Essay On Feinberg's Here

Everyone goes through changes in life, especially ones that define who you are. In David Kaplan’s short story “Doe Season,” he portrays a young tomboyish girl that metamorphosis into a young woman over a short hunting trip. Not only does the young girl enjoy spending time with her father, but she enjoys the things that he does – shooting, camping, hunting. This is not typical of your average girl, or even a 9-year-old girl. Throughout the story there are symbols that show the audience Andy’s conflicts with herself and her gender or sexuality. It is also clear that she struggles with herself and her gender role in society.

The main setting of Trans-Sister Radio is within the small town of Bartlett, Vermont. The primary focus is set on Dana, a chromosomal-male college professor who is in the process of transitioning into the female gender. As a male, Dana is well-received by her community, even though she is perceived as strange and effeminate. She forms normal romantic relationships with women, has a fulfilling career, and is admired by those surrounding her, however she still feels incomplete. Unfortunately, what is missing from Dana is not externally noticeable, it is intrinsic happiness. From a young age, Dana suffered from gender dysphoria, a mental disorder that causes individuals to experience serious distress due to frustration with the sex and gender assigned at birth (APA, 2013). To alleviate the traumatic pain that has burdened her for decades, Dana makes the bold decision to partake in complete gender reassignment surgery. Trans-Sister Radio challenges the prototypical ideologies of character growth, morality, and relationships through its descriptive insight on transsexuality and thus gender.

Hannah Carson, a 16-year-old high school girl, has a secret that only she and her immediate family knows because if the news would to ever be revealed, she would be regarded as a freak in the eyes of society. For as long as Hannah could remember, she has been told by her parents that she should use the female’s bathroom even though she personally identifies herself as a male. Hannah is what society calls a transgender. She and many others like her are starting to emerge into the mainstream society to express their feelings and take their rights. This can be seen in the article “Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics” which is about should people who have penises be permitted or restricted from using female restrooms. We will analyze this article through several sociological key concepts.

1) Opposing Forces This film displayed two opposing forces which were represented as the transsexual community verses society. The weaker force in the film was displayed as the transsexual community while the stronger force was society. The goal of the weaker force was shown as a desire for equality within all culture and fair treatment of these individuals. This goal of the weaker force highlighted a weakness in the stronger force which was seen as fear.

They should have the right to dress as they choose, love who they choose, and be who they choose. It angers me that people believe differently considering they’ve never been in their shoes. In the “Paradoxes of Gender” Judith Lorber states, “We need to change biological sex in order to uphold the principle that biological sex determine one character”(41). Lorber's’ preconceived notion that one’s sex dictates their personality is flawed. It proves that society is unaccepting of people outside of the “norm”. Middle Sexes speaks to a wide variety of people but is mainly directed to transphobic people. However, the film isn’t very compelling because it doesn’t take the audience’s outlook into consideration. Through biological evidence and personal stories, the film strives to persuade transphobic people to be more accepting. Thomas attempts to persuade his target audience by referencing the science behind people who blur the lines between female and male. His unique approach is more convincing than an argument that stems from one’s opinions. However, his lack of counterarguments makes it difficult for the audience to relate.

Quite clearly, male sexual performance was a major key to being male. It was a man's sexual organs that made him different and superior to the woman. But maleness was somewhat fragile, and it was important for a man to keep demonstrating his maleness by action and thought, especially by sexual action. It was part of his duty to keep his female partners happy and satisfied, and unless he did so, he had failed as a man. (41)

Elizabeth Blevins quoted Neil Carpathios in an article saying “’ [Stacey Waite] dares to explore and write about the often complicated terrain of gender, sexuality and societal perceptions of the self, the body and desire.’” Waite is slowly helping everyone break away from the idea that gender is a solid tangible concept. In “The Kind of Man I am at the DMV” written by Stacey Waite, traditional gender roles are being challenged by explaining that transgender people are the same as everyone else and pointing out the ignorance that some have towards less commonly recognized genders.

Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.

Leslie Feinberg’s “Stone Butch Blues,” narrates protagonist, Jess Goldberg, through hirs bodily transformation as a transgender. Jess, born as a woman, went from identifying as a “he/she” to passing as a man, until ultimately identifying as neither male nor female. Jess’s journey as a trans was far from easy, due to the violence, from the police and peers, ze often fell victim to. Moreover, when growing up Jess never felt as if there was a place for hir in society. When Jess was around 16 years old, ze finally begins to search immensely for hirs “type of people.” Through the referral of a co-worker Jess was able to find a bar, Tifka’s, which possibly contained hirs “type of people.” Once inside the bar Jess describes it as “everything [ze]

Imagine, you go to work in your dress shoes, black suit, buzz-cut hair, red power tie, and nobody pays you a second look. But, the second you get home, you kick off your shoes, and don high-heels, the suit is replaced with a dress, your short wig is taken off, and you let your long curls fall, and your tie is in the closet, with a necklace in its place. Such hiding of true feelings is not an unheard concept in the transgender world. Millions of transgender people will never express their true feelings in their lifetime. This is similar to The Intruder by Andre Dubus, Kenneth Girard a

In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.

Prosser (1998) enters the gender-identity conversation with a rather counter-intuitive project. At a time when poststructuralism is busily deconstructing the sex/gender linkage in ways that transcend the materiality of the subject, Prosser wants to bring the “ontological” trans body back into the dialogue by charting the arc of the changing body within transgender narratives. Only by mapping these transitions in this frame can he describe a complex transsexual experience that breaks free from the political binaries used by essentialists and poststructuralists, such as “literal/deliteralizing, subversive/hegemonic” (16). If the former has been guilty of a dogmatic reliance on a narrow understanding of biology to describe transsexuals, Prosser argues, then the former is equally guilty of deconstructing gender to the point of reducing the material body to an inconvenient concept (13).

Jess has the desire to play soccer, but her parents want her to conform to Indian traditions. Once Jess earns a place on a women’s soccer team, she is encouraged by her new found teammates to continue to defy her parent’s wishes for a chance to play with them. She starts playing on their team after Jules, one of the players, complements and urges her to play on a team most well known for their competitiveness and multiple accomplishments in the soccer world, for example winning the tournament in Europe. This decision goes against Jess’ family obligations in that it subjects her to being immodest and straying away from a traditional women’s role in Indian society. Jess’ mother wishes for her to adhere to Indian traditions in that she prospers into a good Indian wife, instead of playing a game most often looked upon as a boy’s sport. Furthermore, she tells her daughter to stop continuing on with her ongoing rebellions and resorts to forcing Jess to learn to cook good Indian meals and wear

The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much

Imagine if you were to be judged for who you were, or what you did, or even your gender type. In the world there are a lot of social injustices going on even to this very day. One of the most common and heard of social injustice would probably be the one of people being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender. This issue has been going on for quite a long time now. Some people do not agree with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender projects. A lot of people suffer because of this injustice, and it also affects their whole lives. A lot of the people that go through this most likely end up fighting back for what they believe is right, which in their