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.