Beautiful Daughters - Blog Post #11

My initial reaction during the first few minutes of this video was “where are the transgender women?” Being previously rather uneducated about transgender women, I had mostly been exposed to only women at the beginning stages of their transition that still looked and sounded very much like men. This video really opened my eyes to the longevity of the transition process and the first hand experiences many transgender women have. I couldn’t believe the story of the woman whose boyfriend was beaten to death in his sleep when his roommate told everyone that his girlfriend was a man. I can’t even imagine the emotional trauma that she must have endured, especially when she says that those who killed him, “didn’t want him falling in love with ambiguity.” She also mentioned that she believes that homophobes punish transgender women for their femininity, is if they can’t accept the fact that transgender women would want to trade their macho masculine qualities for feminine ones.

I’ll admit that I’ll catch myself sometimes staring when I see a transgender women, but it’s not so much because of the fact that they are a transgender, but more so because it’s not every day that you see a woman well over 6 feet tall. I believe that our society sort of fears the concept of transgender because we seem to only have two categories, male or female, and anyone that isn’t 100% one or the other is an outsider we cannot view as equal. I think homophobes and transphobes need to realize that even though a person may have been born with male parts but is now a female, or vise versa, this person is still a human, and just as much of a human as anyone else, and that is what is most important. Cisgender people can act as allies to combat transphobia by educating others on what transgender is and shedding some light on the transition process. Additionally, reiterating the fact that transgenders are equally as human as everyone else and deserve to be treated so, can help lessen the fear and lack of knowledge regarding transgender, which will hopefully result in it becoming more accepted in our society.

In the reading, the author brings up a great point that our society often thinks of sex and gender as having the same meaning. However, sex is defined more as one’s qualities regarding their chromosomes, genitals, and hormone levels. Gender is split into two categories of gender identity and gender expression. Gender identity can be described as “a person’s internal self-concept with regard to gender categories like man and woman” (424.) This is basically how individuals view themselves. Gender expression refers to “behaviors, such as attire, demeanor, and language, through which we intentionally or unintentionally communicate gender” (424). Gender expression is often influenced by society’s gender roles, or how we are expected to act based on our gender.

I also found it interesting how in the last section of the reading, the author brings up the point that “everyone should be able to find a bathroom that conforms to the needs of their body. Everyone should be able to use a restroom without being accused of being in the ‘wrong’ place” (456). I had never considered this issue before, but the fact that our society only provides 2 options for public bathrooms doesn’t exactly support the acceptance of transgender people. The only way this issue can be resolved, is for cisgender people to work as allies for transgender people by raising awareness and promote acceptance.