Reflections on Class Discussion: Transwomen in the
Media
This
class discussion has allowed me to see how the media represents transgendered
women, while continuing to understand gender. The term transgender is an
umbrella term for an individual who chooses to use and identify with the
umbrella term, and cannot be given by anyone other than themselves. Transgender
also refers to people who reassign their sex from which they were born with;
female to male, male to female. This umbrella term covers numerous identities including;
drag queen/king, transsexual, bi-gendered, gender bender, two spirit (N.A
community), gender queer, cross dresser, pre-operative, post-operative, or
intersex to name a few.
I
feel that as humans we need order, which is why there is a separation of gender
in which there is no room for people who exist outside of these boundaries.
Gender automatically labels boy/girl as strong/weak which is much like
semiotics where gender has a prescribed meaning. However, intersexed people
have challenge the term gender and have introduced a whole new reality.
In
learning that the word “transsexual” is a working definition I realized that it
is much like our own identity in which things are always changing and can never
have a concrete and final definition. As for transwomen in the media, the
policing of gender identification and their underrepresentation are a form of oppression,
in which the media has painted a world for us so different from the one it
ought to reflect. The oppression of transsexuals further exacerbates the
divisions present in our society, making us less and less powerful.
By Stephanie Gomez
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