Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Gender Identities

Why is there such confusion with gender? What does it matter what color or type of clothes you choose to wear? I thought we are all able to express ourselves freely as we please. These norms that we as a society have upheld for hundreds of years play a large role in our everyday lives. When did clothes something we use to conceal our naked bodies become a symbol of our gender? And if it so necessary to have a covered body what does it matter what if you have a dress or pants on?

The article Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn’t Clear argues if young children should be able to choose the gender they want to identify with. In New York City many people are now allowed to alter the sex listed on their birth certificate under gender-identity rights. Many children as young as five years old are now being supported by parents, educators, and mental health professionals as they see this as the positive approach. In the past children who did not conform to gender norms would have to undergo psychoanalysis or behavior modification.

Why is it that when we do not conform we are looked down upon? Why can everyone be accepted as an individual?

Boys are taught to play with cars while girls are given a doll and if the two were to be switched it would appear as if something was wrong with the child and not as if this is their personal preference. In order to foster a sense of security and self-esteem many doctors have began to advise families to let these children be “who they are”. From past cases transgendered children who are steered in the direction that wasn’t of their choice shows higher rates of depression, suicidal feelings and self-mutilation. It would seem in their best interest to let them choose their own path instead of having someone pick it for them.

While some might look at a young boy showing up to school in skirt as something that isn’t normal and easily point the finger at the parents why are children not able to verbalize their own feelings? Some parents are choosing to black their child’s puberty medically which raises a bunch of ethical questions. They just want to enable their adolescent to make the correct decision at an appropriate age that they feel they will understand exactly what they are doing.

The topic of gender identity touches on many sensitive topics but I personally feel that you can’t label someone and place them in a box. From a young age we are taught that we have freedom and we should be able to do anything we choose to do. Everyone is uncomfortable with change but once it catches on we almost can’t remember what things we like before. I believe that it will take a long time before people are able to accept what will come about but in the end we have to see it as the individual’s decision and their decision in which they choose to live their lives. If someone that is transgendered isn’t telling someone else what they should be then why does that majority try to convert them? At the Park Day School in Oakland teachers are practicing gender neutrality which they are taught a new vocabulary and line the students up according to sneaker color and not by gender. This is the first step in making a change in which children can be taught that everyone should be looked on as equals.

-Janaine Jaikaran

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