Gender Issues Essays (1349 words) - Gender Studies, Gender, LGBT

Gender Issues After reading through my gender log, during the past few weeks, I observed that many people are trained to determine their gender by their biological sex. Some of the people that I have observed and written about would probably never have doubted their sexual orientation. Others have definitely examined their sexuality. Whether this sexuality is male or female is entirely up to them. This is their true sexual identity. Still others that I noticed have actually convinced themselves, whether it is true or false that their biological gender is not, their true gender. The people who seemed that they were completely sure that their gender was solely based on their biological sex, were easy to identify for me. These are the people we have been familiar with all of our lives. These people self-categorize themselves. By acting and dressing according to their gender assignment, these people gave me the impression that they ultimately know if they are male or female. I think that they truly believe, without ever questioning their sexuality that they were born either male or female. They act out their assigned gender roles. They either see their sexuality as, black or white, with no gray areas. In my journal, I wrote about how I observed a man and a woman at a restaurant. The man automatically paid the bill. This is androcentric behavior. It is assumed in our society that the man should pay, although it is becoming more common for women to pick up the tab, or even them both. This is an example of people who believe that their biological gender is their true gender. The second type of person, the person who may have at one time or another wondered whether or not they were gay, is also pretty easy to identify, if you are able to observe and truly learn about their habits. As an example I'll use a male teenager who I went to high school with. I'll call him Joe. Joe was a very good looking male, biologically speaking. When Joe was a small child, I notice growing up with him that he had more female friends and that the boys did not like him very much. Many of the boys would often call him homo, or say go play with your girlfriends. He was very damaged by all of this. He would usually sit with the girls at lunch, but never the boys. He was often picked on in class with taunts and under the breath innuendoes. He did very well in all subjects in school but did best in art class and theater. His general body language was feminine, the way his hands moved and the way in which he would walk, talk, and even carry his books. I notice that he never tried to change his behavior to please others, which seemed to be gender assigned feminine behavior. He would also state I am not gay. His mother actually was going to sue the school to put the responsibility on the school to prevent the students from harassing her son. Joe never conformed, to his biological sexual identity being male. He was who he was and everyone believed he was gay. I don't know if he is or isn't gay because he went to art school in the city. I think he was having an identity crisis. The third type of person is a person who biologically without a doubt is male of female due to society's guidelines of gender. However, this type of person may want to be the opposite sex. They either are kidding or they want to be the opposite sex. Something about it embraces them. This brings to mind a movie I saw the other night, Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, when the serial killer believes he was born a female in a males body. These people are sexually dysmorphic, meaning that their self-concept does not fit their sexual biology. He wanted a total sex change and had many psychologists trying to help him. The psychologists did not agree with his desires and he was prohibited from having the operation because they felt he was not psychologically stable. As a result, his fixation with being female