resources
and publications
transgender 101
In the case of transgender people, the gender binary (the idea there are two opposite sexes - male/female) is not a useful concept. Most transgender people feel they are not simply male or female. "Unlike the majority of transsexuals that "feel they were born that way" many of those identifying themselves as transgendered or gender-bending or gender-blending persons are attracted to the concept of a constructed gender and see themselves and their lives as evidence of it. Eschewing any strict male-female dichotomy, transgendered persons instead reach for a wide range of mixtures of male and female restructured anatomies and manifest masculine and feminine life-styles..." Most transgender people speak of being part of a continuum of gender. Transgender people also tend to situate themselves on a continuum between the sex male and female and often includes a third, fourth or more genders. Hence the term trans-gender. Transgender people —
The term 'transgender'In the 1970s, the term 'transgender' was coined by a cross-dressing man, Virginia Prince, who wanted to live as a woman, without the use of any hormones or surgery. Prince coined the term to refer to transgender people separately and distinctly from transsexual people. Today it seems to have become commonly used as an umbrella term for a variety of identities and experiences. Transgender does not describe men with a fixed male gender comfortable within the gender binary. SummaryTransgender men often feel uncomfortable identifying themselves simply as male or just a man. Transgender men usually prefer to acknowledge a complexity of gender for themselves and they use terms like trans, ftm, transman, genderqueer, third-sex, and many others when describing themselves. Transgender is an increasingly widespread social expression which welcomes and celebrates a multiplicity of genders. Transgenderism also has a spectrum of self-expression, clothing and sometimes body modification procedures. One of the most distinct aspects of being transgender is the abandonment of the binary sex/gender categories (man/male or woman/female). Many transmen seek the assistance of a range of medical, hormonal and/or surgical remedies. (Many thanks to Jim for assistance in writing this document) Further Reading |
It
is generally assumed that there are only the two sexes -
male or female, with two corresponding
genders - man and woman. This is known as
the gender binary.
