Gender Identities

1. Gender Identities Lina Medaglia-Miller, Ph.D. The Great Pretender: The Art of Passing GSSC 1073 May 2010

2. The same Human Genome Project that told us that race is an illusion also tells us the same thing about gender.  The HGP asserts that genetic indicators for human sexuality and gender constitute about 2% of the human genome.  In other words, men and women are about 98% the same.

3. Why, then, do we have so many false beliefs or sexiststereotypes about the differences between men and women?  Men are active and women are passive, say the traditional psychologists.

4. Men are logical while women are emotional, say the traditional psychologists.

5. Yet, if we examine the real science behind gender, we understand that these perceived differences must be based on arbitrary cultural programming, or learned attitudes and behaviours. 

6. In other words, men and women are markedly different because human culture and its participants have, over time, decided upon what these differences would be.

7. We have systematically taught these sets of attitudes and behaviours to each successive generation.

9. The rigidity of masculine and feminine roles has been described as manufactured, cruel, and certainly inaccurate.  Some would argue that humanity cannot and should not be divided arbitrarily into two genders… that gender identification is not rigid, but fluid, and capable of much complexity.

10. The complexity of gender passing and transgender identities involves various combinations of body, mind, and soul transformation. It is important to learn and understand the many subtly-different nuances of gender identity.

11. Gender identity (also known as core gender identity) refers to one's chosen social identity from among the acknowledged gender identities present in a society, representing one's sex and gender aspirations. • Some say a person's Gender identity is the combination of one's outer sex, as represented by one's genitalia, and one's inner sex, i.e. the inner sense of being a male or a female.

12. Trans educator Monica Helms stresses that Gender expression, Gender identity, Physical Sex (body presentation), and Sexual orientation (Sexual attraction) are four completely individual and separate aspects to a person’s lifeIn her diagram, each is represented by a line.A person can identify at any place on those lines.

13. Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviours, and groups involving tendencies to vary from the usual gender roles. • Transgender is the state of one's "gender identity" (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) not matching one's "assigned sex" (identification by others as male, female or intersex based on physical/genetic sex).

14. A trans man, transman, trans guy, FTM is a transsexual or transgender man: a person who was assigned a female sex at birth, but who feels that this is not an accurate or complete description of themselves and consequently identifies as male.

15. A “trans woman” (sometimes trans-woman or transwoman) is a male-to-female (MTF) transsexual or transgender person and the term trans woman is preferred by many such individuals over various medical terms. • Some people labeled and assigned as males at birth feel that this is not an accurate and complete description of themselves. They may desire to transition towards a gender role as a woman. In accordance with their new role, the label woman is usually preferred, as a label denoting the transition would imply that their identity is somehow unaccepted or false.

16. Cross-dressers who do so on stage or act the part in movies have entertained audiences for thousands of years. Before modern times, female parts were played by men because women were not allowed to be on stage prior to the 18th century. Conversely, in 19th century opera, the parts of boys were played by women ("pants parts") because women had higher voices and could simulate the vocal sound of boys.

17. There are those who, as a personal preference or as an artform, dress as members of the opposite gender. Men who dress as women identify themselves as “drag queens.”

18. Women, or female artists, who dress as men identify themselves as “drag kings.”

19. Some gender passers dress as members of one gender because they genuinely experience themselves as belonging to that gender, although their sexual organs at birth identified them as members of the other gender. 

20. Others still may crossdress, even though they identify as members of their biologically-assigned sex and gender-- an older, less-used term for cross-dressing is transvestism. Not all cross-dressers are sexually-oriented to a same-sex partner or are transgendered. 

21. Furthermore, some gender passers, who genuinely experience themselves as belonging to the opposite gender of that to which they were born, go to extraordinary measures (hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery) to alter the external sexual characteristics of their bodies--these individuals are only one sub-set of a group who may identify as transsexuals. 16 year-old German pop star Kim, formerly known as Tim Petras

22. There are historical instances of women who, because they desired the kind of privilege afforded to men, lived and died as men. Billy Tipton (1914-1989) is one example. • Tipton, a talented musician and bandleader, could not have experienced any degree of success due to the constraints of his biology. • Only men were allowed to become leading jazz musicians. He was biologically female, but this fact was not discovered, even by his family, until he died.

23. Another case of gender passing, whether real or mythological, is that of the 11th century figure Pope Joan (Johanna Anglicus). A devout and intelligent country girl, she went into the priesthood as a man and, due to her skill as a teacher and orator, allegedly rose up the ranks to become Pope.  When she was discovered, she was punished for her gender crossing crime.

24. Norah Vincent, dressed as a man for 18 months in order to research the male experience (Self-Made Man, 2006).

25. Internationally, we see a number of examples of “third gender” people.

26. In the culture of South Asia, hijra (or khusra in Punjabi) are physiological males who adopt feminine gender identity, women's clothing and other feminine gender roles.

27. Kathoey or katoey is a male-to-femaletransgender person or an effeminategay male in Thailand. The word kathoey is thought to be of Khmer origin (the equivalent Khmer word is "kteuy"). It is most often translated as ladyboy in English conversation with Thais and this latter expression has become popular across South East Asia except in the Philippines where the term bakla is often used. Nong Tum is perhaps the most internationally recognised Kathoey for her portrayal in the film Beautiful Boxer.

28. A direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh manidoowag, "two-spirited" or "two-spirit" is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit.

29. Exercise:How would you define your gender expression?Name 3 things in your upbringing that encouraged or discouraged your gender expression.Name 3 things in the culture in which you grew up that encouraged or discouraged your gender expression.Name 3 advantages and three disadvantages associated with your gender expression.

30. End