Transgender

Essay Topic:

“Why gender functioning as a system might be even more of an issue than gender performativity for many transgendered people?
”

Why gender functioning as a system might be even more of an issue than gender performativity for many transgendered people?

Realizing that you are not performing the gender identity you feel you should or you want to, is for sure a major issue inanybody’s life. On the one hand, you have to decide what you want to do about it, if you want to keep it secret, if you want to come out, tell your family, if you want to change your appearance, if so, investigate and evaluate your medical options, if you want to go through the whole medical procedure or just part of it, see if you are even a candidate, etc.; it is evident that all of theforegoing is complicated and a hard issue to deal with, however, unfortunately it is just a part of what transgendered people have to deal with in a gender based system.
Transgender people find hard to accept themselves and share their way of being with the others because the “normal” thing in dominant society is that gender and sex cohere unproblematically; the latter let the roles, identity, status,relations, attributions, behaviors and biology to be developed according to the female/male dichotomy (MacDonald).
Scientific studies demonstrate that not even genetically the human sexes are perfectly defined neither just two; however, due political interests of the patriarchy, this information is ignored and the binary of male and female sexes keeps ruling (MacDonald).
Despite of the high costof performing gender differently, at some point of their lives transgendered people could no longer handle to be identified with the gender they were raced or they supposed to be and decide to live as transgendered. This decision is based on the idea that by changing their behavior and appearance their lives will be easier or at least that they will feel more comfortable with themselves;moreover, as the movie “You don’t know Dick” shows, there is a moment where they realize that the only way they can keep living is by performing the gender they feel it’s the right one. This decision works for a lot of transgender people; by changing their aspect they start to fit in society. Finally they are able to be what they have always been, but they didn’t look like. They stop watching and have anopportunity to enjoy life.
Here it is another interesting issue to consider while analyzing transgender people performativity; once they get the standard look of the gender they want to perform, automatically they become invisible for society; they camouflage their selves with “normal” people and feel as part of society. But, once again they face with a dilemma; they are now who they want to,but by choosing to be one of the two recognized genders they are now are criticized by some scholars of legitimizing the patriarchal structure that divides humanity in two genders (Lorber 1994; Lucan 1999) and even worse, in order to keep the social acceptance, some hide that they are transgender (Doan, 2010).
Considering the psychological stress trans people go through while performing agender they don’t feel identified with, it seems that the decision of transcending gender and live it differently has to be easier, however, only when thinking of all the aspects of life that are related to gender it is possible to realize how difficult it should be for trans people to be part of this gender system every day.
Dominant culture not only perpetuates but enhances the dichotomizationof gender no matter how painful it could be for some individuals who do not fit into this categorization. They keep exacerbating the value of a traditional family (woman-mom, man-dad, girl-daughter, boy-son) the traditional couple (man and woman), the standard appearance of both genders (femininity and masculinity) over sexualized women (sensual images of them everywhere), the powerful man (in...