Sex roles are changing rapidy in the twenty-first century. Transgendered, male, female, masculine and feminine-how are they related and who decides who we are?
Gender is destiny. From birth to death, gender maps the highway of our life experience. The pronouncement of gender, based on the superficial examination of genitalia, places us on a blue road or a pink road that lead in very different directions.
The rituals and customs of these two categories determine our experience. Entitlement and discrimination based on gender while not absolute, directly reflect societal expectations for men and women.
The subject of transgenderism contradicts the long established binary division of the sexes. From the earliest records of divergent cultures, evidence indicates -in the form of mythology and written records- that gender, is fluid rather than fixed.
Human expression naturally resists the imposition of artificial boundaries. In the last half of the twentieth century, the assault on fixed gender categories gained substantial momentum, and encountered serious opposition. The deconstruction of gender stereotypes, especially over the last fifty years, has liberated or threatened large groups of people.
The majority of people on the planet think of themselves as men or women. Yet a simple experiment will demonstrate the folly of our adherence to these categories: conduct an informal poll with a variety of people you know. Ask them how they define man or woman, then ask them how they have arrived at their conclusion.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines man and woman as follows:
man (m²n) n., pl. men (mµn). 1. An adult male human being. 2. A human being regardless of sex or age; a person. 3. A human being or an adult male human being belonging to a specific occupation, group, nationality, or other category. Often used in combination.
wom·an (w‹m“…n) n., pl. wom·en (w¹m“¹n). 1. An adult female human being. 2. Women considered as a group; womankind. 3. An adult female human being belonging to a specified occupation, group, nationality, or other category. Often used in combination. 4. Feminine quality or aspect; womanliness. 5. A female servant or subordinate.
While the definitions of woman and man seemed related to external markers or grouped characteristics, the definitions of male and female are more descriptive of biological processes:
male (m³l) adj. Abbr. m., M. 1.a. Of, relating to, or designating the sex that has organs to produce spermatozoa for fertilizing ova. b. Characteristic of or appropriate to this sex; masculine. c. Consisting of members of this sex. 2. Virile; manly.
fe·male (f¶“m³l”) adj. Abbr. fem., f., F 1.a. Of, relating to, or denoting the sex that produces ova or bears young. b. Characteristic of or appropriate to this sex; feminine. c. Consisting of members of this sex.
Here we see the best reason for society’s confusion regarding sex and gender. According to the dictionary, the difference between the sexes is simple: if you are a male, then you are not a female and if you are a female, you are not a male.
The definitions for sex and gender are, if anything, more perplexing:
sex (sµks) n. 1.a. The property or quality by which organisms are classified as female or male on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions. b. Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, of this classification. 2. Females or males considered as a group. 3. The condition or character of being female or male; the physiological, functional, and psychological differences that distinguish the female and the male
gen·der (jµn“d…r) n. Abbr. g., gen. 1. Grammar. a. A grammatical category used in the analysis of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animas and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.
This definition of gender clearly indicates the relativity of gendered expression. Confining our discussion to the terms male and female merely confuses the issue. Biological sex results from a complex interplay of DNA, chromosomes, hormones and genitalia that modern technology cannot yet analyze. In other words, we cannot determine anatomical sex based on visual inspection: we cannot “see” DNA or chromosomes.
The spectre of a doctor or scientist trifling with our genetic composition, including sex markers, is the stuff of the prophetic novel A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. However, even as sex determinants morph into fodder for scientific engineering, gender expression remains beyond the realm of manipulation.
Many people know someone–or knows someone who knows someone– who self-identifies as "transsexual," "transgendered," "transvestite," "drag," "dyke," "butch," "fem" or some combination of these expressions. Despite this twenty first century familiarity, friends and allies of transgender people rarely insist on specific definitions from them.
Transgenderism, the broad area of gendered expression, defies definition. At its essence, the term transgendered is synonymous with subjectivity, in both expression and perception. For example, a male may feel an overpowering identification with the female sex. This person may know that their physical being is completely at odds with their internal essence, while they persistently experience themselves as female. However, based predominately on physical markers, society categorizes this person as male without regard to his/her inner identity.
To help us understand the challenge of defining gendered expression, draw a line with a pole at each end. Mark one pole male and the other pole female to represent absolute masculinity or maleness and absolute femininity, or femaleness. Now put a big red x over both poles, for no absolute model of perfect femaleness or maleness exists. Everyone exists somewhere in the vast grayness between the two absolutes.
