There are many preconceived notions about transgender people in today’s society. According to Julia Serano a “trans woman is defined as any person who was assigned a male sex a birth, but who identifies as and/or lives as a woman.” (Serano, 441) In Beautiful Daughters we see these notions challenged by many strong women who decided not to hide their true identities and decided they don’t want to live in secret. In Beautiful Daughters one woman said that when her career at IBM learned that she was becoming a woman she was fired. She did not let this get her down and she continued to go ahead with her process and become the women she wanted to be and spoke about this in the Vagina monologues. Another woman spoke about how when her boyfriends friends found out he was dating a transgender woman and they beat him to death in his sleep. The woman read from the “vagina monologues” and read/act out on these situations about the true life events of women in distress. From time these transgender woman were children they were abused and made fun of because of how they acted and because they were born the wrong way.
I learned a lot about transgender women in this unit. Through Beautiful Daughters and Johson I have learned that there is a lot of struggles and pain that is part of the process of becoming a women and becoming transgender. It is a process and transition that can be difficult when it comes to family and friend relationships and how others think of it. I learned that many of the transgender women feel they truly were supposed to be born as women and by fixing themselves they are just becoming who they were supposed to be born to be, which was a woman. I also learned that turning into a woman is not about sex to these woman but its about finding love in life and loving the true you.
Cisgender people can act as allies to combat transphobia. “Perhaps, No sexual minority is more maligned or misunderstood than trans woman.” (Serano, 441) I find this statement to be true because many people don’t understand or realize what it is to be transgender and how difficult it can be in the process of changing. The most important thing is to understand as a cisgender person that these men and women were just fixing the mixhap they were born with and it is important to be supportive.
I agree with you when you said that turning into a woman is not about sex to these woman but about finding love in life and loving the true you. This applies to a lot of things that makes us humans special.
ReplyDeleteThe woman fired from IBM, Lynn Conway, is my mentor and friend. She is truly a a wonderful person and has helped many trans people all around the world through her website. I like Beautiful Daughters because it reminds us that no matter what your identity or the oppression you have faced, you can still fight to create a good life for yourself. The women's stories are very inspiring and empowering for all women, both cisgender and trans.
ReplyDeleteI agree Prof. Ryan, the womens stories are very empowering and it is great that you are able to know someone so inspiring.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Kelly! I agree that there is no other group discriminated against more than transgender people, and more so transgender women. Knowing a few people who are confused/have been confused with their gender identity, I've seen how difficult it is to tell yourself sometimes that you're not in the right body, let alone telling the rest of the world. I really hope cisgender people can stand up together very soon to make this a more welcoming world to transgender people because they are the same as us, they just want to be in the body that's right for them and there is absolutely nothing bad or wrong about that.
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