For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
TRANSGENDER NATION. (GORDENE MACKENZIE).
Term Paper ID:28245
Get This Paper Free! or
Essay Subject:
Sociocultural analysis of 1994 book on transgender movement. Defines types of intersexual people. Civil liberties issues.... More...
7 Pages / 1575 Words
1 sources, 6 Citations,
APA Format
$28.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Sociocultural analysis of 1994 book on transgender movement. Defines types of intersexual people. Civil liberties issues.
Paper Introduction:
Transgender Identity and Gender Nonconformity
Introduction
According to Gordene MacKenzie (1994), the transgender movement is inextricably bound up with the gender movement in the United States and they are the most important civil rights movements of the 1990s. MacKenzie, who teaches courses on sex and gender, along with popular culture, is in the Women Studies Program at the University of New Mexico.
Looking at Language
It might help to start by making some distinctions in terminology. Many terms have been used interchangeably, and there is some confusion about their meaning. The basic terms are transvestite, transsexual, and transgenderist. The transvestite individual, whether male or female, is the individual who attempts to look lik
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Itmight lead to new ways of conceiving family, identity, community, etc. This, of course, is nearly impossible in oursociety since so much of what we do from the very beginning of a child'slife depends upon that child's anatomical/gender identity. The world is dividedup into oppositions, rather than seen in process, or as a continuum.Although there are words for the time between day and night, for example,such as dusk or twilight, the real conditions are considered to be day andnight, with the other merely preparation or a transition to the other. An individual canalso choose to take an exactly opposite role from the anatomical sex role,preferring a gender role that is more female, for example. On the otherhand, the medical profession currently holds several views about thetransgender experience, including the possibility of botched circumcisions,improper determination of anatomical sex at birth, and intersexuality.Multiple Sexes, Multiple Genders Intersexual is an even more complex biological term. Finally, a transgenderistis any person who does not conform to the dominant culture's understandingof appropriate gender roles, behaviors, and appearance. (1994). The transgenderist movement has indicated that a more appropriateresponse in this situation is to wait until puberty, when the child willdevelop more in one direction than another, differentiating as eitherfemale or male anatomically. thatcould be productive and constructive. The author looks at the situation from a sociological andsociopolitical perspective, making a main argument that it is not pathologyon the part of transgenderists, but narrowness on the part of society thatis the important issue. She also indicated that transgender people are fearedin popular culture, perhaps even more than homosexuals or lesbians, andviewed as dangerous individuals (like Anthony Perkins in Psycho, forexample). For MacKenzie (1994), there are some positive signs, though,emanating from the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communityitself. She noted that medical science, and society, still tend to seetransgenderists as having some sort of pathology, whether viewing thatbenignly or not. However, the strengths include her discussion of sociosexualcategories, the medical profession's changing views of the situation andattempted treatments, the feelings and thoughts of transgender peoplethemselves, her sociocultural analysis of the role of gender in Americansociety, and her discussion of the way having two genders serves to prolongconflict between them.Affect On My Own Thinking This was a very interesting book that expanded my thinking quite abit. There can be bothgender and sexual orientation non-conformity involved.Summary of Book: According to the gender theorists, like MacKenzie (1994), gender isnot the same thing as anatomical sex. Another intersexual possibility ishaving both sets of sex organs. References MacKenzie, G.O. In other words, a transsexual man may alter his bodyphysically to take on the physical characteristics, and gender, of thefemale that he perceives to be more appropriate. Itis not generally considered to include lesbian or gay people unless theyare also transsexual or transgender identity. MacKenzie's (1994) hope is that this willlead to a gender revolution allowing more freedom for both men and women.Strengths and Weaknesses of the Book The strengths of the book are many, while the only weakness I wouldidentify is that MacKenzie has a clearcut agenda which would offend manypeople. Shealso noted that medical science has proposed treatments that amount toendocrinological euthanasia, revealing an incredible fear about theindividual who cannot easily and automatically be assigned to a specificgender matching anatomical sex and, therefore, placed clearly in theAmerican culture. It is this situation that is often dealtwith inappropriately at birth, since medical science and popular ideologyhave agreed that a baby's sexual identity must be established immediately,rather than waiting until puberty. This includestoys that are bought, names that are given, clothes that are bought,classes that are assigned, and extracurricular activities that are providedfor the child. MacKenzie describessome of the medical proposals, and treatments, that are used withtranssexual or intersexual individuals. In other words, a transsexual may be heterosexual. It is not clear to me how allowingfor a continuum of sexes and genders would eliminate the conflict, althoughMacKenzie believes it would make a difference. Bowling Green: bowlingGreen State University Press. Thus, the issue is established as a "problem", in whichthe transgenderist needs help to return to a normal gender identity. The gay and lesbian community hasoften been less than supportive, believing that the transgenderist is justbuying into society's established roles for the male and female sex, anddemanding to be changed to fit that sex and gender role. Transgender Identity and Gender NonconformityIntroduction According to Gordene MacKenzie (1994), the transgender movement isinextricably bound up with the gender movement in the United States andthey are the most important civil rights movements of the 199 s.MacKenzie, who teaches courses on sex and gender, along with popularculture, is in the Women Studies Program at the University of New Mexico.Looking at Language It might help to start by making some distinctions in terminology.Many terms have been used interchangeably, and there is some confusionabout their meaning. There are always twochoices, right or left, day or night, male or female. Pressure has been placed on the medical establishment todepathologize transgenderists. Some of this backlash may already be occurring. This is a very dualist society,perhaps best exemplified by our computer technology. Primarily, itincludes transsexuals, intersexuals, or transvestites/cross-dressers. It does seem to make much more sense in a worldof such diverse personalities. In otherwords, there could be a continuum of sexes and genders, allowing for muchgreater variability. Thetransgenderist is considered to be suffering from sort of gender confusion,possibly caused by a number of reasons. I expected to learn more about the transgender experience, which Idid, but I had not expected to be provided with new ideas about the wholearea of gender. Mackenzie is specifically concerned with the male-to-femaletransgenderist, rather than with the reverse, but the argument is pertinentto both. An individual can be of theanatomical sex "male", but not behave in ways associated with the genderroles that have been assigned to that anatomical sex. Another possible solution for the intersexual person, according toMacKenzie (1994) and others in the transgender movement is to allow for thepossibility of more than two genders and more than two sexes. The transsexual, on the otherhand, is an individual who changes his or her biological sex in certainways, or completely, in order to change to the gender identity that feelsmost congruent. It seems asthough the gender revolution MacKenzie talked about could ultimately leadto greater freedom for individuals and for the community as a whole. A transgendermale-to-female may be a lesbian or a heterosexual. The intersexualindividual is the individual who may have DNA for one sex, while havinggenital organs for the other sex. Although I am uneasy with the idea of more than two sexesand genders, I am also intrigued by the idea of a continuum of sexes,genders, and sexualities. She believes that current ideologysupports a truly repressive, and suppressive, dual gender system that worksto create conflict between the genders. Obviously, for MacKenzie, the solution would be a radical change inhow society views gender and sexuality. The transvestite individual, whether male or female, isthe individual who attempts to look like the opposite gender, usingclothes, make-up, body language, and other behaviors which relate to genderstereotypes of "masculine" or "feminine". There also seems little reason to continueto enforce the two-gender concept, and separation of the two genders inthat way, except for tradition and habit. Another recent example comes from AllyMcBeal, with Ellenor's beau who dressed in nun's habit turning out to be amurderer. The religious argument is not agood one, nor does medicine make any useful argument for that. Instead,the transgenderists seem to have many points on their side. The basic terms are transvestite, transsexual, andtransgenderist. Those men, specifically, who dress in women's garb are oftenportrayed as homicidal maniacs. There is already a backlash about women'schanging gender roles; it seems as though this backlash would intensify ifboth men and women were allowed even greater freedom in gender identity andbehavior. She noted that sex reassignmentsurgery actually supports the traditional system in some respects, allowingfor assimilation and suppressing the differences between individuals. My concern is that it wouldactually intensify the conflict, at least in the short term, as differentgroups fought for dominance or tried to reinforce the more traditionalgender roles and sexual system. Transgender nation. As MacKenzie (1994) noted, however, that is not the way that thissociety constructs its social categories.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject