Increase in Transgendered People - Essay Example

Transgender Introduction Transgender is a general term for people whose gender identity, behavior or genderexpression does not align with the sex they were given at birth. Gender identity refers to a person’s sense of being female, male or bisexual. The expression of gender refers to the manner in which an individual portrays gender identity to others. Transgendered people are usually discriminated, and experience barriers that hinder equality. They experience difficulties in meeting their basic needs like securing jobs, housing or health care. Their gender orientation is not respected even in simple situations like visiting public restrooms. The discrimination rates for transgendered people are usually high as compared to people with other sexual orientations. The transgendered people also face a range of legal issues more than other people do. The eradication of discrimination against transgender people is essential, because it is harmful and pervasive. Discussion There is a relative increase in transgendered people. Psychological research has placed focus on transgendered populations. There has been an acknowledgement of heterogeneity of transgendered communities. This has led to diversification of transgender identities. Specificity needs to be balanced in order to accomplish diverse transgender identities. Racial and ethnic identities may affect one’s mental and psychological state. Gender dysphoria is the dissatisfaction with one’s biological sex. This dissatisfaction may cause anxiety, depression or even restlessness. For individuals who resolve to transition, certain psychological issues may arise. There might be fears of finding a partner, impact on relationships at home and at work. There are also violence and prejudice concerns when one discovers that they are transgendered. However, not every transgendered person is able to transition. Such individuals must learn to adapt to the tensions that are produced by gender dysphoria. Summary of the first text Lucas Cassidy Crawford argues for an alternative subjectivity of transsexual models. Transgendered characteristics of being stuck in the wrong body are the major mode. The author observes that body modification experiences have led to the production of metaphors of territoriality. This dominant characteristic is argued to provide a radical comprehension of trans-bodily sensations. Such metaphors give value to the city and all that it guarantees (Cassidy 2014:127). Crawford makes people understand that effects of the body and its environment relate to each other. The beliefs of transgendered are no longer matters of a person’s true being or altered body parts. Choosing the location and the kind of life to live, particularly moving to rural areas, become ways of gender modification. The modes are likely to be reassuring for the transgendered in all places (Cassidy 2014:130). The transgendered underwent through different states of mind, gender identity, and desire. Moving from a certain place to the rural areas was presumed to be inconsequential. Gender modification was viewed as a safe undertaking in embodied selfhood. Urban queer freedom attributed to seldom attitudes, which were imagined as values of urban communities. Such freedom would make transgendered people move to urban areas. One of the themes is the economic need. The transgendered model entails practices that demand financial resources. The transgendered needed to change their sexual orientation in order to feel a sense of belonging in the society. Discrimination is another theme that comes out of the article. The transgendered were not being recognized, counted, and were being ignored by theories of transgender in urban areas. Affect is also another theme, which explains the effect attributed to trauma, which serves as the basis of creation of public cultures (Cassidy 2014:131). Sex and gender transitions are other themes which are put across. Gender modification seemed to be the most deterritorializing when there are no concerns of moving from one place to another. Summary of the second text The text explores the lives of LGBT (lesbians, bisexuals, gays, and transgender) of youths living in the rural areas. It seeks to explore the youths’ contribution to queer- identity work. It entails ways that can lead to broadening of queer possibilities and scope of modern lives of LGBT. It shows that, the complexity of sexuality of the youth that live in urban areas need to be taken care of with lucidity and openness (Greteman 2012: 63). It shows how the society intervenes in the lives of the youth who live with conditions of LGBT. It also explores on the use of various new media forms by their use in the expression of their situations. The text is aimed at creation of a greater ethnographic attention, in order to define the meaning of media in the lives of the youth. The text seeks to study the lives of the youth under LGBT, who are not shy of their condition. The youth are to be seen as activists, who are thriving and who seek recognition and acceptance in the community. The increase of the society as a network has proved the significance of rural areas. The governance of rural areas has transitioned, which gives the youth an amiable environment to air their grievances. The youth also expressed their concerns through educational seminars. They also participated in politics of familiarity through formation of a gay-straight alliance. Online work provided the youth with a platform that made their queer-identity work recognizable. The transgendered were viewed as being in the wrong place while in the rural areas. Their true place was to be sought, so that they would not use rural areas as closets. Persons with LGBT conditions sought to be accepted in the society. They needed the community to understand their sexuality and gender. The transgendered needed to be recognized as integral community constituents. The themes identified include ethnography. This is where the youth are portrayed as LGBT. Their customs, beliefs, and social behavior are all related to their culture. Rural politics is another theme. The rural areas have been used by the youth for their protest activities. This may be due to the increase in rural social movement by the youth with LGBT conditions. The rural areas have become advantageous to the youth through various interlocking factors (Greteman 2012: 64). Opportunities to protest have been favored in rural areas due to advancement in technology and policing terms. New media criticism is another theme where there is an introduction of new technology in the rural areas. Technology integrates gradually in the rural areas, which helped the youth achieve their overlooked status. The new media were complex in nature and made the youth participate in a weird kind of politics (Greteman 2012: 65). The queer theory is another theme, where it builds upon feministic challenges. It views gender as part of the significant self and upon LGBT studies. It examines the nature of sexual acts and how identities are constructed. The theory looks into normative and deviant features of all sexual activity. Sexuality is another theme, where the sexuality itself compromised the research. This led to the extension of the scientific approach. Themes Sexuality Transgendered youth experience a crisis during their adolescence stage, as they seek to develop and find their identities. They seek to fit in with their friends, but due to their sexual orientation they feel different. Transgendered youth feel the difference after discovering their sexual orientation. In the first text, the youth shows high levels of mental stress. This is due to the homophobia brought about by the heterosexist society. In the second text, LGBT youth deal with the same pressures as other adolescents during the period (Cassidy 2014: 138). There is a widespread irrational fear and inability to tolerate the transgendered. This intolerance is displayed through verbal and physical signs which may lead to a hostile environment for the transgendered. This may also lead to numerous health problems to the youth, which may also include mental stress. An enormous body of scientific research indicates four exigent gender differences ascribed to sexuality. On an expansive variety of measures, men exhibit greater sexual desire in comparison to women. Secondly, as compared to men, women place more emphasis on committed relationships in the sexuality context. Third, for men, aggression has a greater link to sexuality than women. Fourth, in women, sexuality emerges to be more malleable, and carries the capability to change over time. These emergent male and female differences are carried by a variety of factors, and stretch across different contexts of sexuality. The emergence of transgendered individuals exudes that they are being discriminated against and are unable to afford basic medical attention (Greteman 2012: 65). Those who choose to have hormonal treatments or undergo sexual transformation are at risks for complications. Those who take medicine that enhances hormonal changes are at higher risk for breast cancer. Most medical practitioners lack the expertise to handle transgender individuals. Scholars in copious disciplines have noted higher sexual plasticity in women than men. That is, the sexual behaviors and beliefs of men and women are more easily shaped and altered by social, cultural, and social factors. One element of plasticity entails changes in a person’s aspect of sexuality across time. Diverse scientific research lines identify consistent differences in sexual attitudes, differences in sexual interest and relationships, as well as plasticity and aggression associated with transgendered individuals. The emergent differences are persuasive, and they encompass thoughts, behaviors, fantasies and feelings (Cassidy 2014: 140). Rural Politics Questioning gender identity in transgendered youth, in the rural areas, disrupts their surroundings. The transgendered youth living in rural areas set efforts to stabilize, normalize, and accepted their sense of identity. They mostly exhibited normative transgender standards which defied the expectations of the society. The rural areas have become commonplace for politics, which formed a political culture. The youth also strategized towards solidarity, which saw the youth develop a platform to air their grievances. Rural young people used new media such as computers in accessing online information (Greteman 2012: 66). The transgendered are the most frequently isolated in the rural areas. This isolation is both physical and in regards to access to significant resources and support. Their resilience should be honored, and their needs should be addressed. Transgender youth perform poorly in their education due to discrimination. They are limited in accessing transgender related resources, which would help them in understanding their rights (Cassidy 2014: 134). Work on Queer Youth The transgendered youth gained information by the use of the new media. It is necessary for the youth to manage and accept their condition in order to work efficiently. The struggles of the youth were hard to deal with because they were always discriminated against in the society. There was always an assumption that the display of features of the opposite sex always proved that one is transgendered (Cassidy 2014: 135). This is because certain people who did not show any features of the opposite sex, also proved to be transgendered. Transgender is a sexual identity and not sexually oriented. A transgendered person can also be heterosexual. Sexual orientation has the capability of changing. This is different from transgender since it is usually the initiative of an individual to change their gender (Greteman 2012: 66). The youth were judged based on features that they portrayed. A society should not be judgmental as this puts a transgendered person into mental stress. When one is communicating to a transgendered person, the facial expressions should not imply that being transgendered is a societal wrong. Derogatory words were used when communicating to the transgendered youth. The use of the word queer was in the wrong context as it was aimed at demeaning the transgendered. Such harassment should not be used on any transgendered person as this will hurt their feeling. When their feelings are hurt, they find it hard to believe their sexual identity. Gender diverse behavior does not necessarily mean that a youth is transgendered. It is important to support such youth to accept and deal with their situation without being discriminated against (Cassidy 2014: 136). Health care providers need to seek information on transgendered identity and be able to support such individuals. The support can take any form ranging from medical assistance to mental advice. Comparison to class readings Transvestites and transgender are all analyzed through the themes of sexuality and race. They have been classified as alternative sexualities, because they have been attached to particular traits. The making of prostitution is evident in Johnson’s article. Racial and ethnic identities led to discrimination against the transgendered. Transgendered people feel a persistent difference between their sex and their own gender. Some undergo surgical procedures and hormonal transition. The issue of transgender is still complex in the readings. Education played an important role in the identification of transgendered people (Johnson 1972: 112). People in the society came to accept the existence of transgendered individuals. There have been initiatives to desist from discrimination of transgendered individuals. Even though the transgendered had accepted their status, it was still hard for them to discuss on the issue with others. Identification of the person’s sexual identity still posed a challenge in the readings. It had to take time before one discovered their sexual identity and acceptance of the same (Johnson 1972: 115). Transgender movement makes a recognition of the quest for social justice. This justice is fundamental in linking struggles against sexism and racism. Economic injustice saw the transgendered discriminated against, in that they could not secure income opportunities (Stryker 2008: 40). Religious intolerance saw the transgendered discriminated against by fellow members of their religion. The transgendered were protective of each other, in that, they would ensure none of their members was oppressed. The movement compelled its members to stand in opposition of any form of oppression. The movement was vigilant against such oppressions. Its aim was to enhance development among its members in order to make them self-actualize. This was done without any form of discrimination (Stryker 2008: 49). Transgender history saw the passing of laws that prevented cross-dressing. The gay community increased in number after the growth of industrial cities (Stryker 2008: 33). Comments and criticisms It is important to understand other people’s sexual orientation. I have understood that it is necessary to behave around transgendered people in good faith and avoidance of situations that offend them. Transgendered people exist all around the world, and they also have different cultures. It is not easy to determine the sexual identity of an individual. Even if a person shows some characteristics of being transgendered, people should not draw conclusions as to their sexual identification. The identity of transgendered people should be respected. They should be referred according to the sexual identity that they prefer. Their physical appearance should not be used in judging transgendered sexual identity (Johnson 1972: 114). When communicating to transgendered individuals it is important to use appropriate language. It is important to associate with transgendered persons. When interacting, it is important to ask them questions on what issues make them feel comfortable. Such questions should be asked in a humble and polite manner. When a transgendered person asks for privacy in some personal matters, it is important to respect their decision. When there is a need to intrude into their privacy, it is crucial to seek for express permission. This is essential in order to secure the trust of the transgendered, which ensures the person’s willingness to open up. It is important to let a transgendered person willingly express their experience (Johnson 1972: 116). It is not a good idea to assume a person’s experience in regards to gender identity. The beliefs that the society might have placed on transgender people do not apply to every transgendered person. People should learn to distinguish between gender identity and gender sexuality or orientation. People should not confuse between an individual’s gender identity and gender sexuality. Transgendered people should be treated equally to other members of the society. People should be willing to listen to them, be honest to them, and hang out with them. People should have patience when dealing with transgendered people. They should not be abused physically by members of the community who think they have a problem (Johnson 1972: 118). Conclusion It is through such studies that people can learn about transgendered community. People can also learn on their organization and transformation in the society. A few individuals can tolerate and engage in real social transition. The rights of transgendered people should be supported through public awareness. When such people protest for their rights, they should be given the right to be heard. The information communicated to transgendered people should be one that makes them believe their status. The information should also be aimed at making the rest of the society understand that it is important to accept others as they are. The government should also engage in issues of transgendered people. It should formulate policies and bills that ensure the rights of the transgendered are set in law (Cassidy 2014: 140). This will make sure that anyone who violates the rights of the transgendered is prosecuted in a court of law. The society needs to take action and not sit back with ignorance on the transgender issue. It is important for a society to make changes that will accommodate the needs of transgendered people. Transgendered people should not be discriminated against, and they should be given active roles in the society. Gender revolution campaigns should be initiated, to educate the society on the need to accept transgender people. People should learn to differentiate between sexual identity and sexual orientation. This is important because once the society has leant and accepted the difference; people with transgendered conditions will gain gender identity. Social change is inevitable for growth in all sectors of the society. The change can be made by a few individuals, but can also be effective. Such change can only take place when it is envisioned and planned. Work Cited Cassidy, Lucas. "Transgender." Transgender without Organs?: Mobilizing a Geo-Affective Theory of Gender Modification 36 (2014): 127-143. Print. Greteman, Adam. "Queer youth and the politics of rural America." LGBT Youth 9 (2012): 63-66. Print. Johnson, Marcia. "Out of the closets: Voices of gay liberation." Rapping with a street transvestite revolutionary 1 (1972): 112-120. Print. Stryker, Susan. "Transgender history." A hundred years of transgender history 2 (2008): 31-57. Print. Read More