Christine Deputy
Cynthia Klein
ENG 101
6 June 2014
Gender Inequality: Societal Analogue and Gender Entitlement
Notions Bolster Transgender Anonymity
While mourning the death of a close childhood friend,
searching for reason and understanding beyond the KOMO News media insinuations of being transient, I peruse his
Facebook final entries searching for quantification to justify the lack of due
process that afforded law enforcement’s ability to use excessive force on that dreadful
day of May 11, 2014 at University Place, Washington (Bowen). In the effort to organize my thoughts amidst
this turmoil, to take a stance regarding gender inequality, my thoughts continually
wander back to my friend as I ask myself, “What is just? Where was equality for my masculine, white,
male, Christian childhood friend that came from an upper middle-class family?” In asking these questions, a community of
male friends wax and wane the mental images of my childhood friend, replacing
his image with the understanding that it could easily have been one of my male
to female pre or post-operative transgendered friends. Ancient societies and cities, Greek philosophy,
religious views of gender roles, to current heated debates regarding the Grand
Old Party (GOP) stance on equal pay for women—it classifies and divides the
nation from childhood education to workforce business ethics in census
statistical male and female boxes. The
transgender community remains largely unaddressed in the present social norm
attention except with mental illness and unchristian hyperbole, seemingly imperceptible
and anonymous with similar but separate internal struggles regarding gender
inequality. Yet partially privileged in
gender--as he struggles with the duality of society’s narrow opinions, whether
male or female, and impacted by gender topics at school, at work and where he
plays. The battle of the sexes continues
to deride impressions of gender entitlement—this subject must encompass transgender
existence and necessitates acknowledgement of general human equality to enforce
equal right to safety, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In several social circles, many declare that lesbian, gay,
bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) behavior is not normal because society
embraces two distinct differentiations of male or female conduct. It defines and provides comfort in our
pronoun references of “he” and “she” statements. Interestingly, there are figurines from
periods around c9000-8000 B.C. discovered in the Middle East, depicting
androgynous human images that portray a view of gender identities being
flexible. Lauren Talalay argues that the
early archeological figurines may communicate a belief that gender was viewed
as same-sex or cross-sex combinations (136). Although the androgynous figurines were
primarily found in graves and may depict that life after death is not gender
specific, their culture embraced the concept.
What other societies embraced femininity? Anette Olivier hypothesizes that, during the
Egyptian Empire, around 16th century B.C. and 11th
century B.C., the Egyptian queens ruled with as much reverence and power as the
Egyptian pharaohs inferring that gender equality was not a prevailing social dispute
(6). Women were not placed into a position of
power during ancient Egypt because of a necessity to express diversity for
their society—civil rule was not divided by male and female concepts—rather it was
a position of entitlement deemed by birth in royal bloodline. In
2009, Dr. Irwin Braverman and company observed that the Egyptian pharaoh
Akhenaten of 1377 BCE had extremely feminine qualities, including obvious
breasts in likeness depictions generating reader declarations of the pharaoh’s
cross-sexual nature (Braverman, Mackowiak and Redford). Some historians theorize that Akhenaten was
ridiculed because of his cross-sexual nature.
Typically, in the human emotional condition, it is not common for people
to glorify in beautiful artwork something that they ridicule. Is it possible that current cultures choose
to project that Akhenaten was ridiculed because current social norms do the
same? The term berdache was commonly
used by anthropologists around the twentieth century to describe men in several
cultures that created three or more gender categories according to Aaron
Devor’s Becoming Members of Society: 4
Learning the Social Meanings of Gender.
Devor explains that berdaches were biological males that took the social
role of females; he functioned in women’s duties, had sex with, and married men. The berdache was not socially marginalized
because of his choice--quite the opposite--he was exalted in prestige (Devor 378). By these shared historic cultural discoveries
and observations, it is not a new trend or novel concept to challenge current
society’s mythology of male masculinity and female femininity to accept and
embrace this information. Although, doing so may threaten certain subconscious
intrinsic ideals conditioned to oppress and disunite. How did the current social factious view of
men’s masculinity, or lack of, begin? When
did current male and female role mythology commence?
In the quest for an inkling of an answer to when and where
the origin of current gender perception and separation in roles began considering
early ancient societies embraced a symbiotic relationship of sexes, even
reveling and endorsing the ideology of different shades of gray— I realize it
is no simple task to evidence blame. Many
circles passionately contend that current patriarchal trends are attributed to
early Christianity influence. It is
simple to find theories, observations, and studies with factual events pointing
to historical authorities similar to the medieval period as Dyan Elliot
published. It alarms as it challenges a
perspective of historical revered figures such as St. Augustine. Elliot quotes him to say, “[Demons] persuade
[men]…in marvelous and unseen ways, entering by means of that subtlety of their
own bodies into the bodies of men who are unaware, and through certain
imaginary visions mingling themselves with men’s thoughts, whether they are
awake or asleep.” (quoted in Elliott 19) Elliot further expands that St. Augustine preached
that sinful sexual fantasies existed--encouraged by demons--victimizing men by
penetrating sensibility imbedding an influence in memory and senses. St. Augustine believed that these demonic
influences warranted investigation.
Stepping back from history and focusing on current social views, Devor
informs us:
Just as many Americans
in the past considered it ‘unnatural’ and socially destructive for women to
vote or go to college, many now consider it ‘unnatural’ and socially
destructive for gays and lesbians to marry, or for individuals to express a
gender identity that violates conventional notions of masculinity or
femininity. (378)
Although many are eager to blame early Christianity and the
patriarchal enforcement, this belief leaves too many questions to be able to
subscribe to that notion. My mind
wanders back to my childhood friend as I ponder this information. As a masculine white male, what demons
victimized and pervaded him to cause other males with appointed authority to
brazenly perform a perceived public execution?
What was the attitude that was offensive if it was not his masculinity
in question? Ursule Molinaro portrays a
shocking public execution of a 45-year-old Greek female philosopher, Hypatia,
in the streets of Alexandria during the 5th-century BC era. Her scorched and blistering body was inflamed
in public view as a message to reformers and healers that she silence her
knowledge if she valued her life. Her
story teaches us that the etymology of the word heresy originally
meant—choice—the option of defining life as something other than the masses’
definition of normal. In essence, the
word heresy was adopted and bastardized into Christian doctrine significance of
conformance and the lack of accordance was punishable by torture (Molinaro). Many people theorize and conclude that
people’s choices for their unique path of living generates consequences as
several people shrug their shoulders in apathy.
In current cultures, modern civilization does not publicly torture a
person because of their choice in living a life that is beyond the community’s
view of acceptable uniformity—or does it?
The answer then seems to create an epiphany as I realize that my
friend’s brutal civil punishment without due process can be encompassed in a
single word; conformity. There must have
been an impression that his profile did not fit for a successful apprehension. What would it have been like if this were a
homeless transgender? In the textbook Rereading America, the editors explain
that our gender identification determines the societal concept of the people’s roles
in common classification for rules of engagement (Columbo, Cullen and Lisle). These rules of engagement become the baseline,
which seems that, every person in society is weighed and measured to gauge the level
of conformity. As many passionately
state that the origin begins with patriarchal society shifts, all circles have
one common denominator that fuels most current society struggles and that is
our desire to mold and form people into our perception of who people should be. Society desires for males and females to fit
into those defining categories that comfort our definition of civil uniformity
and values.
Common reaction towards the homeless are often nonchalant
and dismissive as many make assuming comments that those people chose to live
that life. Stacia Glenn with The News Tribune published, “It's
unclear what Hillstrom was doing in the area. His last known address was in
Spanaway, but Troyer said the man appeared to be a transient and had likely
just moved into the area.” (Glenn)
The eye witnesses in the area claim Hillstrom was subdued by the officers and relatives
attest that he had a place of residence. Then I wonder, how many transients maintain a
social media page? Some would say that
not all of the facts are clear. Indeed, I would not argue that point. My question is, was the choice to persecute him
more to do with the perception that he was transient and that he did not appear
to conform to the right socioeconomic norm?
If my friend were wearing the right clothes that conveyed his economical
rank in the upper-middle class family, would he still be alive today? If one were to consider how many transgenders
are homeless and subject to the same potential scrutiny and brutality because he
does not fit in the mold of social acceptance, his safety is precarious and
frightening. In 2011, Gary Gates
published an important point regarding statistical data for transgenders. Gates maintains that illustrating transgender
data is challenging because of the complexities around sexual orientation,
gender identification, variants of behavioral non-conformity definitions, and
the readiness of respondents to be considered especially when there are
concerns of confidentiality and anonymity.
According to the site National
Center for Transgender Equality, there are one in five transgenders denied
a place of residence. One in ten have
been evicted as a result of gender identity.
Of the 1.6 million youth that are homeless, around 20-40% are LGBT and
42% of the transgender people facing homelessness have to conceal what gender he
may identify with while seeking refuge in a shelter (National Center). People
judge with narrow perceptions, arguing and debating but with a lack of willingness
to have open minds to gain an understanding of truth behind a person’s persona
and reason. The masses cast aside intellect
as fear based emotions override logic that provoke us to consider possibilities
of life chosen outside of orthodox concepts while the media encourages the
frenzy.
Countless “mad liberalist woman” statements can be found on
the web as several popular news sources splash eye popping headlines of politicians
babbling rhetoric in polarized parties that often result in emotional
commentaries placing blame of present social problems at the feet of political
groups widening the gap of division beyond gender. Samantha Lachman with Huffington Post shared a
video clip of a panel of GOP politicians that played the Dating Game theme song during the Colorado Christian University
event seemingly mocking women voters and current equal pay concerns (Lachman). I cannot help but believe that the LGBT
community may have been as shocked and offended in the GOP misogynistic display
where most people representing an organization in this manner would be fired
for breach of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Because of the silence and anonymity in the gay
and transgender community, it is not surprising that most people do not realize
the large number of transgender men that remain invisible. This brazen display of mockery only serves to
appall and further isolate the transgendered male with concerns of what he
could expect to experience, not just in public humility but in workforce
harassment. In mainstream census, for
the purpose of statistical data and studies, people are strategically
categorized into neat little boxes.
Democrat or Republican, ethnicity, household income, education level, date
of birth, marital status, and male or female.
From my experience in the medical industry questionnaires and
demographic questionnaires, the boxes to categorize do not accommodate marital
partner gender, nor do these classifications consider gender clarification for sex
identity. It is also interesting that
there are many misconceptions and assumptions made with LGBT and where
transgendered males are concerned. For
example, the general populous assumes that male transgenders are gay. The conflict with this notion is that this belief
is both true and not true. With my
personal experience, many male transgenders informed me that he prefers women
partners. During the pre-operative
stage, transgenders are afforded the ability to float between male and female
roles. At post-operative stage,
heterosexuality depends on sexual orientation over a person’s gender
identification. Our current desire to
categorize people into neat descriptive boxes, does not properly illustrate nor
allow acknowledgement of transgenders and the complexity in trying to delineate
gender identity and sexual preference. Lana
Wachowski, co-director of several popular and successful films such as The Matrix Trilogy and V for Vandetta, eloquently spoke in
favor of gender equality during her acceptance of the Freedom Award at the Equality Illinois 2014 Gala. She expands on gender equality and the
complicated nature from the perspective as a transgender:
Here one checked
box, one letter, an "M" granted me access to legal social financial
privilege while another box, another letter an "F" denied them to
me. This is perhaps a suggestion of the
nature of our most ubiquitous form of inequality. Consider for a moment why is it that every
piece of identification from the very first to the very last, from our birth
certificate to our death certificate begins with us being measured for one box
or another. Why are these boxes so
important? Why is our first question, is
it a boy or a girl? Why do we make
gender the fundament of our identity? I
can't help but wonder, if the answer to these questions is related to the
reason why our governments are predominantly male. Why wealth rights and privileges favor one
gender over another and why in the election of 2008 one national magazine
asked, ‘Is America ready for a black president?’ While another was still asking, ‘Can a woman
be president?’ (14:53)
During Wachowski’s revelation at the
Human Rights Campaign of 2012, she stood on the stage like a butterfly emerged
from her cocoon, glowing in her complete metamorphosis for all the world to see
and announce her transition, she explains:
Parenthetically
this is a word that is a very complicated subject for me because of its
complicity in a binary gender narrative that I am not particularly comfortable
with. Yet I realize the moment I go on camera, that act will be subject to
projections that are both personal and political. I have been out to my family
and friends for over a decade and the majority of that time I have been
discussing this--this particular moment--with my therapist, my family and my
wife because I know eventually I’m going to do it but I also know that there is
going to be a price for it. (12:15)
It is difficult to imagine the iconic
courage it took for Wachowski to publicly reveal her true self and mention the potential
cost her outing may generate that she is compelled to acknowledge this negative
factor during her speech. According to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a survey taken in 2009 it
was discovered that there are more than seven thousand LGBT students between
the ages 13-21 that experience violence, harassment, bullying, and physical
assault because of sexual orientation.
There are eight out of ten students that have to endure verbal
harassment, four out of ten that have been physically harassed, one out of five
have been victim to physical assault and 60% do not feel safe at school (United States). This information lends to an understanding of
the trauma transgenders experience in life.
There are many who are quick to
declare that the LGBT community’s refusal to conform to society’s definition of
male and female roles is a form of mental illness or willful choice that can be
prevented. The psychology professionals
have provided a clinical category to identify this disorder; gender dysphoria. Heino Meyer-Bahlburg reports in his 2010
article that the first psychiatric classification of gender identity variants
(GIV) specific to gender identity disorder (GID) was initiated by the American
Psychiatric Association in 1980. Earlier
classifications maintained that gender identity variants were an issue of
sexual deviancy which has had numerous additions and changes in categories and
subcategories since the classification inception. These categories now also include GID of
Childhood that assume homosexuality and gender identity are controllable psychosomatic
conditions (Meyer-Bahlburg).
As GID awareness is elevated in relation to depression and high suicidal
rates, more parents are listening to toddlers when gender identity behavioral
patterns become persistent. Recently
released in the New York Daily News,
five year old Ryland accepts the 2014 Inspiration Award for sharing his story
about his female-to-male transition after insisting declarations that he is a
boy not a girl (Moran). In a 2007 20/20 documentary titled My Secret Self with Barbara Walters,
Jazz Jennings shares her experience as a male-to-female transgendered child at
six years old, the youngest child to publicly announce her transition. Since the Walters’ documentary, more parents
are coming forward sharing the children’s persistent gender identity variance
that many are tagging with descriptions as “confusion”, “disorder”, or as
Meyer-Bahlburg is concluding should be clinically changed to “incongruent”
which implies “inappropriate”. It would
seem that there are several toddlers that are declaring distress with the physical
bodies he was born in stating claims that he identifies with the opposite
gender. There are several cases of
transgender children that talk about suicide or death at a young age when he
should be filled with awe and wonder with the world brimming with
questions. Once the parents accept and
allow the child to transition, the children become the happy and inquisitive
toddlers one would expect. This tests
the clinical psychiatric assumptions that homosexuality or transgender
behaviors are a sexual deviant choice.
Clearly, previous assumptions and classifications must be revisited in
order to help alleviate trauma and try to effect a shift in social perception.
The topic of LGBT equality
threatens many domestic sentiments with gender boundaries and equality
judgments. The historical image that has
been passed down through progenitor ideals vexes many belief systems and values
as several people are eager to espouse that LGBT needs are incongruent,
unnatural, and irreligious. The current
political debate regarding gender inequalities, pay discrepancies, education, and
workforce considerations exclude a large group that must be considered for
inclusion in the conversations of gender equality. The topic of gender equality and equal pay is
not isolated to feminists, be it male or female, it is inclusive of all people. It should be moving forward with an
androgynous doctrine in order to broaden societal views to overcome divided
entitled sexist attitudes that endanger the masses civil liberties, safety and
happiness regardless of socioeconomic rank, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation and gender identification.
It is through a better understanding and acceptance of the natural human
condition that society can shatter the walls of anonymity that perpetuate
inequality and the sense of silent torment in separateness. Embracing unity as a whole so the united
nation may begin to move forward towards true equal opportunity where people go
to school, live and where people work with pay rates based on skill, team
contribution, and performance that will elevate a favorable circumstance for a quality
of life for all.
Works Cited
Bowen, Russ. University Place man dies after being
tased by deputies. 12 May 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.
Braverman, Irwin M., Philip A. Mackowiak and Donald
B. Redford. "Akhenaten and the Strange Physiques of Egypt's 18th
Dynasty." Annals of Internal Medicine (2009): 556-560. PDF file.
24 May 2014.
Columbo, Gary, Robert Cullen and Bonnie Lisle, Rereading
America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. 9th ed.
Boston, MA: Bedford: St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Devor, Aaron H. "Becoming Members of Society: 4
Learning the Social Meanings of Gender." Ed. Columbo, Cullen and Lisle.
387-395.
Elliott, Dyan. Fallen Bodies: Pollution,
Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2011. eBook.
Equality Illinois. Lana Wachowski Accepts Freedom
Award. 21 Feb 2014. Web. 22 May 2014.
Gates, Gary J. "How many people are lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender?" UCLA: The Williams Institute
(2011): 1-8. Web.
Glenn, Stacia. "Man tased by deputies in
University Place later dies." The News Tribune 12 May 2014. Web.
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Human Rights Campaign. Lana Wachowski receives the
HRC Visibility Award. 24 Oct 2012. YouTube. Web. 22 May 2012.
Jennings, Jazz. "My Secret Self: A Story of
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Lachman, Samantha. Huffington Post, Politics: GOP
Gubernatorial Debate Spoofs 'The Dating Game' In Appeal to Women Voters.
22 May 2014. Web. 22 May 2014.
Meyer-Bahlburg, Heino F. L. "From Mental
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Center for Biotechnology Information (2010): 461-476. Web.
Molinaro, Ursule. "A Christian Martyr in Reverse
Hypatia: 370-415 A.D." Hypatia's Daughters. Ed. Linda Lopez
McAlister. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. Print.
Moran, Lee. "San Diego parents reveal story of
transgender son who became boy at 5." New York Daily News 30 May
2014. Web.
National Center for Transgender Equality. Transequality.org:
Housing and Homelessness. 2011. Web. 27 May 2014.
Olivier, Anette. "Social status of elite women
of the new kingdom of ancient Egypt: a comparison of artistic features."
2009. Diss.
Talalay, Lauren E. "The Gendered Sea:
Iconography, Gender, and Mediterranean Prehistory." The Archaeology of
Mediterranean Prehistory. Ed. Emma Blake and Bernard A Knapp. Malden:
Blackwell Publishing, 2008. 130-155. Web.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health. 25 Mar 2014.
Web. 01 Jun 2014.
Some students have stated that the Electronic Health Records experience was either irrelevant or anti-climactic. The question of “why” crossed my mind because it was one of the most beneficial courses that explained some important issues regarding HIPAA, the Affordable Care Act, and understanding who the leaders are for the governing policies and mandates. It provided some key relevant information that otherwise would never have been researched nor investigated as many statements have been made without proper investigation and without validating involved acts. It was an experience that presented more questions as I wondered, “what is expected and what is needed from Health Informatics Information Technology trained personnel?” What does hardware and computer network engineering have to do with the role of a SQL DBMS administrator?
