Feinberg makes such valid points about sex and gender without losing her passion for transliberation. One of my favorite quotes was when she was discussing the fight of those who are transgendered. She said, “We expand understanding of how many ways there are to be a human being” (Feinberg 5). This really stood out to me because of the idea that there is no one way to live, especially when it comes to gender. Masculine and Feminine are meant to be specific and rigid terms that define whether or not one is a man or a woman, but when you read the arguments of Feinberg it is easy to blur the pink and blue lines of how we define ourselves. My six year old brother told me yesterday that his favorite color is pink. Does this mean he is gay? Not necessarily, he just really likes the color. If he was gay would I be upset? Not at all. But just because he is inclined toward a color that is feminine by definition does not mean that his whole life is different from that of another little boy. Some people are so set in their ideas of gender and what defines it that they may try to dissuade him from this preference, but I will never try to keep him from expressing himself in his own way.
The article in the Journal News about the APA and gay to straight therapy is such a great step forward. The idea that one can change who they are as a person through therapy sessions is preposterous and inhumane. Why people assume that there is something wrong with being gay is still a baffling idea to me. Phil Burress, who was quoted in the article, said “After meeting hundreds that have walked away from homosexuality I have learned that sexual identity disorder is usually, not always, caused by a traumatic childhood experience that can lead to same-sex attraction and confusion,”(1)…this is just like what Dorothy Allison’s therapist told her about her rape, and it is completely ridiculous. This article reminds me of a book that I read my freshman year of college in my ENG 112 class. It is called “The Last Time I Wore a Dress” by Daphne Scholinski. It is about a girl who is institutionalized for Gender Identity Disorder. In the facility, the doctors performed treatments and suggested that she go against her own wishes by wearing dresses and makeup. She is an abandoned, abused and confused girl who has no one to turn to. This is a true memoir…Daphne had a sex change upon being released from the facility. Her name is now Dylan, and he is an artist who speaks about Gender Identity Disorder and strives to help youth who have been “diagnosed.” I have included part one of a youtube interview with Dylan. If we can learn to accept that there are other shades between blue and pink, we may some day be able to recognize, like Feinberg said, that there are "other ways to be a human being. "
Latta, T. Group's challenge of gay to straight therapy praised by Miami professor. Journal News. 2009.
Oh wow, I have just written you this big, long comment, pushed preview and lost it all! Agghh, I guess I will try it again.
ReplyDeleteCourtney,
I have really enjoyed reading your post. As a parent, I hear a lot of comments, especially from dads, saying how they do not want their sons playing with girl-geared toys, such as Barbie dolls. This just aggravates me. My son and daughter both play so well together, with each others toys. My son will play Barbies with my daughter and she will in turn play cars with him. I think it makes them well rounded. They are learning so much from each other. I personally can't imagine having children all of the same sex and not offering them toys geared to the opposite sex to play with. I really liked your example of your little brother and his favorite color being pink. Before I took this class, I use to think that I was not shaping my son by putting him in blue clothes and giving him cars to play with, but now I can see how that could be shaping things for him.
I am also relizing that I am more and more interested in psychology and how they label and put a title on someone, such as, Gender Identity Disorder. I had never heard of the book you mentioned, "The Last Time I Wore A Dress," by Daphne Scholinski. This book sounds very interesting to me and I think I will have to go read it now.