Sunday, December 09, 2007
Sierra Leone: What Is Gender?
December 7, 2007
The term Gender being considered in this article has nothing to do with grammar; rather it has to do with development issues. To begin with, it is important to distinguish between gender and sex. Sex describes those characteristics of men and women with which they are born. Sex differences have to do with our biological characteristics that are natural, and, for most part, are unchangeable. Sex has to do with how we are created, and our sexually distinct functions such as conception, breast feeding, provision of sperm, impregnation, do not change.
Gender refers to a system of roles and relationships between women and men in a given social, (economic and political) context. It is an analytical term that refers to those characteristics of women and men which are socially determined. Everything that women and men do, and everything that is expected of them can change, and does change over time and according to changing and varied social and cultural factors.
From the time a child is born, the infant learns what is appropriate for a girl or a boy, a woman or a man. The way children are held, spoken to, played with and dressed, indicate the expectations that society has for them. The designation of separate colours for each sex during infancy is just the start of a long and slow process that teaches girls to be submissive, dependent and passive and boys to be active, independent and dominant. Through a subtle system of rewards and punishment, girls learn that they will receive more attention when they are coy, cute and when they behave like little ladies. They learn to take up less space, and make less noise and demand less than boys. . . .
Trans woman seeks to succeed lawmaker
‘It’s not how I wanted to become a delegate, but it is what it is and you make the best of what you have and you move forward,’ said Dana Beyer after the death of Del. Jane Lawton. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)Beyer could replace Maryland delegate who died
JOSHUA LYNSEN
December 7, 2007
A transgender woman is among the candidates seeking to succeed a Maryland state legislator who died last week.
Dana Beyer, who lost her bid last year to become a state delegate, could become the nation’s first transgender state lawmaker if chosen Dec. 11 to fill the vacant Montgomery County seat.
“It’s not how I wanted to become a delegate, but it is what it is and you make the best of what you have and you move forward,” she said. “And that’s how you honor the memory of those past.”
Beyer is among the candidates vying to succeed Democratic Del. Jane Lawton, who died Nov. 29 after giving a presentation before a federal agency. Lawton, 63, joined the Maryland House of Delegates in 2005.
“I always wanted to serve with Jane,” Beyer said. “I didn’t want to replace her.”
The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, which is collecting applications for the House position through Monday, will choose Lawton’s successor during a Dec. 11 meeting. There is no public vote.
Simon Atlas, the Central Committee’s treasurer, estimated that five to 10 candidates would seek to succeed Lawton. Among the applicants this week were Alfred Carr, a precinct vice chair, and Oscar Ramirez, a Central Committee member.
“I’d like to think the Central Committee will replace a strong woman with another strong woman,” Beyer said. “I think that’s what Jane would have wanted, but it’s not my call.” . . .
From drag ball to panels, Trans Week reviews mixed
December 7, 2007
On the first night of December, a chill was in the air and the first snow was on its way. Inside the Ezra Stiles College dining hall, Yalies stayed warm as they listened to a holiday tune playing over the loud speakers. It could have been a scene from a high-school holiday pageant.
Until the drag troupe walked in.
As members of All The Kings Men, a professional Boston drag troupe, began their performance, the chorus of “Sleigh Ride” abruptly transitioned to the bass line of “Lady Marmalade.” Before long, the event in the dining hall had turned into Yale’s version of Moulin Rouge.
Co-sponsored by the LGBT Co-op, the Yale Gala, the Women’s Center and the Joint Events Funding Committee, last Saturday night’s 2007 Drag Ball kicked off Transgender Awareness Week at Yale. Now in its fifth year, Trans Week featured a wide range of academic and social events — including several movie screenings, panel discussions and lectures from experts — that focused on transgender issues as well as more general ones about gender identity.
While some program participants said Trans Week was effective in encouraging a sense of solidarity within the trans community, those with little exposure to “out” transgender people said they think the program was not sufficiently accessible.
Anna Wipfler ’09, the coordinator of the Drag Ball and Trans Week, said she modeled this year’s Trans Week on the original event from five years ago, which was conceived and organized by Loren Krywanczyk ’06. Yet while Wipfler said she hoped to reach out to audiences beyond the trans community, Krywanczyk said she designed the week primarily for members of the community and did not intend the week to turn into “Trans 101.”
“Ideally, Trans Week would be a time when trans people could talk about and hear about issues that are very dear to them,” she said.
Krywanczyk, who traveled from Brooklyn to participate in the program, moderated a Sunday talk at the Women’s Center entitled “Trans-on-Trans,” which focused on how transgender people engage in sexual relationships. . . .
America in dire need of education on gender identity
December 7, 2007
Sometimes, the biggest mistakes come from the most intelligent of individuals.
Take my high school physics teacher. He received a Ph.D. from Berkeley, worked under a Nobel Prize winning physicist and was one of the few people I would ever label a genius. He was prone to tangents in class and one Tuesday morning in 2002 was no exception. During a discussion of art, sex and quanta, someone raised his hand and asked, “Hey Steve, what do you think of sex changes?”
“There is only one reason anyone would ever get a sex change: boredom.”
While his comment was funny and fairly harmless, it stems from the same kind of ignorance that plagues the transgender community. And that ignorance is getting to be a lot more noticeable.
This past year, Largo, Fla., city manager Steve Stanton informed city commissioners of his intent to undergo a sex change operation. As he explained later, he had thoughts of being a woman since the age of seven, but finally decided in late 2006 to have gender reassignment surgery. He informed a small group of family and co-workers, collaborating with them to try to reveal this decision in an honest and open way. However, the media got to it first, and what followed was a firestorm of controversy.
While Mr. Stanton (now known as Susan Stanton) defended the decision and around 70 supporters came out to stand by him, Mr. Stanton was eventually fired. City commissioners said his gender switch had nothing to do with his termination, and many who spoke against Mr. Stanton cited a lack of trust. One city commissioner said his decision was borne out of selfishness while another said, “I find that I can no longer trust his judgment.” . . .
Transgender Students Search for Campus Niche
DECEMBER 7, 2007
Moments into Barnard orientation, Raemond Grosz, GS, knew he didn’t belong.
“The second I got to Barnard I was like, ‘This is not going to be okay because it’s just so girly,’” Grosz said, a transgender student who identifies as a man. He quickly transferred to the School of General Studies at the beginning of the semester. “I guess I was expecting more of a queer community.”
Grosz is one of a small number of students who are challenging gender norms at a younger age than ever before and finding that colleges are not quite ready for them, neither structurally nor socially.
While Grosz felt restricted by Barnard’s female environment, the all-female environment felt equally uneasy with him. Orientation had not finished before Grosz was informed by residential life that his roommate was no longer comfortable with the living situation. He said he was offered two options: either work things out with his current roommate or find a new person to room with.
“These girls [his suitemates] were all straight edge, typical Barnard students who don’t really like to party and don’t like to stay up late, who watch Grey’s Anatomy,” Grosz said. “I had nothing in common with them. I’d be better off dating them than trying to pretend we were the same gender.”
Grosz asked if a single room was a possibility, but was told that it was against policy to grant first-years single rooms.
Unable to find a new roommate, and unwilling to remain with his current one, Grosz lived off campus. “I was going to just not do college and say ‘fuck this,’ and live with my friend in her apartment because they weren’t giving me any options,” he said. . . .
Area doctor opens up Amherst practice
NASHUA – Jennifer E. Madden, M.D., has opened Souhegan Family Practice at 109 Ponemah Road in Amherst. Dr. Madden is affiliated with Foundation Medical Partners and is on staff at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.
A graduate of Brandeis University, Dr. Madden earned her medical degree at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine in Worcester, Mass., and completed her residency in family practice at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie, Pa.
Dr. Madden was most recently employed as a family practitioner at Family Practice of Merrimack.
In her new practice, Dr. Madden will treat various traditional medical conditions within all age groups including pediatric well child exams, routine adult preventive health-care visits, gynecologic exams for women and care of the elderly. Having undergone gender reassignment surgery, Dr. Madden is able to offer health-care services to patients who come from alternative lifestyles, are gender variant, or who have diverse family situations. . . .
Middle East: Sex change op is successful
6 December 2007
A BAHRAINI woman has successfully undergone sex change surgery in Thailand, it was announced yesterday.
Bahraini Zainab Abdulhafed Rabie, 33, underwent an eight-hour operation at Yanhee Hospital, Bangkok.
The procedure was paid for by Bahrain's government, which gave BD50,000 to cover her operation, accommodation, plane ticket and food and drink.
She was also provided with a court order explaining her condition, which she can produce if she was stopped by immigration officers on her way home.
When she returns, her final hurdle will be Bahraini courts, where she is battling for the right to be recognised as a man and officially change her name to Hussain by law.
She had already undergone a mastectomy and her lawyer, Faouzia Janahi, said she was very happy that the final operation was successful. . . .
(This person, of course, is actually a transman. R.A.)
