Gender and what it mean has become a concept so blurred within American society in particular. There are so many different terms and meanings behind what gender really means as a whole in 2017. According to Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts (2012), “The term sex refers to the biological distinction of being male or female, whereas the term gender refers to the social or learned characteristics that are associated with being male or female” (pg. 331). However, gender now takes on many different forms now. ABC News now identifies 58, yes 58, different genders options for users to choose from on the social media platform Facebook (Goldman, 2017).
It seems that anymore people are no longer comfortable identifying themselves as strictly male or female, regardless of their anatomy. Sex is primarily the means of social categorization for an individual (Schneider et al., 2012).
Luckily, I have never had to become involved in a situation where I wouldn’t know when to call someone he, she, or they as the pronoun that they want to identify with. It is a confusing idea to wrap my head around. To put this into perspective, these are the 58 different gender options that Facebook identifies that vary from agender, androgynous, cis, gender variant, intersex, non-binary, other, transgender, and two-spirit and these are to only name a few (Goldman, 2017).
National Geographic featured the first transgender individual on the cover of their magazine in the January 2017 edition regarding gender. Avery Jackson is a nine year old girl representing the face of transgender today. Although Avery was born a boy, she has identified as a female since the age of five (Goldberg, 2016). Her ability to be comfortable in her own skin has opened the door for many other individuals to be happy with who they are and how they are. If you read the comments available on the National Geographic page for the article, you can see an outcry from the public that their lack of understanding or ability to try is still pouring out into society today.
This also brings up not only the issue of gender identification itself, but that there is still a large divide among males and females today in many parts of the world. Nasreen Sheikh is also a nine year old female with a story to share in the issue. She dreams of becoming a doctor, however, she lives in an impoverished area of Mumbai. In this particular area, boys are the dominant gender. They are allowed to go to school and have nicer things. Goldberg (2016) states, “In many places girls are uniquely at risk. At risk of being pulled out of school or doused with acid if they dare to attend. At risk of genital mutilation, child marriage, sexual assault” ().
For coming so far within society today, why are the seemingly little things like gender still such a large and confusing issue today?
References:
Goldberg, S. (2016). Why we put a transgender girl on the cover of national geographic. Retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/01/editors-note-gender/
Goldman, R. (2017). Here’s a list of 58 gender options for Facebook users. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/heres-a-list-of-58-gender-options-for-facebook-users/
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
This is an interesting topic for which there are no easy answers. There are many reasons why someone may make the type of comments that they did about the National Geographic issue. In my experience, the most common reasons for discriminating against transgender individuals are religious objection and personal experiences that have soured their opinions.
I am ashamed to say that I used to be disgusted by transgender people because of a bad experience with an ex-boyfriend. He cheated, and it was because he was no longer attracted to females- he was attracted to individuals who had both male and female anatomy. I considered people like this to be pre-op transgender individuals and began to associate my anger and heartbreak with that gender rather than just with my ex. For many years, any time that I heard about a transgender person, I would scoff and say callous things about them. I am so grateful that I met a transgender woman who was a lovely human being, and she changed my opinion dramatically. What resonated with me the most was that she was just like me- a girl in her early 20s, trying to make it through college so she could do something that she considered worthwhile with her life. She was a psychology major who wanted to work with people who had eating disorders, which was what I had planned to do early on as well. I didn’t know that she was a transgender woman until we got to know each other a bit better. I found out two or three months after we started talking, and it shattered my beliefs about who transgender people really were. For that reason, I think that social psychology may be able to help lessen the stigma against transgender people via the contact hypothesis. This involves two groups working together in order to achieve a common goal, and both groups must be relatively equal in status and power (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). We were both pretty similar, since we were college students near the same age and in similar living situations. As far as working together toward a goal, we did not go to the same school together but we discussed our studies in depth, which helped us both in terms of understanding the material better. We also proofread papers for one another a few times. I didn’t really think of it at the time, but perhaps this is what helped me identify with her better and changed my perception of transgender people.
I mentioned that religious objections could also cause one to view transgender people in a negative light. It is difficult to change someone’s mind when their beliefs are strong, but through social learning theory, religious parents could teach their children to respect and love transgender individuals, even if their religion suggests otherwise. Social learning theory simply says that that people learn how to behave by imitating others (Schneider et. al, 2012). If parents show love and compassion for others, even when they disagree or do not understand, the children are likely to do the same.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.