Transgenders
INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS
According to Hagg and Fellows (2007:4), sex generally refers to anatomy and biology such as male or female, whereas gender refers to the qualities and behaviours society expects from a boy or girl, a man or woman. The definition of transgender refers to a person having no identification with, or no presentation as, the gender one was assigned at birth (Hagg and Fellows 2007:4). The definition of transsexual in Hagg and Fellows (2007:4) refers to a person who had undergone a sex change operation or a person identifying with the opposite sex. It is often recognized that a baby boy with genitalia is supposed to grow up to become a man. Anything that deviates from the norms of what the society perceives is “not normal”. With such prejudices and discriminations set in place through generations across the globe, an invisible boundary has been formed to separate a “normal” human being from someone who has stepped outside of his or her cultural and social norms. This paper will explore the liminal status put in place to separates sexual identities distinctly through case studies of various transgenders and the way their culture and society look at them; hence the research question poses will be: What are the cultural and social implications of creating a boundary that separates a transgender from a “normal” human being? This research question was generated through an interest in how a boundary, which may seem harmless, can lead to the inclusion or exclusion of certain people with the examples of various transgenders. Wilson (2003:91) supported the reason transgender was explored by stating that transgendered bodies have been a subject of pathology discourse since the late nineteenth century, with scholars from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, history, social psychology, and cultural and queer studies began to deconstruct and refute the pathological approach to transgender.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Diagnostic and
According to Hagg and Fellows (2007:4), sex generally refers to anatomy and biology such as male or female, whereas gender refers to the qualities and behaviours society expects from a boy or girl, a man or woman. The definition of transgender refers to a person having no identification with, or no presentation as, the gender one was assigned at birth (Hagg and Fellows 2007:4). The definition of transsexual in Hagg and Fellows (2007:4) refers to a person who had undergone a sex change operation or a person identifying with the opposite sex. It is often recognized that a baby boy with genitalia is supposed to grow up to become a man. Anything that deviates from the norms of what the society perceives is “not normal”. With such prejudices and discriminations set in place through generations across the globe, an invisible boundary has been formed to separate a “normal” human being from someone who has stepped outside of his or her cultural and social norms. This paper will explore the liminal status put in place to separates sexual identities distinctly through case studies of various transgenders and the way their culture and society look at them; hence the research question poses will be: What are the cultural and social implications of creating a boundary that separates a transgender from a “normal” human being? This research question was generated through an interest in how a boundary, which may seem harmless, can lead to the inclusion or exclusion of certain people with the examples of various transgenders. Wilson (2003:91) supported the reason transgender was explored by stating that transgendered bodies have been a subject of pathology discourse since the late nineteenth century, with scholars from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, history, social psychology, and cultural and queer studies began to deconstruct and refute the pathological approach to transgender.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Diagnostic and