wikipedia explains the history of this term, going all the way back to ancient Greece. The philosopher Plato considered gender many times, creating categories in which an individual could be organized into. There were three groups, male-male, female-female, and male-female. Each of these groupings was thought to have descended from a different heavenly body, which is how Plato connects astronomy and androgyny. Plato’s gender studies focused much on the sorting and grouping of genders, but those who are androgynous defy these gender boundaries.

The FreeDictionary defines “androgynous” as “Having both female and male characteristics; hermaphroditic.” This definition refers more to the anatomical side of androgyny. Some people are born with both forms of genitalia, making them androgynous by birth. Certain individuals choose to have surgical procedures in order to decide on one exact gender, while others live in the gender “spectrum.” The term “hermaphrodite” was also discussed by Plato in his gender studies. 

Bibliography

"Androgynous." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

Cisgender

To be Cisgender is to be part of the majority. Often associated with words such as normal, regular, and “the opposite of transgender” , many people find themselves to be part of this identification. Considering its opposite identification, transgender; only makes up roughly 0.3% of the population ,being Cisgender might be even more common than the average person would think. But what exactly does it mean to be Cisgender? To identify as Cisgender essentially means to agree with, and be comfortable with the gender assigned to you at birth. Being a Cisgender is typically regarded as very low risk, as they make up the vast majority of the world’s population. In fact, many Cisgender’s don’t even know that they technically are Cisgenders, just considering themselves to be “normal” and “regular”. To be Cisgender is not to be confused with being heterosexual. This is a very common misconception, but to be heterosexual is a sexual orientation, while being Cisgender is gender identification, two completely different ideas. It is completely possible to be a homosexual Ciswoman, as long as said person agrees with, and is comfortable with the gender assigned to them at birth. Some would argue that to identify as Cisgender doesn’t actually mean to agree with your assigned gender at birth, just to agree with and be comfortable with whatever society currently sees you as. To an extent, this is correct because typically society will view you as whatever your birth certificate says, and based upon how you behave. Overall, to be cisgender is not simply just to be “not transgender” or just to be straight; it is its own gender identity in which the person agrees with, and is comfortable with the gender assigned at birth.

Work Cited 

"Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/upshot/the-search-for-the-best-estimate-of-the-transgender-population.html?_r=1

http://time.com/3636430/cisgender-definition/

Gender

Gender

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “gender" is the idea of either being a male or a female, and includes the behavioral or psychological traits that go along with being that. This definition means that you can only be either female or male, depending on what genitals you were born with to go along with one specific gender, meaning someone who is transsexual is still technically the gender that they were born as, no matter how long they have identified themselves as the other sex.

Gender is often just viewed as girl or boy depending on the sex you were born as, but PFLAG National has a different idea of gender, classifying it as traits “often influenced by societal expectations, that classify an individual as male, female, a mixture of both, or neither”. This created a new idea of how gender is assigned, stating that a person can be both or neither, showing that gender is not defined by genitalia and can be decided by the individual. The idea of societal expectations playing a part in the decision of what gender a person is could also mean that a person could not be going by the gender that they personally prefer because they would not be going with the ‘societal ideals’.

Going along with this definition, UC Berkeley Gender Equity Resources Center believes that gender being used as a classification is “a socially constructed system” making it something that can change over time depending on the person’s choices and situations. 

Works Cited

Gender Equity Resource Center. UC Berkeley, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015. 

"Gender." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011.

Web. 27 August 2015.

"PFLAG National." PFLAG National. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

Gender Identity

According to Dictionary.com, the term “gender identity” refers to somebody’s internal or emotional sense of being male or female. While their definition solely includes male and female, gender identity can refer to one’s sense of being male, female, a combination of both, or none at all. An individual’s gender identity is often “…developed during early childhood as a result of parental rearing practices and societal influences…” As can be gathered from this definition, gender identity is commonly formed around what you hear and see associated with a particular gender.

PFLAG states that one’s “…awareness of gender identity is usually experienced as early as 18 months old…” Gender Identity “does not always correspond to biological sex” according to PFLAG. Thus, one can have the biological sex of a female, but the gender identity of a male; this was Cal’s case by the end of the book Middlesex.

According to the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender both sociologists and psychologists agree that gender identity is both internal and external as well as being highly dependent on the roles men and women have in one’s culture. Gender identity is external by the way one presents themselves in terms of dress and behavior. For example, in the US, if someone has shaved legs, long hair, and a dress on it is assumed that their gender identity is associated with a girl. Gender identity is often seen to be in coherence to sexuality, however the two are not the same. The American Psychological Association says that sexual orientation or sexuality refers to “…an individual’s enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person…” This is in contrast to gender identity as it solely refers to one’s sense of gender or being male, female, somewhere in between or neither. The term “gender identity” circulates around one being aware of who they are and how they identify themselves.

Works Cited

"Answers to Your Questions about Transgender People Gender Identity and Gender 
     Expression." American Psychological Association. APA, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 
     2015. <http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.aspx>. 

 

Champagne, John. "Gender Identity." Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Ed. Fedwa 
     Malti-Douglas. 4 vols. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 614-16. 
     Print. 

 

- - -. "Gender Identity." Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Ed. Fedwa 
     Malti-Douglas. 4 vols. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 614-16. 
     Print. 

 

"Definitions." Gill Foundation. Vermilion, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015. 
     <http://gillfoundation.org/grants/advancing-equality-toolkit/ 
     definitions/>. 

 

"The PFLAG National Glossary of Terms." PFLAG. Parents, Families and Friends of 
     Lesbians and Gays, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015. <http://community.pflag.org/ 
     page.aspx?pid=316>. 

 

Homophobia

According to the Oxford EnglishDictionary, homophobia is the "fear or hatred of homosexuals and homosexuality." Homophobia is also known as the “aversion to lesbian or gay people that often manifests itself in the form of prejudice and bias,” according to PFLAG National Glossary. These definitions apply beyond individuals to LGBT communities. The word homophobia, first used by psychologist George Weinberg, originally meant "fear of men," and the current definition was not widely used until after the riots at the Stonewall Inn gay bar, according to an article in Civil Rights in the United States. This fear and hatred is based in, the Oxford English Dictionary states, "understandable instincts among straight people, but it also involves innumerable misconceptions and oversimplifications.”  These misconceptions and oversimplifications are a result of preconceived notions about gender and gender roles in today’s society. Homophobia, the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender states, perpetuates these “rigid gender roles and suspicion of those who do not conform to them.”

The reasons for homophobia are believed to be twofold, according to the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: self-hatred or antigay bias. Internalized homophobia, the self-hatred aspect, occurs when one is dissatisfied with their sexuality and takes it out on others like themselves. The antigay bias has unclear origins, however the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender states that many religions “have condemned homosexual behavior, usually male, because it is not procreative.” These ideas have had harmful effects when they have become more than just words and turned into action.  An example of homophobic action is “gay bashing, which involves physically hurting members of those groups; hate speech directed at queer people; offensive protests and demonstrations against queer people; and antigay legislation”(Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender). Some church demonstrations are homophobic, most notably ones by the Westboro Baptist church, which include offensive anti-gay posters bearing messages such as “God hates fags.”

Works Cited

"Homophobia, n.2." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 26 August 2015.

"Homophobia." Civil Rights in the United States. Ed. Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia Sullivan. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.

Hovey, Jaime. "Homophobia." Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Ed. Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 715-717. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.

"PFLAG National Glossary of Terms." PFLAG. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.

Heteronormative

According to Dictioionary.com, the term “heteronormative” is an ideal “noting or relating to behavior or attitudes consistent with traditional male or female gender roles and the assumption of heterosexuality as the norm.” So essentially heteronormativity is a socially derived construct that defines how gender and sexuality are currently defined in our society.

The Gender and Education Association claims that “theorists have argued that a discourse or technique of heteronormativity has been set up, and subsequently dominates, social institutions such as the family, the state and education.” This means that heteronormativity is not only idealized but it is practiced and taught from an early age as the normal definition of a male to female relationship in society. Heteronormativity doesn’t only reference how relationships are defined in our society but is a general ideal that has influenced the way we look at things in our society from education to our children’s play toys. For instance the model of the Barbie and Ken dolls represents at a young age to children of how relationships are supposed to work when they get older. The concept of heteronormativity works to categorize identity “into hierarchical binaries”, placing man above woman and heterosexual as the accepted sexuality above homosexual.

The subsequent result of this way of looking at gender and sexuality is that people of other genders and sexualities have been marginalized socially. As aforementioned heteronormativity is not only idealized but it is practiced and in institutions such as educational ones, children are not taught to practice these things and so in spaces like these being of a different gender or sexuality causes people to retreat and conform to heteronormativity. Ultimately this idea of gender and sexuality needs to be thought of in a different way because of the somewhat changing ideals of our society. In a time when “today's children are more likely to see two men or two women holding hands, more likely to have a friend or relative who is openly gay and more likely to have a schoolmate who has two moms or two dads” we need to look at gender and sexuality for "what they mean and what they are and what they can be.”

Works Cited

Heteronormative." Dictionary.com. N.p.: Random, n.d. N. pag. Print. 

Gray, Emily. "What Is Heteronormativity?" GEA - Gender and Education 

     Association. Gender and Education Association, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.

Day, Lori. "How Highly Gendered Toys Present an Exclusively Heterosexual 

     Worldview to Children." The Blog. Huffington Post, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.