Referring back to my first posting, I have learned a great deal this semester on the process of the gender switch. My research (methodology) primarily involved literature written by transsexuals or social scientists, analysis of "Southern Comfort" (2001), examining case studies (such as Aleshia Brevard) online, and I had the fortunate opportunity of speaking with a transsexual individual, Gavi, who visited Wheaton and presented the attending audience with some interesting perspectives on sexual orientations and gender. I believe that it is extremely important to expose oneself to other cultures, communities, and types of people, and this encounter, for me, was very helpful in understanding exactly how a transsexual or transgendered person feels in a society that really has no acceptance nor tolerance of their differences. Truthfully, we are all different, and rediscovering this social fact has enabled me to see clearly how sexual orientation and gender identity differ from person to person and really are not black and white. For instance, I believe that there is a little bit of man and woman and heterosexual identity and homosexual identity in all of us; it just depends how much we identify with each aspect. I have become more open-minded and trusting of myself and I have discovered a whole aspect of the human condition that is so wrongly ignored.
Reflecting on our class, I specifically found the sections on "Inequality" and "Gender and the Body" helpful in putting my own study in context of the Anthropological field. Sexuality in different cultures is viewed very different; for instance, homosexuality is a common and accepted occurrence in other cultures, and this is hard to imagine coming from such a strict, conservative country. Learning about how humans express themselves through sex proves what many students already know; that, like every individual person, every individual culture differs and shapes what is and what is not acceptable to such an extent that our natural inclinations are suppressed. This study highlighted the different relationships between the physical characteristics of the human body and the natural gender and sexual identities. Understanding this and how our culture denies these different relationships has enabled me to view culture from a very unique position. Although I am uncertain if the gender switch can really be referred to as a cross-cultural encounter, I am sure that there are important similarities that can be drawn between the two to help people comprehend the feeling that a transsexual or transgendered person may not otherwise be able to explain. In essence, the "trans" body works almost like a new "culture," and in the process of changing their bodies, transsexuals and transgendered people experience a sort of cross-cultural encounter by discovering new social relationships that result out of their new look. Perhaps this is simply a better or easier way to look at the transsexual experience from an American perspective.
I wanted to note that although there are many similarities we can draw on between the gender switch and cross-cultural encounters, I must play devil's advocate and argue that there are certainly differences as well. The transsexual and transgendered community exists on a sub-cultural level in Amerian society (that is, the examples I have examined were American examples); therefore, we are not looking at the typical cross-cultural encounter. Many readers may have expected a different language, a unique way of dress, or new foods to emerge out of my cross-cultural encounter (and perhaps many bloggers from our class had these experiences), but I decided to go about this assignment in a very unusual way. I found that there were surprises among the transsexual/transgender community that occurred at the time of the gender switch about some of the social norms that non-transsexuals are unaware of because we are cultured at such an early age. Transsexuals and transgendered people are actually lucky (in my own opinion) to experience the physical characteristics and hormones of two genders in one lifetime: I imagine that many of us (the general population) has at one time or another wondered about the experiences of the opposite sex and this is truly brought to life in the circumstance of the transsexual experience.
Lastly, I would like to shed light on why this study may be of interest to other anthropologists (as in, why should they care?) and perhaps briefly explain my own expectations of how transsexuals and transgendered people may react to my blog. Anthropologists (specifically those who study sexual habits, gender identity, or identity in general) would be interested in this study because sex and gender are two very important aspects of the individual and the community. Many people shape their lives around their gender or sexual orientation, and especially in America, where our judgments of others are so conservative, these issues are of interest to social scientists because they are so suppressed. In addition to this, I hope that I have accurately depicted the sex change in a way that is clear to the transsexual community and the community of people that have not undergone this transformation. Perhaps this will be understandable to both perspectives, and I would hope that reactions would be positive or constructively critical. It is very difficult for me to assume that all individuals would react in a similar manner, but at least my interaction with Gavi was successful in that when I explained my project, he seemed very interested in looking at the sex change experience in this manner. By identifying the sex change as something similar to what many people are familiar with (cross-cultural encounters), examining the switch from man culture to woman culture will, perhaps, be better understood in this way. As I mentioned in a previous entry, the use of the terms "man culture" and "woman culture" was suggested by Gavi, in contrast to "male culture" and "female culture" which suggests more specifically the physical characteristics of an individual.
In conclusion, I have enjoyed comparing and contrasting the sex change and cross-cultural encounters, and in doing this, experienced another community (referring to the transsexual community as "culture" is still debatable). From researching Aleshia Brevard to my conversations with Gavi, I have a new respect for people identifying with the transsexual or transgendered communities. The story of Robert Eads, in "Southern Comfort" (2001), has not lost its impact on me and I have found, just like Lola suggested at the end of the film, that nature truly does "delight in diversity," and her words make me wonder how we can possibly overlook that.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Friday, December 7, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The Many Layers of Identity
After thinking about how my blog will be coming to a close in the next few days, I wanted to find a last comparison between culture and the gender switch before I move on to the differences between cross-cultural encounters and the sex change and to my conclusion, in which I will discuss how anthropologists may find this informtion useful and how I believe transsexuals and transgendered peoples will possibly react to my blog. Therefore, I spent some time reading from Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, edited by Matt Berstein Sycamore a.k.a. Mattilda (mentioned in the previous blog). "Conformity," a term used in the title, references the tendency of Americans to desire similarities to their peers. Therefore, it is not surprising that our society favors unflexible identities; that is, there is little room for diversity. America has a history of struggling with diversity, from Suffrage to the Civil Rights movement. Fortunately, more and more "minorities" are establishing themselves on the national level: even gays and lesbians have achieved some recognition in the news in the past few years. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of transsexuals. Americans are in denial of the complex array of sexual identities that exist almost every form of life.
Of great interest to me in Sycamore's book was an essay written by Logan Gutierrez-Mock, "F2mestizo":
"I never would have guessed." That's the response I usually get when I tell people I'm biracial. I guess that's a reasonable answer to give a person with white skin privilege. But every time it cuts me. It erases my heritage, my experiences, everything I grew up with. When people use female pronouns with me it doesn't hurt like this. I get annoyed, frustrated, check what I did "wrong" in the mirror when I get home, but this discomfort doesn't separate me from my male identity. The people who read me as only white never ask me to prove that I'm trans. However, they constantly express their suspicions that I'm not actually biracial, and sometimes I feel like I need to carry pictures of my family in my wallet so that people will believe me. (Sycamore, 2006: 228-229)
As I have discussed in earlier blog entries, identity is complex. Most of us have layers of ethnicities, races, and sexualities that we identify with. These layers together make up an individual who must utilize these identities as s/he navigates through their own culture. Imagine the dilemmas that arise from a cross-cultural encounter. Imagine the confusion that comes with a sex change, relearning how to act with the introduction of new social relationships. I have made my point in my earlier blogs that these experiences are not unlike one another. Now that I have engaged you in your thought processes, I hope that you will begin to think through these different identities, compare them to your own, and separate cross-cultural encounters from the sex change experience to better understand them both.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein a.k.a. Mattilda
2006, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Of great interest to me in Sycamore's book was an essay written by Logan Gutierrez-Mock, "F2mestizo":
"I never would have guessed." That's the response I usually get when I tell people I'm biracial. I guess that's a reasonable answer to give a person with white skin privilege. But every time it cuts me. It erases my heritage, my experiences, everything I grew up with. When people use female pronouns with me it doesn't hurt like this. I get annoyed, frustrated, check what I did "wrong" in the mirror when I get home, but this discomfort doesn't separate me from my male identity. The people who read me as only white never ask me to prove that I'm trans. However, they constantly express their suspicions that I'm not actually biracial, and sometimes I feel like I need to carry pictures of my family in my wallet so that people will believe me. (Sycamore, 2006: 228-229)
As I have discussed in earlier blog entries, identity is complex. Most of us have layers of ethnicities, races, and sexualities that we identify with. These layers together make up an individual who must utilize these identities as s/he navigates through their own culture. Imagine the dilemmas that arise from a cross-cultural encounter. Imagine the confusion that comes with a sex change, relearning how to act with the introduction of new social relationships. I have made my point in my earlier blogs that these experiences are not unlike one another. Now that I have engaged you in your thought processes, I hope that you will begin to think through these different identities, compare them to your own, and separate cross-cultural encounters from the sex change experience to better understand them both.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein a.k.a. Mattilda
2006, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
"I'm Me" Authenticity
In an effort to compare the close relationship between the cross-cultural experience and the gender switch, I decided to examine a collection of writings edited by Matt Bernstein Sycamore a.k.a. Mattilda, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. This collection of essays focuses on the "intersections of identity, categorization, and community" and on the "notion of belonging." Stephanie Abraham, author of "No Longer Just American," describes her identity as an American with roots in Syria and Lebanon. While growing up, Stephanie paid little attention to the "assimilation" of American culture into her household. Her father absorbed American culture and his children "paid little attention" to their own assimilation. Once 9/11 occurred, Stephanie, like other Americans with Middle Eastern roots, found herself suddenly defined as an Arab-American, rather than simply an American. She began questioning her own identity and held on to what Arab she had left in her:
I spent years feeling ashamed that I did not look Arab enough, could not speak Arabic, and did not grow up immersed in "culture." I felt like my life did not resemble a real Arab's life, yet I keep reminding myself that I won't be more "authentic" after visiting our village because I already am authentic--in that "I'm me" sense. (Sycamore, 2006: 135)
Compare Stephanie's experience to the transsexual/transgender experience. There are many similarities: the questioning of one's identity, the acceptance of one's identity, the "I'm me" sense. In order to comfortably go through the process of a sex change, an individual has to acknowledge the "I'm me" authenticity of themselves (i.e. a male in a female's body, a female in a male's body). There is ashame because American culture leaves little room for grey. In fact, the "assimilation" that Stephanie speaks of is not unlike the socialization Americans experience at a very early age, a much earlier age than Stephanie's father. We learn the dos and don'ts of gender, and beyond "male" and "female," we learn little else of the many gender identities that actually exist. During this process, we are set up to struggle through puberty, questioning our own gender boundaries in our early years. While Stephanie rediscovered her Arab-ism, as young adults we all rediscover our true sexual identities: we go from only knowing the black and white of gender, to learning for ourselves how many sexual identities we have to choose from.
I hope that the relationship between culture differences and the gender change is beginning to be clear. By introducing the case study (above), I wanted to exemplify a cross-cultural experience and shed light on the transsexual/transgender experience. I have also learned from looking at Stephanie Abraham's own experiences that my identity works in similar ways. America has been deemed a "melting pot" of cultures from all over the world, and this metaphor is correct in many ways. Most of us trace our roots back to more than one country and rarely choose to identify as "American" when we discuss our identities with other Americans. Rather, we choose to identify with our roots (for example, I often identify as a Pole and German). Therefore, I learned from Stephanie's story that cross-cultural encounters can occur within us, and more often than not, they occur in the transsexual/transgender community in the form of sexual reassignment.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein a.k.a. Mattilda, ed.
2006, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
I spent years feeling ashamed that I did not look Arab enough, could not speak Arabic, and did not grow up immersed in "culture." I felt like my life did not resemble a real Arab's life, yet I keep reminding myself that I won't be more "authentic" after visiting our village because I already am authentic--in that "I'm me" sense. (Sycamore, 2006: 135)
Compare Stephanie's experience to the transsexual/transgender experience. There are many similarities: the questioning of one's identity, the acceptance of one's identity, the "I'm me" sense. In order to comfortably go through the process of a sex change, an individual has to acknowledge the "I'm me" authenticity of themselves (i.e. a male in a female's body, a female in a male's body). There is ashame because American culture leaves little room for grey. In fact, the "assimilation" that Stephanie speaks of is not unlike the socialization Americans experience at a very early age, a much earlier age than Stephanie's father. We learn the dos and don'ts of gender, and beyond "male" and "female," we learn little else of the many gender identities that actually exist. During this process, we are set up to struggle through puberty, questioning our own gender boundaries in our early years. While Stephanie rediscovered her Arab-ism, as young adults we all rediscover our true sexual identities: we go from only knowing the black and white of gender, to learning for ourselves how many sexual identities we have to choose from.
I hope that the relationship between culture differences and the gender change is beginning to be clear. By introducing the case study (above), I wanted to exemplify a cross-cultural experience and shed light on the transsexual/transgender experience. I have also learned from looking at Stephanie Abraham's own experiences that my identity works in similar ways. America has been deemed a "melting pot" of cultures from all over the world, and this metaphor is correct in many ways. Most of us trace our roots back to more than one country and rarely choose to identify as "American" when we discuss our identities with other Americans. Rather, we choose to identify with our roots (for example, I often identify as a Pole and German). Therefore, I learned from Stephanie's story that cross-cultural encounters can occur within us, and more often than not, they occur in the transsexual/transgender community in the form of sexual reassignment.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein a.k.a. Mattilda, ed.
2006, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
The Grey Areas of Culture and Gender
Culture is a complex ideology and one that is never clearly defined. There are exceptions to the concrete concept of culture which play out with cross-cultural encounters. I have learned from my investigation into the experiences of transsexuals/transgenders that culture is a malleable notion, that it is hardly definable in the same way in every context. Just like gender, culture exists in many forms. In fact, I must acknowledge that many anthropologists would argue that my examination, the change from woman to man or vice versa, is not cultural. This may be true in some contexts, but I have found that the transsexual/transgender community is subject to a very unique self-defining experience that warps and molds the boundaries of understanding gender norms. There are no rules for defining what can be culture or a cross-cultural experience to what can't be culture or a cross-cultural experience. Therefore, my study is arguably adjacent to investigations into crossing borders and culture shock, what some may deem as true cross-cultural experiences.
Max Wolf Valerio, who I mentioned earlier in my last blog entry, not only acknowledges the excitement of becoming a man, but the tensions he experiences as he enters another sphere of gender identity:
Now that I'm a man, I find that an invisible coating of protection, a soothing, sweet barrier, has fallen from around me. I hadn't even been aware of its presence. Women ask me, sometimes with a resentful tone, "So are you more safe on the streets now?" It's not that simple. It's true, I no longer worry about sexual harassment on the streets, about intrusive ogling, or rape. That's a huge relief. I don't make light of it. However, there's another side to violence that women aren't exposed to. The competitive angst and edge of man-on-man violence. The pecking order, the daily drills of masculine testiness. I no longer have any slack cut for me; men threaten me with their fists if I give them the finger or tell them to fuck off and die; I have to watch where I am in relation to their boundaries with greater care. Bumping into the wrong guy at the wrong time can be a prelude to a confrontation. It's a drag. One I wasn't prepared for. Everything in my feminist background informed me that I would be safer as a man, more secure walking the streets, being in crowds, going about my life out in the world. So when I actually begin to experience more violence being out in the world, I'm startled. I've been mugged, punched in the face, and threatened on more than a few occasions. I've had to learn a new code of conduct, to decipher a fresh set of signals. I'm not complaining, but I can't say this is my favorite part of being a man. (Valerio, 2006: 272).
Social norms are called into question when one is faced with a newly defined set of values permiating from a newly experienced culture. Valerio successfully demonstrates the change in "conduct" which results out of the interactions with new people based on the new identity of his self. Like an American in any foreign country who is judged on a stereotypical basis and must struggle with new cultural organization, a transsexual/transgender is enveloped in changing values that must be dealt with in order to move forward. If we chose to ignore these new social relationships (whether during a sex change or a borders change), we would be stuck in limbo. We would get no where, and our relationships with other people would fail.
I never imagined that culture was so complex, that it has no concrete characteristics. Even aspects of culture differences, such as language, are arguably unstable; might two cultures exist in the same country and use the same language system? It is interesting to me that my study has led me to a union of concepts: across borders, culture is practically undefinable and gender has no set explanation. There is no black and white of gender, and culture will indefinitely be grey.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Valerio, Max Wolf.
2006, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Max Wolf Valerio, who I mentioned earlier in my last blog entry, not only acknowledges the excitement of becoming a man, but the tensions he experiences as he enters another sphere of gender identity:
Now that I'm a man, I find that an invisible coating of protection, a soothing, sweet barrier, has fallen from around me. I hadn't even been aware of its presence. Women ask me, sometimes with a resentful tone, "So are you more safe on the streets now?" It's not that simple. It's true, I no longer worry about sexual harassment on the streets, about intrusive ogling, or rape. That's a huge relief. I don't make light of it. However, there's another side to violence that women aren't exposed to. The competitive angst and edge of man-on-man violence. The pecking order, the daily drills of masculine testiness. I no longer have any slack cut for me; men threaten me with their fists if I give them the finger or tell them to fuck off and die; I have to watch where I am in relation to their boundaries with greater care. Bumping into the wrong guy at the wrong time can be a prelude to a confrontation. It's a drag. One I wasn't prepared for. Everything in my feminist background informed me that I would be safer as a man, more secure walking the streets, being in crowds, going about my life out in the world. So when I actually begin to experience more violence being out in the world, I'm startled. I've been mugged, punched in the face, and threatened on more than a few occasions. I've had to learn a new code of conduct, to decipher a fresh set of signals. I'm not complaining, but I can't say this is my favorite part of being a man. (Valerio, 2006: 272).
Social norms are called into question when one is faced with a newly defined set of values permiating from a newly experienced culture. Valerio successfully demonstrates the change in "conduct" which results out of the interactions with new people based on the new identity of his self. Like an American in any foreign country who is judged on a stereotypical basis and must struggle with new cultural organization, a transsexual/transgender is enveloped in changing values that must be dealt with in order to move forward. If we chose to ignore these new social relationships (whether during a sex change or a borders change), we would be stuck in limbo. We would get no where, and our relationships with other people would fail.
I never imagined that culture was so complex, that it has no concrete characteristics. Even aspects of culture differences, such as language, are arguably unstable; might two cultures exist in the same country and use the same language system? It is interesting to me that my study has led me to a union of concepts: across borders, culture is practically undefinable and gender has no set explanation. There is no black and white of gender, and culture will indefinitely be grey.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Valerio, Max Wolf.
2006, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The "Impulse"
Although it has been a fairly long time since my last post, I have been examining more literature to better understand the sex/identity change. In particular, one book, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male, by Max Wolf Valerio, is valuable to my research because Valerio discusses openly the change in sex drive and physical attraction to women when he began using testosterone to physically be a man. From jeering to staring, men grow accustomed to treating women like objects and although it doesn't excuse this behavior, testosterone, Valerio discovers, has a great deal to do with the desire to be physical with women. I remember listening to a radio broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR) about a transgendered man rediscovering himself after the hormone treatment began. He remembered clear as day walking down a busy, city street and passing an attractive woman, only to discover that the hormone treatments were causing him to have such strong desires for the opposite sex, that he actually turned around to glance at the woman's backside while she continued passed him and sauntered off down the street. It was this actual occurrence that represented, for the interviewee, the significant differences between men and women and it became the individual event that stood for the rest of the speaker's life as a man.
Valerio describes more in-depth the sexual differences he discovers between men and women:
Testosterone, the "male hormone," is actually a sex hormone that everyone has, but men possess this virilizing chemical in astronomical amounts compared to women. When I changed my sex, I altered my ratio of testosterone to a male range. The result was not only an amazing physical transformation evident to anyone who meets me, but also an even more amazing and unexpected change in my perceptions, sex drive, and emotions. (Valerio, 2006: 9)
Valerio, like Gavi, from my previous post, discovers the experience-side of the sex change. Interactions with other people, whether they are direct or indirect (such as the attractive woman walking down the street), are altered. Even internal thoughts and feelings are significantly different, as if the individual has left their comfort zone and entered a new, unfamiliar social existence:
I feel more confident, expansive, cocky. It's a pounding-on-the-chest kind of feeling, a swagger, a strut. Testosterone is an androgen, an up, pure raucous power. "Raw power!" as Iggy Pop sings. I'm beginning to understand certain things in waves of sharp relief. The adolescent boys who whip past me on skateboards--shouting, grinning, turnings wild tricks, jumping curbs, weaving in and out of traffic oblivious to skinned knees or passing cards. Men in groups--loud, boisterous, joking with maniacal enthusiasm. Gay men in Castro bars--sweating, stripped to the waist, dancing to throbbing, relentless music. It's that energy--sizzling, pounding, surging, thrusting, a little loud or tight-eyed, paranoid around the edges, territorial, tense, on guard, expansive, cranked up. Testosterone is party energy. I'm finding it hard to contain. If I lie down, I beat off. If I get up, I feel like walking, walking, and walking. I wake up with a start in the mornings, charged. I wish I could channel it... On estrogen, I was more relaxed. I couldn't have known it; I had no means of comparison. I felt submerged in a sweet, dense fog, like walking through liquid--slow, languid. (Valerio, 2006: 20)
Transgendered people are given the unique opportunity to experience both the lives of men and of women. Valerio describes an example of the switch as an "impulse" to watch women, rather than a given choice that many may experience in a cross-cultural encounter that demands the attention of our conscience. We are conscious of our mistakes when we find ourselves in awkward situations, even though it is usually impossible for us to understand another culture. Similarly, a transgendered man or woman is conscious of the changes affecting their body, emotions, and feelings, so while the experience is of another kind than being introduced to a new culture with new values, there is a similar sort of consciousness over feelings that people of this sexual and personal identity experience. I am beginning to understand the type of encounter that occurs within a culture and within the transgendered community; it begins with the newfound self, which is missing in the cross-cultural encounter. Usually, it is questions of others that we ask ourselves in a cross-cultural encounter, rather than questions of our selves that we are faced with.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Valerio, Max Wolf.
2006, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Valerio describes more in-depth the sexual differences he discovers between men and women:
Testosterone, the "male hormone," is actually a sex hormone that everyone has, but men possess this virilizing chemical in astronomical amounts compared to women. When I changed my sex, I altered my ratio of testosterone to a male range. The result was not only an amazing physical transformation evident to anyone who meets me, but also an even more amazing and unexpected change in my perceptions, sex drive, and emotions. (Valerio, 2006: 9)
Valerio, like Gavi, from my previous post, discovers the experience-side of the sex change. Interactions with other people, whether they are direct or indirect (such as the attractive woman walking down the street), are altered. Even internal thoughts and feelings are significantly different, as if the individual has left their comfort zone and entered a new, unfamiliar social existence:
I feel more confident, expansive, cocky. It's a pounding-on-the-chest kind of feeling, a swagger, a strut. Testosterone is an androgen, an up, pure raucous power. "Raw power!" as Iggy Pop sings. I'm beginning to understand certain things in waves of sharp relief. The adolescent boys who whip past me on skateboards--shouting, grinning, turnings wild tricks, jumping curbs, weaving in and out of traffic oblivious to skinned knees or passing cards. Men in groups--loud, boisterous, joking with maniacal enthusiasm. Gay men in Castro bars--sweating, stripped to the waist, dancing to throbbing, relentless music. It's that energy--sizzling, pounding, surging, thrusting, a little loud or tight-eyed, paranoid around the edges, territorial, tense, on guard, expansive, cranked up. Testosterone is party energy. I'm finding it hard to contain. If I lie down, I beat off. If I get up, I feel like walking, walking, and walking. I wake up with a start in the mornings, charged. I wish I could channel it... On estrogen, I was more relaxed. I couldn't have known it; I had no means of comparison. I felt submerged in a sweet, dense fog, like walking through liquid--slow, languid. (Valerio, 2006: 20)
Transgendered people are given the unique opportunity to experience both the lives of men and of women. Valerio describes an example of the switch as an "impulse" to watch women, rather than a given choice that many may experience in a cross-cultural encounter that demands the attention of our conscience. We are conscious of our mistakes when we find ourselves in awkward situations, even though it is usually impossible for us to understand another culture. Similarly, a transgendered man or woman is conscious of the changes affecting their body, emotions, and feelings, so while the experience is of another kind than being introduced to a new culture with new values, there is a similar sort of consciousness over feelings that people of this sexual and personal identity experience. I am beginning to understand the type of encounter that occurs within a culture and within the transgendered community; it begins with the newfound self, which is missing in the cross-cultural encounter. Usually, it is questions of others that we ask ourselves in a cross-cultural encounter, rather than questions of our selves that we are faced with.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Valerio, Max Wolf.
2006, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Monday, October 29, 2007
From "Man" to "Woman" and Everything In-between
On Thursday, October 25, 2007, I observed a presentation by Gavi*, the executive director of a “grassroots educational (nonprofit) organization”** to help transgendered and transsexual people. As there are very few programs that are set up to deal with the diversity of the trans group, Gavi explained that this organization is specifically structured to incorporate all variations in sexuality and gender.
Gavi taught the audience about the physical and mental factors that decide gender, social rules and development, interactions between men and women and more. He explained the feeling of a “sisterhood” among females that as a woman, he experienced and I experience as well: there are often times a glance between women, perhaps when two females are alone late at night at a train station, bus stop, etc., that translates as the message, “I feel safer with you here.” We may not be conscious of this, or (like myself) we may feel physical and emotional relief at the site of another woman waiting by herself. The contact between these two women is very slight, but in that moment the women share a common relief: “With you here, I am less afraid of being raped.” Gavi explained that the switch from female to male (specifically the change in physical characteristics) resulted in a very changed experience. Now his glance at a lone woman at the bus stop became a threatening advance. Gavi had to be conscious of these gendered interactions and change the way in which he looked at and spoke to women. Once he was an ally; now he is viewed (like all men, late at night) as a predator.
There are differences between sex and cultures all over the world. Gavi taught me that these differences (in the writing of my blog) need to be considered and he helped me come up with a more accurate term for what I am looking at: “men and women culture.” “Male” and “female” culture may differ from place to place, but “men” and “women,” which are terms for gender in the United States and in other countries, describe one extreme and another rather than physical distinctions; they label identity rather than biology. “Male” and “female” are biological terms, and do not allow for the possibility of genders in-between. Gavi explained that in different cultures, stereotypes are assigned to different genders: for example, in other cultures, the male is the biological sex that is more likely to cry openly in public and he is often times more accepted in his emotional expression. There are individuals who explain their gender quite differently, and as I am looking at gender identity, rather than biological distinctions, the switch from “male/female” to “men/women” culture at the advice of Gavi, is a switch I am willing to make. I believe this will better explain my goals for my research.
* full name has been shortened for protection purposes
** I left out the name of the organization for protection purposes
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Gavi taught the audience about the physical and mental factors that decide gender, social rules and development, interactions between men and women and more. He explained the feeling of a “sisterhood” among females that as a woman, he experienced and I experience as well: there are often times a glance between women, perhaps when two females are alone late at night at a train station, bus stop, etc., that translates as the message, “I feel safer with you here.” We may not be conscious of this, or (like myself) we may feel physical and emotional relief at the site of another woman waiting by herself. The contact between these two women is very slight, but in that moment the women share a common relief: “With you here, I am less afraid of being raped.” Gavi explained that the switch from female to male (specifically the change in physical characteristics) resulted in a very changed experience. Now his glance at a lone woman at the bus stop became a threatening advance. Gavi had to be conscious of these gendered interactions and change the way in which he looked at and spoke to women. Once he was an ally; now he is viewed (like all men, late at night) as a predator.
There are differences between sex and cultures all over the world. Gavi taught me that these differences (in the writing of my blog) need to be considered and he helped me come up with a more accurate term for what I am looking at: “men and women culture.” “Male” and “female” culture may differ from place to place, but “men” and “women,” which are terms for gender in the United States and in other countries, describe one extreme and another rather than physical distinctions; they label identity rather than biology. “Male” and “female” are biological terms, and do not allow for the possibility of genders in-between. Gavi explained that in different cultures, stereotypes are assigned to different genders: for example, in other cultures, the male is the biological sex that is more likely to cry openly in public and he is often times more accepted in his emotional expression. There are individuals who explain their gender quite differently, and as I am looking at gender identity, rather than biological distinctions, the switch from “male/female” to “men/women” culture at the advice of Gavi, is a switch I am willing to make. I believe this will better explain my goals for my research.
* full name has been shortened for protection purposes
** I left out the name of the organization for protection purposes
~ Katherine Niemczyk
A "Deadly" Secret
Aleshia Brevard, a transsexual, high fashion model, Playboy model, and film and television actress and director, "began" her life at Westlake Clinic in Los Angeles, in 1962 (she was born a male in 1937):
Gone was my "birth defect". From that day forward I could react to life emotionally, pursue my own feminine dreams of success, and live as an equal partner with the man I loved. I had been reborn woman. I was free. - Aleshia Brevard (Brevard, 2006)
I decided to spend some time researching Aleshia Brevard because she is among only a few transsexual women who have appeared either bikini-clad or in the nude (Playboy magazine) for the American audience. I discovered the quote above on her website, and found it very interesting that she referred to being born a male as a "birth defect." Viewed in this way, I feel that it is much easier to understand the position of transsexual women and men; they are born a gender, and are that gender all along, but a "defect" stands between them and their right to claiming a certain sexual identity in our culture. Because gender is so black and white in America, by referring to her sex as a "defect," Brevard is making a point that clearly justifies, for the American public, the switch from male to female.
Nevertheless, my research has shown a certain amount of separation between those who have gone through sexual reassignment surgery, and those who have not. While we, as a culture, do not allow for this other gender type, transsexuals still have a place in society, and by ignoring it, we are avoiding reality. Someone once told me that there are at least five different genders between male and female (black and white), but American society only recognizes those two. How strange we are to only accept a small number of these categorized genders. But reality does prove to us that there is a large amount of gray area in between:
To me gender is not physical at all, but is altogether insubstantial. It is soul, perhaps, it is talent, it is taste, it is environment, it is how one feels, it is light and shade, it is inner music, it is a spring in one's step or an exchange of glances, it is more truly life and love than any combination of genitals, ovaries, and hormones. It is the essentialness of oneself, the psyche, the fragment of unity. Male and female are sex, masculine and feminine are gender, and though the conceptions obviously overlap, they are far from synonymous. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, gender is not a mere imaginative extension of sex. "Gender is a reality, and a more fundamental extension of sex. Sex is, in fact, merely the adaptation to organic life of a fundamental polarity which divides all created beings. Female sex is simply one of the things that have feminine gender; there are many others, and Masculine and Feminine meet us on planes of reality where male and female would be simply meaningless." - Jan Morris (Ames, 2005: 89)
That being said, and returning to the topic at hand, gender plays a role in society that defines who we are. So, what happens when a man suddenly breaks the social norm and changes his physical make-up to match that of a woman? Deirdre McCloskey, an economic theorist and historian, says, "It's strange to have been a man and now to be a woman. But it's no stranger perhaps than having once been a West African and now being an American, or once a priest and now a businessman. Free people keep deciding to make strange crossings, from storekeeper to monk or from civilian to soldier or from man to woman. Crossing boundaries is a minority interest, but human" (Ames, 2005: 205). Is the gender switch, therefore, equivalent to that of a culture change? McCloskey seems to think so, and not only that, but she seems to agree that it is of human nature to create change for oneself. Aleshia Brevard saw this change as only natural and it seems to me that we give way to many changes in our lives that naturally occur. But in the United States, as in other countries all over the world, the transsexual change specifically is a social taboo:
"Never forget," I tell myself, "you are always a stranger here, always carry a smoldering, deadly secret. Never fully relax; never completely let go." - Calpernia Sarah Adams (Ames, 2005: 278)
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Ames, Jonathan ed.
2005, Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. New York, New York: Vintage Books.
Brevard, Aleshia
2006, Excerpt from Aleshia's autobiography. Electronic document.
http://www.aleshiabrevard.com/Gallery_Fashion.htm
The Sight of Men
I think it is time to acknowledge culture as I have decided to use the term. There is hardly one explanation of the term culture, due to the large scope of different cultures around the world. In fact, as we distinguished in Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at the beginning of the course, culture is a long and varied list of beliefs, norms, social constructs, practices, traditions, music, dance, family roles, heritage, education, world view, etc. We could look to David Schneider who said that "culture is a stage" with a stage setting, a cast of characters, power differentials, and norms (or stage directions). Or we could look to Clifford Giertz who said that "man is an animal suspended in the webs of significance that he himself has spun" (culture being the web of significance). While both of these definitions certainly describe culture, I have decided to explore this topic on my own, in the context of my cultural-encounter topic: transsexuals and transgendered individuals (Delaney, 2004: 14-15).
The most fitting definition of culture that I could come up with is "a set of ideas, beliefs, and/or conscious or unconscious societal rules and norms that envelope all those activities that we may be able to distinguish from other groups." Yes, I know. You will first say that this definition is too broad to lay a hand on, but first let me remind you that culture is too convoluted a theory for most to comprehend. In fact, anthropologists have been arguing for years as to whether or not the discipline should use this term to describe such a phenomenon. For my purposes, culture is being used to describe the sex change experience, and will therefore encompass quite a lot of new ideas to add to the concept of culture (Delaney, 2004: 11)).
Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a German physician and neurologist, studied a patient (as part of his study Psychopathia Sexualis), who felt "'like a woman in a man's form,'" and who suffered from a number of ailments throughout his life, including grout, influenza, neurasthenia, and a stroke of paralysis. Psychopathia Sexualis was a "collection of 237 case studies in sexual pathology," which influenced Freud (a student of Krafft-Ebing's) in his work at a later time. Krafft-Ebing gathered the following information (note - this is before sex change operation revolutionized the medical field) (Ames, 2005: 1-21):
Since complete effemination (men taking on the characteristics of women), the principal changes I have observed in myself are:
1. The constant feeling of being a woman from top to toe.
2. The constant feeling of having female genitals.
3. The periodicity of the monthly molimina (symptoms a woman may experience before a period).
4. The regular occurrence of female desire, though not directed to any particular man.
5. The passive female feeling of coitus (sexual intercourse).
6. After that, the feeling of impregnation.
7. The female feeling in thought of coitus.
8. At the sight of women, the feeling of being of their kind, and the feminine interest in them.
9. At the sight of men, the feminine interest in them.
10. At the sight of children, the same feeling.
11. The changed disposition and much greater patience.
12. The final resignation to my fate, for which I have nothing to thank but positive religion; without it I should have long ago committed suicide.
(Ames, 2005: 1-21)
Please keep in mind that this patient suffered from a great number of health issues, some of which may have been the cause of one or a number of the previously mentioned feelings (molimina or the feeling of impregnation). However, the reader cannot deny that many or all of these feelings relate to the gender specific, the female, and those changes from male to female. Some of these, in fact, accompany the experience of culture "shock" or change: the relating to the "other" ("being of their kind"), the interest in the "other," a changed disposition in a different cultural setting, and a mention of religion. In my opinion, the feeling of culture "shock" is significant of very few experiences, which makes it all the more fitting in this instance, and it may be looked at as a new cultural encounter for the individual. This may not be a very conventional way to look at the sex change experience, but by drawing these similarities, the reader may be able to relate by experience, as if he or she were in his or her "shoes," if you will. Only by similar experiences, can we begin to understand those around us.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Ames, Jonathan ed.
2005, Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. New York, New York: Vintage Books.
Delaney, Carol
2004, Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
The most fitting definition of culture that I could come up with is "a set of ideas, beliefs, and/or conscious or unconscious societal rules and norms that envelope all those activities that we may be able to distinguish from other groups." Yes, I know. You will first say that this definition is too broad to lay a hand on, but first let me remind you that culture is too convoluted a theory for most to comprehend. In fact, anthropologists have been arguing for years as to whether or not the discipline should use this term to describe such a phenomenon. For my purposes, culture is being used to describe the sex change experience, and will therefore encompass quite a lot of new ideas to add to the concept of culture (Delaney, 2004: 11)).
Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a German physician and neurologist, studied a patient (as part of his study Psychopathia Sexualis), who felt "'like a woman in a man's form,'" and who suffered from a number of ailments throughout his life, including grout, influenza, neurasthenia, and a stroke of paralysis. Psychopathia Sexualis was a "collection of 237 case studies in sexual pathology," which influenced Freud (a student of Krafft-Ebing's) in his work at a later time. Krafft-Ebing gathered the following information (note - this is before sex change operation revolutionized the medical field) (Ames, 2005: 1-21):
Since complete effemination (men taking on the characteristics of women), the principal changes I have observed in myself are:
1. The constant feeling of being a woman from top to toe.
2. The constant feeling of having female genitals.
3. The periodicity of the monthly molimina (symptoms a woman may experience before a period).
4. The regular occurrence of female desire, though not directed to any particular man.
5. The passive female feeling of coitus (sexual intercourse).
6. After that, the feeling of impregnation.
7. The female feeling in thought of coitus.
8. At the sight of women, the feeling of being of their kind, and the feminine interest in them.
9. At the sight of men, the feminine interest in them.
10. At the sight of children, the same feeling.
11. The changed disposition and much greater patience.
12. The final resignation to my fate, for which I have nothing to thank but positive religion; without it I should have long ago committed suicide.
(Ames, 2005: 1-21)
Please keep in mind that this patient suffered from a great number of health issues, some of which may have been the cause of one or a number of the previously mentioned feelings (molimina or the feeling of impregnation). However, the reader cannot deny that many or all of these feelings relate to the gender specific, the female, and those changes from male to female. Some of these, in fact, accompany the experience of culture "shock" or change: the relating to the "other" ("being of their kind"), the interest in the "other," a changed disposition in a different cultural setting, and a mention of religion. In my opinion, the feeling of culture "shock" is significant of very few experiences, which makes it all the more fitting in this instance, and it may be looked at as a new cultural encounter for the individual. This may not be a very conventional way to look at the sex change experience, but by drawing these similarities, the reader may be able to relate by experience, as if he or she were in his or her "shoes," if you will. Only by similar experiences, can we begin to understand those around us.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Ames, Jonathan ed.
2005, Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. New York, New York: Vintage Books.
Delaney, Carol
2004, Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
The Black and White of Gender
I have been having some difficulty making connections with members of the transsexual community. However, I do have one contact through the LGBTQ Alumni Association at Wheaton College. She has connected me with members of the association who will hopefully be willing to answer my questions. In the mean time, I have decided to examine some literature devoted to the topic of being a transsexual, and this has proven to be very helpful.
Probably among of the first obstacles a transsexual individual may experience is the issue of finding his/her individualism within a society that has a very poor understanding of the transsexual community. As Anne Bolin discusses, in her book In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage, the transition from male to female can be confused with a lot of other identities:
A major part of understanding transsexuals as males who feel like females and who dress like women is understanding what they are not. They are not transvestites. The Berdache Society included a population of heterosexual transvestites and these people contributed much valuable information by serving as a vehicle of comparison and contrast with transsexuals. Moreover, transsexuals and transvestites are often confused with another group of people: homosexual cross-dressers ("drag queens" in the gay argot). Because transsexuals, heterosexual transvestites, and drag queens all share the behavior of cross-dressing (wearing the clothes of females), there is a superficial similarity amongst an otherwise diverse group of people. Nevertheless, clarification is necessary to avoid any misconceptions in terminology. (Bolin, 1988: 9)
In fact, identity plays a huge role in everyone's life, no matter their sexual identity, ethnicity, nationality, etc. Imagine the transition from male to female (or vice versa), as there are very few allowances in our society for any other type of gender identity. When one goes through with the transition, what are the expectations of others for that individual and what are the expectations of that individual for themselves? As "gender" is such a black and white issue (you are either female or male), how does one find any sort of American or Westernized identity when his/her mind is of a separate gender than what the everyday citizen might call "normal"? There is not only ostracizing of transsexuals from the American community at large, but also between and among groups of transsexuals:
... One transsexual stood out as the "in-group deviant" (cf. Goffman 1963: 142-43). She violated transsexual concepts of their own normalcy as protowomen and women. This individual was known for her high-fashion hairstyles, reliance on wigs (even though she had a full head of hair), chic and extensive use of makeup, penchant for black satin and spandex, and clawlike, long fingernails. Even though she had been repeatedly sanctioned on these grounds and had tried to alter her choice in clothing, she continues to transform an average outfit through accessories into a glamorous high-fashion ensemble. This individual was suspect as to the authenticity of her transsexualism because she presented herself in drag queen style. Like drag queens, her modus operandi was one of artifice and impersonation rather than naturalness. Naturalness was the premise upon which transsexuals "stratified their own" (cf. Goffman 1963: 107). The absence of progress in the presentation of self as a natural woman, then, was the basis of in-group stigmatization. (Bolin, 1988: 81)
This may be a very specific case of stigmatization, but what happens to any individual who transitions so severely (severely, I say, according to society at large)? Bolin says that they must "divorce themselves from networks in which they are known as males (or females)" (Bolin, 90). A change in association, may conclude in a change of culture, and with this in mind, may the reader imagine a change such as this in order that they may begin to understand our differences, whether it be gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. There are niches for all of us in this modern world, but we must allow for every one to be of equal size.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Bolin, Anne
1988, In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc.
Probably among of the first obstacles a transsexual individual may experience is the issue of finding his/her individualism within a society that has a very poor understanding of the transsexual community. As Anne Bolin discusses, in her book In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage, the transition from male to female can be confused with a lot of other identities:
A major part of understanding transsexuals as males who feel like females and who dress like women is understanding what they are not. They are not transvestites. The Berdache Society included a population of heterosexual transvestites and these people contributed much valuable information by serving as a vehicle of comparison and contrast with transsexuals. Moreover, transsexuals and transvestites are often confused with another group of people: homosexual cross-dressers ("drag queens" in the gay argot). Because transsexuals, heterosexual transvestites, and drag queens all share the behavior of cross-dressing (wearing the clothes of females), there is a superficial similarity amongst an otherwise diverse group of people. Nevertheless, clarification is necessary to avoid any misconceptions in terminology. (Bolin, 1988: 9)
In fact, identity plays a huge role in everyone's life, no matter their sexual identity, ethnicity, nationality, etc. Imagine the transition from male to female (or vice versa), as there are very few allowances in our society for any other type of gender identity. When one goes through with the transition, what are the expectations of others for that individual and what are the expectations of that individual for themselves? As "gender" is such a black and white issue (you are either female or male), how does one find any sort of American or Westernized identity when his/her mind is of a separate gender than what the everyday citizen might call "normal"? There is not only ostracizing of transsexuals from the American community at large, but also between and among groups of transsexuals:
... One transsexual stood out as the "in-group deviant" (cf. Goffman 1963: 142-43). She violated transsexual concepts of their own normalcy as protowomen and women. This individual was known for her high-fashion hairstyles, reliance on wigs (even though she had a full head of hair), chic and extensive use of makeup, penchant for black satin and spandex, and clawlike, long fingernails. Even though she had been repeatedly sanctioned on these grounds and had tried to alter her choice in clothing, she continues to transform an average outfit through accessories into a glamorous high-fashion ensemble. This individual was suspect as to the authenticity of her transsexualism because she presented herself in drag queen style. Like drag queens, her modus operandi was one of artifice and impersonation rather than naturalness. Naturalness was the premise upon which transsexuals "stratified their own" (cf. Goffman 1963: 107). The absence of progress in the presentation of self as a natural woman, then, was the basis of in-group stigmatization. (Bolin, 1988: 81)
This may be a very specific case of stigmatization, but what happens to any individual who transitions so severely (severely, I say, according to society at large)? Bolin says that they must "divorce themselves from networks in which they are known as males (or females)" (Bolin, 90). A change in association, may conclude in a change of culture, and with this in mind, may the reader imagine a change such as this in order that they may begin to understand our differences, whether it be gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. There are niches for all of us in this modern world, but we must allow for every one to be of equal size.
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
Bolin, Anne
1988, In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc.
Of Delight in Diversity
A cross-cultural encounter is often times a difficult experience, as I have found traveling around the world (to China, Britain, Italy, and Germany); you lose your comfort zone and at the same time become very curious about this new and interesting person you have been introduced or exposed to. I decided that I wanted to study the transgendered/transsexual community to see if those that have been through the sex change process have discovered themselves entering into a different culture (i.e. male-culture v. women-culture). But, is this a cross-cultural experience for them as well; that is, is it even a culture? That is my exploration.
I watched a film last spring semester (2007) as part of my "Self and Society" class called "Southern Comfort" (2001), a story of a transsexual man, Robert Eads, who discovered he had ovarian cancer. The sickening aspect of his story is that NO DOCTOR would give him the operation, a seemingly common occurrence (malpractice) based on the experiences of other transsexuals in the film. They suffered through botched operations and first-hand discrimination, not to mention rejection from family members. Due to a kind of forced alienation, the group of friends found comfort among each other, giving and receiving love and support. So, why do I think this is important? As human beings, we all need interaction and attention, and physical touch if we are allowed it. When we are denied access to the majority, we form groups of our own, and create a sort of culture. We may have traditions that no one else has, interactions that no one else has, suffer together, eat together, become an extended family. If this is the case, as it appeared to be in "Southern Comfort" (2001) could the transsexual community arguably be a subculture of American culture, or of French culture, or Japanese culture, etc.? Since I had no idea of what these people went through (not necessarily all, I expect, have experiences quite like what I am referring to), I found "Southern Comfort" (2001) extremely hopeful and sad at the same time. It seems as though just when you discover that the world cannot possibly hate any more than it already does, someone such as Robert Eads finds himself in the most ironic situation, and still has room enough in his heart to love those around him.
I am not sure what I will find as I continue this project, but I do think that there will be some aspects of a new culture evolving in the transgendered/transsexual community. I hope to learn if that is and why that is, and could it be mostly because among themselves, they find the most understanding? For the most part, I want to understand their experiences in depth, and whether I discover that there is an evolving culture or not, it will be an experience that will teach me more about individual and unique human beings. As Lola, Robert's partner, remarks at the end of the film after his death, "Nature delights in diversity. Why don't human beings?"
~ Katherine Niemczyk
Sources -
www.planetout.com, 1995-2007, PlanetOut Inc. Electronic Document. http://www.planetout.com/images/popcornq/dbimages/s/southerncomfort.jpg)
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