Week Fifteen: Response 15.1
From Katy Steinmetz’s article “America’s Transition”
in Time magazine or the interviews conducted by Arabelle
Sicardi in “What It’s Really Like to Be a Trans Woman,” what are some things
the average, unaware reader learns about transgender people and issues?
Arabelle Sicardi wrote an article “What It’s Really Like to be a Trans Woman” where she discusses beauty standards and how it contributes to violence against trans woman. Trans women are far more likely to be killed if they don’t “pass”, which means to fit into conventional beauty standards. 72% of anti-LGBT homicides are trans women and 67% of those are trans women of color. This violence stems from those who do not accept people who do not fit the traditional standards of beauty. Sicardi interviews several trans women about their opinions on the risks they face because of this. Devin Diaz believes that trans women are expected to present as hyper-feminine and to align with heteronormativity as much as possible. Black and Latina trans women are expected to present this way all the time, while white trans and non-binary people are allowed to present in other ways because their whiteness protects them. Rashida Renee believes “passing” is not a privilege for some, but it’s a way to survive, it’s not so much relent to her needs and desires. Trans women who do not have gender-confirming surgeries like facial feminization surgery, sex reassignment surgery, breast plants and more are not seen as women or valued as woman in society. Diaz believes that most of the perceptions of trans people for men comes from pornography, were they start obsessing over genitalia. To be considered “successfully passing” is to be invisible, and to be unnoticed in public. The average reader can learn from this that trans people are only being validated if they “pass”. The ones who do not “pass” sadly are victims of violence and murder. If a trans woman does not come off as being a cis gender woman she can be the victim of someone who is unaccepting and ignorant.
ReplyDeleteLauren W.
In her article, “America’s Transition” (2014) Katy Steinmetz states that American society first recognized the existence of the trans-community—or at least, the idea that there was people who lived outside of their gender’s definition—when the former World War II soldier George Jorgensen transitioned into a woman, Christine, and publicly lived life as the gender she identified with (40). This brief insight into the history of the country’s contemporary relationship with the trans-community is just one example of the things the casual reader, such as the author of this post, may learn after reading the article. The article is an informative piece in which the author concerns herself with illustrating some of the problems the trans- community currently faces. The casual reader may be surprised to learn that some of these problems challenge the civil liberties one typically identifies this country with. For instance, Steinmetz notes that the Maryland governor Martin O’Malley “signed a law that protects trans people from being fired or refused service at a restaurant or otherwise mistreated because of their gender identity” in 2014(46). The fact that in 2014 one could deny another the simple luxury of a quick meal or economic stability because of how the other identifies one’s self is not only alarming, but also helps one understand why suicide attempts amongst trans people stand at 41 percent: the lack of understanding of the trans-community by the general population has relegated trans people to the role of social outcast (46). Steinmetz holds that one common misunderstanding about the trans-community is in regards to sexual preference. As she notes “There is no concrete correlation between a person’s gender identity and sexual interests; a heterosexual woman, for instance, might start living as a man and still be attracted to men” (40). This misunderstanding may be due to the way some people, even if they are well meaning, try to understand a trans-person’s sexual preference in heterosexual terms. However, as Steinmetz points out, such logic is not applicable to every relationship. Overall, the article does a good job at highlighting issues the trans-community faces. Her use of personal interviews with trans-people help put a face on the marginalized community.
ReplyDeleteEfrain S.
Katy Steinmetz's article, "America's Transition", sheds light on what it is like to be a transgender person living in today's America. She defines the differences between transgender, transsexual, and body dysphoria and how these terms have changed over the last few decades. This is important because, as the article notes, some cissexual people who are unaware of the importance of gender pronouns or transgender people themselves feel that the changing of someone's gender can be confusing, making it easy to write off trans issues all together. Steinmetz's article attempts to clarify this, while working to humanize trans people and show the struggles they face in politics, the public, or their everyday lives, something Laverne Cox says is incredibly important when it comes to transgender acceptance in American culture: "When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference”. Steinmetz uses examples like bullying in school, the constant worry over what bathrooms to use, or the fight for political rights to show just how marginalized transgender people really are. "America's Transition" also touches on the heartbreakingly high statistics for discrimination in the workplace, violence and suicide in the transgender community. Arabelle Sicardi's article, "What It's Like to Be a Trans Woman", uses interviews with trans women to show how the pressures of westernized beauty aid in their marginalization. These women argue that the act of putting on makeup and doing hair, of performing femininity, is integral to their survival in a culture that does not accept trans women. One woman said "Beyond desirability, entitlement to life is dependent on our attractiveness ... If we're ugly despite our efforts we're pitied, but if we're deliberately ugly, we're amoral and deserve the violence we face because we don't aim to fend it off with makeup, hair, or fashionable clothes." This idea, that transgender women must accurately portray what America considers to be femininity or womanhood, is largely unnoticed by cissexual society. An unaware reader might not understand just how much beauty ideals impact trans women—so much so their entire lives depend on it. Both articles work towards highlighting the oppressive, fearful, and painful experience of being transgender; something which people who are not aware of trans issues or people in general are quick to dismiss. Instead, these articles are a step towards educating and changing the behavior of the unconcerned or oblivious, so they too can help fight for transgender rights in America.
ReplyDeleteAutumn D.
When reading Katy Steinmetz article, “American’s Transition”, she clearly explains the struggles and tribulations of the Trans community and states a lot of unknown facts about that Trans community that unaware readers (such as myself) discover. In the beginning of the article Steinmetz gives a brief history of gender identity with World War II woman Christine Jorgensen, however since the word transgender was not coined yet, America called Christine a transvestite, which I interpreted as cross dresser. However, those who choose to seek medical intervention are usually called transsexuals. Trans people are significantly more likely to be more impoverished, suicidal, and unemployed than most Americans, meaning that the Trans community is a much marginalized group. Trans people only make of .5% of the population, which makes it even harder for them to gain acceptance. Steinmetz states that as of right now one of the biggest obstacles that Trans people face is that they we live in a world that is largely fixed on a binary definition of gender. From restrooms, pronouns, names, and sports teams, it is hard for a Trans person to choose and be recognized and the gender they identify with. Steinmetz’s use of personal examples of Trans people, such as gender and women’s studies Professor Susan Stryker makes readers aware of the loneliness and hardships they have felt. “It felt like being in a dark room, with my eyes, and ears cut off and my tongue cut out and not being able to connect my own inner experience with outer world”. In order to truly understand how they are feeling, one must understand and view sex and gender as two totally different concepts. Steinmetz, however also made it clear that sexual preferences are a different matter altogether, and that a person’s gender identity and sexual interest have no concrete correlation. Overall I think Steinmetz did a wonderful job highlighting the issues of Trans people. Steinmetz use of personal examples truly put a face to the marginalized community.
ReplyDeleteCiarajane Datuin
Katy Steinmetz’s Time Magazine article “America’s Transition” goes through the experiences of a few transgendered Americans in the modern age. There are many surprising - and tragic - facts that Steinmetz’s presents to the reader regarding transgender people. The average and unaware reader might learn that transgender people are far more likely than the general population to be impoverished, unemployed, and suicidal. The issues that transgender people face on a daily basis and as a whole are slowly, very slowly, only recently being recognized by the American population. Transgender people face a huge majority, as they make up only 0.5% of the population. When a person’s situation is rare and uncommon, it can be easily overlooked by the rest of the population or, in the majority of cases for transgender people, looked at with disdain and treated with hatred.
ReplyDeleteIn 1980, transsexualism was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This means that transsexuals were actually seen as having a mental illness. This was only recently changed to “gender dysphoria” in 2013. This has a much less negative connotation, as it means that transgender people are actually feeling discomfort with the gender they are living in rather than having a mental disorder.
Readers might also learn that there is a difference between sex and gender. Sex concerns biology and is determined at birth based on anatomy. Gender is based on culture and is a social construct. So while a transgender woman may be male based on sex, her gender is based on how she expresses herself. There is also no concrete correlation between a person’s gender identity and sexual interests.
Arabelle Sicardi in “What It’s Really Like to Be a Trans Woman” presents even more tragic facts about transgender women in America. In 2015, 20 trans women were killed in America based off of hate crimes. 72% of victims of anti-LGBT homicides are transgender women, and 67% of those are women of color. Transgender women are seven times more likely to be subjected to police brutality than the rest of the population. These statistics show that being transgender is dangerous, and prove that America still has a very long way to go towards acceptance of minority communities.
-Helen P.
Honestly, I teared up a little bit reading Katy Steinmetz’s article “America’s Transition” in Time magazine because I am such an empathetic person. I am the average, unaware reader that just learning about heartbreaking issues that transgender people face. Just within the first few introductory paragraphs, I learned a lot of big issues. Like me, I am sure that many other average, unaware readers had no idea that the transgender community only takes up 0.5% of the American population. Because of their extremely small population group, there is no wonder why it is so hard for them to find to a good footing in being fearlessly accepted into our society. They have been hiding for so long and only within the past few decades have they found the courage to accept their identity and hope that their fight for acceptance one day comes true. Readers would also quickly learn that the fear instilled in transgender people about how society cruelly treats them and how society has yet to truly accept them as humans leads the transgender community to face hardships such as unemployment, homelessness, targeted assault, and depression to the point of suicide. Reading that reminded me of when Alexandra Billings was a guest speaker in our class and talked about all those hardships she went through. What I think most unaware readers would find most incredulous is that society in the 1980’s homosexuality and transsexuality were seen as mental illnesses. Although homosexuality was taken off the list of recognized mental illnesses, I do not think many people are aware that non-heterosexual people were marginalized and, at one point, made to believe that they were suffering from a mental illness. I think that it’s great for the new generations because our society is slowly becoming more understanding, more accepting, and more open-minded. Maybe as more unaware people in our world take the time to learn about transgender people and transsexuality in depth instead of rejecting it off the bat, there would be a better chance of coexistence. Whether or not people identify as transgender, at least they could be open-minded and accepting of the community as part of our evolving culture.
ReplyDelete-Katelyn T.