Non Gender Alienation Research Paper

There is a difference between a “transgender,” “transsexual,” and a “non-gender conforming” individual. A transgender is a person whose self-identity differs from their ascribed status. To clarify, an ascribed status is something that is assigned to a person at birth which cannot be altered such as skin color— in this case— sex; meanwhile, a transsexual is a person who willingly undergoes plastic surgery to actually alter their birth sex. A non-gender conforming person is someone who does not abide from society’s stereotypical views of how they should appear or behave based on what their ascribed status was originally. For example, in society the average female should appear as delicate as a porcelain doll with hair below shoulder length, pastel
As peers appearance discriminate their non-gender conforming male classmates, alienation is likely to occur. According to Karl Marx, “alienation refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her society, work, or the sense of self” (Introduction To Sociology, 1848, p. 82). Marx developed four types of alienation: alienation from product, process, others, and self. Non-gender conforming male students develop a sense of alienation from others because once the “first lens” or the master status (the override of all other statuses and its affection, or the first judgement) in which other students perceive them as, they’ll begin to cast judgement on the non-gender conforming male students and from there spread rumors in which the affected students become alienated. Additionally, non-gender conforming male pupils may feel disenchanted by the usage of the negative language other students may say such as “freak” or “it,” thus physically alienating them from any school in-groups or a group that an individual feels they belong to and believes it to be an integral part of who they are. The power of language is beyond physical power because words can cause more than physical wounds, it can cause a non-gender conforming individual to not only feel alienated from others but from themselves as well. According to Amy Tan in her article “Mother Tongue,” she mentions that the power of language can evoke emotions; that said, non-gender conforming males can become alienated from themselves by peers and educators alienating them from who they identify themselves as by addressing the affected males with “He/Him” pronouns rather than what they