reflection on my blog postings

Reflection

Looking back through the thirteen postings I have written during the entirety of this semester for this class, I whole-heartedly feel that my thoughts, along with myself, have expanded and developed in terms of the knowledge of the gender in America as well as my understanding of the diversity of individuals in terms of gender and sexuality. It seems so evident and obvious, from the early postings such as the one titled ‘A Whole New Experience’, that I had been newly exposed to such deep and not very widespread ideas and perspectives of the ‘non-normative’ genders that I now believe to naturally exist in society. At first, I must admit, I had been almost astounded and awe-struck by such strange (for me) ‘queer’ genders that I had never experienced or thought of before. Even though I had heard about gay and lesbian communities, I did not have any more than the rudimentary idea of them, not to mention transgender, intersex and other ‘queer’ individuals and what kind of disadvantages and troubles that they would have been and still go through in this current society where the binary gender system is deeply embedded and dominant.

I personally believe that reading the article ‘Claiming an Education’ written by Adrienne Rich in the beginning of the semester helped tremendously in my attitude toward this class. Instead of just passively taking in information from lectures or readings I have had to do, the article actually encouraged me to actively think about a lot of gender issues included in what I have read for class. Furthermore, I was eager to look up on internet and talk with my friends about extra information that I was curious about regarding various topics we have learned and talked about in lecture, but I did not fully comprehend or wanted to know more about.

Posting after posting, I see that I have gained and learned so much in this class and broadened my horizon when looking at the issue of gender. Understanding, analyzing and interpreting the various issues that ‘queer’ individuals faced was a rather difficult job for me due to my limited knowledge that did not help me much to relate to these people. However, organizing my thoughts and the array of ideas in front of me in order to write postings week after week personally helped me better understand the current situation and the transforming general atmosphere of gender in America.

 I recall that one of the earliest discussions and postings was about breaking down our notion of gender through the lens of the binary gender system that strictly categorizes all individuals into two distinct groups – male and female. Reading and writing about Patricia Hill Collins’s article about how the dichotomy of gender creates oppression and certain power dynamics among individuals opened my eyes to the whole new world of gender where there are no categories established such as male or female and every individual with distinct personality and characteristics. The fact that much discrimination and oppression arise due to our notion of stereotypes and ideas toward certain categories of people was as fresh as view as the vegetables in an In-and-Out burger. This idea further develops in my posting about ‘intersectionality’, an idea introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw in her book, ‘Mapping the Margins’. From the article, I learned that individuals’ circumstances could worsen not only due to their ‘queer’ gender but also by other aspects of their identity such as race, class, and many more.

A little peak into the pre-contact Native American views and treatment of gender was personally extremely intriguing and novel. Their nonchalant acceptance of individuals who are considered ‘transvestite’ or ‘transgender’ in our community is rather surprising and something that I could learn from. In addition to these conventional ideas and the existence of various types of gender, I also enjoyed learning and writing about the history of struggle of ‘queer’ individuals in the past such as the Stonewall riots and those demonstrated in Nayan Shah’s book, ‘Stranger Intimacy’. I have realized that closely perusing the past struggle and activism as well as their effectiveness in bringing about positive results could be a good way to learn and lead our society forward in not only issues regarding gender, but also class, race, and other categories that contribute in creating unjust inequalities between individuals.

I am utterly glad that independently giving my own thoughts to such issues and writing about them not only broadened my knowledge and opened up my perspectives toward such matters, but also developed my critical and logical thinking skills and improved my writing skills. Being a non-native speaker of English from Korea, I must admit that I had much difficulty expressing myself the way I wanted. However, long hours of reading, sitting in front of a computer and thinking about complex issues I had to comprehend and writing out what I had understood have significantly and almost discernibly made me more skillful in numerous aspects. The freedom given to me in writing my postings has been the ultimate motivation for me to work and think in my own unique way. 

Power and the Truth of Bodies

A Certain Kind of Freedom: Power and the Truth of Bodies by Riki Wilchins

In this particular chapter of her book, Genderqueer, Riki Whilchins points out the inherent flaws in the conventional binary system of gender and demonstrates to us how our knowledge will be expanded and ‘truths’ discovered with the abolished of the system. This chapter consists of four small essays in which Wilchins discusses different aspects of transgenderism as well as queer individuals.

It’s your gender, stupid! & Queer Bodies

Wilchins begins with the introduction of Judith Butler and her idea that in our society, gender is not decided by who we are but what we are seen to be. In other words, society decides individuals’ gender based on their expression of gender. Wilchins carries on with this idea that she eventually proves wrong and assailable. She argues that if our ‘looks’ or physical expressions are what determine our gender, then they could be disrupted by changing our looks and therefore, this type of reasoning is unstable. However, universally, this isn’t the case.

Then, Wilchins claims that gender is a set of “meanings and symbols – and the rules, privileges, and punishments pertaining to their use”. She further explains that every bahvior, action and things around us are either judged as ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ such as ships, clothing, sexual positions, pens, bowls, hand positions, etc. Because of what Wilchins refers to as ‘microexchanges’, individuals are psychologically and behaviorally coerced to behave in certain ways that are conforming to the expected ways of behavior and expression when interacting with other people. Individuals that fail to conform to the norms are coined as ‘queer’. After analyzing the pervading social conventions and expectations, Wilchins questions whether if one can, in the most fundamental sense, really be feminine or masculine considering the diverse innate characteristics and tendencies of each and every individual.

Wilchins brings out the general societal belief that “biological sex is considered to be the most basic and natural product of bodies”. She further points out that if biological sex and natural shapes of our bodies are considered acceptable, it is contradictory that humans have created the two gender groups and try to categorize people into one of the two groups. What can’t we just accept the differences and move on? The widespread medical practice on intersex individuals demonstrates the flaw in our way of thinking – enforcement of binary system of gender.

Wilchins emphasizes the human creation of distinct groups with fixed number of characteristics and strict enforcement of these groups. This leads to uniformity and threatens diversity – an essential element in finding the ‘Truth’ that we humans are so eager to explore and discover.

Changing the Subject

Wilchins begins by questioning what “identity” truly means in this short essay, ‘Changing the Subject’. She explores and asserts that “identity” is a social construction of an ideal state of any category that we have established such as ‘being a woman’ or ‘being a man’ and that no one is perfectly a woman or a man but an approximation of this ideal identity. She further declares that identity is not a natural fact of bodies but a history of human social construction of the ideals and a complex set of responses to social and cultural needs. Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of another distinct gender group, “transgenders” who have taken charge and actively participated in having their voices heard in the world where the conventional gender binary system forced each and every individual in either ‘man’ or ‘woman’ category.

As Wilchins enters the main discussion of gender and various social movements regarding transgender, she asks two major questions:

1.       1. Is this really a big change in people’s thinking?

2.       2. If so, how are such powerful effects achieved?

Wilchins makes it clear that with the advent of the emergence of transgenderism  and as people identified themselves as transgenders, she also obtained the sense of pride in her gender and body. According to her, she began to understand herself as transgendered and not a ‘man-woman’ anymore. This phenomenon also made her seek explanations outside the confines and boundaries of the language and various attachments and norms that come with it. No matter how much effect the movement of transgender individuals have affected the ways that people think of it, Wilchins accurately points out that “the attachment of meaning is a powerful took for making us experience ourselves in the world in very specific ways.” In answering the second question, Wilchins brings up the idea of “from the bottom up” power system which means that our notions and behaviors, therefore, identities, are shaped by our daily interactions with people around us and not by government regulations or other institutional power.

Wilchins ends the essay with crucial thought-provocative questions that would help us solve the problems that transgender individuals go through as well as issues regarding gender in general - "Do we want to fight as genderqueers?.... Or do we want to attack the notion of normative genders itself?"

Rise of the Intersex Activism

Fixing Sex by Katrina Karkazis

Chapter 8: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience

Katrina Karkazis dedicates this particular chapter of her book, Fixing Sex, to illustrating the clashes between the conventional medical authority and practice and intersexual individuals. She also vividly portrays the hardships that intersexual people go through and how activism arisen from it brings about a transformation in the medical field concerning intersex bodies and psychology.

Karkazis says that the social and medical development of the idea and treatment of intersex individuals arose from the broader social movement of and changes in the attitudes toward gender and sexuality. The successful emergence of intersex to public attention partially owes to other diverse movements such as “the feminist and women’s health movements, gay and transgender movements, and patient health movements” which according to Karkazis, “influenced the development of challenges to the traditional treatment paradigm for intersexuality.” In fact, gay rights and transgender movements, such as those that can be seen in incidents like the Stonewall riot as well as the riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, sought to broaden the understanding and acceptance of non-normative gender roles and sexual desire. The Stonewall riot was exceptionally a significant movement as it advocated for “legal and social reforms such as stopping police harassment, ending the criminalization of homosexuality, and protecting the civil rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals.” These numerous social and legal movements were further supported by scholarly works especially in the feminist theory which provided an analytical and theoretical basis for the critique of the traditional treatment paradigm for intersexuality. These works across various disciplines raised questions and challenges to the existing conventional scientific and medical knowledge for gender bias and destroyed the ‘cultural presuppositions’ about gender. Eventually, the authority of the medical personnel deteriorated and the power over medical decisions shifted to those of the individuals concerned.

As the intersex movement sprung with the help of other similar preceding movements, intersex support groups began to emerge with the help of the Internet. These support groups that varied from official organizations and foundations to small personal groups were not created for any radical or dramatic social change for intersexuality but to help intersexual individuals to alleviate their pain and live more peacefully, sharing their experience and mutually supporting each other. For example, ks&a, (Klinefelter Syndrome and Associates) described itself as an organization “to educate, encourage research, and foster treatment and cures for symptoms of sex chromosome variations”, focused on and dedicated to addressing one condition as many other organizations are structured. Even though these groups helped a considerable number of intersex people to alleviate their daily pain and live their life as a minority, some individuals have found them inadequate for addressing questions and problems related to their conditions/diagnoses. These are the individuals that sought to actively protest and oppose the conventional medical knowledge and practice.

The intersex activism started off by aiming to address the conventional medical model of intersexuality and treatment. In a way, they were fundamentally rooted in antimedicalization movement. The conventional medical system viewed the intersex body as an abnormality and something that has to be corrected through surgery in early childhood to conform to one of the binary sex categories, male or female. It was this fundamentally flawed idea that the intersex groups and activists tried to address and rectify by claiming that individualized physical rectification does not eradicate an intersex individual’s discomfort and “illness experience”. However, it is the change in the fundamental idea that intersexuality and intersex bodies are absolutely normal, as normal as heterosexual bodies. 

The End.

Rethinking Transphobia and Power

Normal Life Ch.3 – Rethinking Transphobia and Power – Beyond a Rights Framework

In chapter 3 of his book, Normal Life, titled ‘Rethinking Transphobia and Power’ Spade gives us a detailed observations of how power and control operate in different ways at various levels. Spade begins by critiquing the current reform strategies adopted in order to remedy the problems faced by trans people saying that they misinterpret and misunderstand the nature of ‘power and control’ and the law in both. He asserts that reshaping our ideas about these problems faced by trans people and re-conceptualizing the sources of these problems are necessary in coming up with viable solutions that can actually work and improve the lives of trans people in society.

The first operation of power and control Spade introduces is the ‘Perpetrator/Victim Power’. According to him, this is an ‘intentional, individualized negative action, discrimination, exclusion and violence – it takes place at an individual level and there are always a perpetrator and a victim. For example, this type of power usage can be seen when an employer bases his or her decision to recruit an employee on the employee’s race, skin color, gender, and many more categories. Spade states that many of the law reform strategies established to defend the rights and lives of the marginalized, including trans people, address the problems that arise due to this ‘Perpetrator/Victim Power’. However, Spade argues that this is a mere superficial method of protection of the marginalized since there are still people that suffer under the protection by the law.

The second type of operation of power is called the ‘Disciplinary power’. Through disciplinary power are strictly established norms plus the coercion by society on people to conform to the norms. In a society, there are certain sets of rules and categories that every individual is encouraged to follow and fall under; for instance, maleness, femaleness, heterosexuality and homosexuality. When a person does not fit into a distinct category but deviates and displays erratic non-conforming behavior, he/she is immediately ostracized. Therefore, these categories formed by the social norms and the societal coercion are what constitute the disciplinary power. Spade believes that once people get used to conforming to the societal norms, the process becomes internalized in them and eventually, the categories become significantly powerful tools to control the population. An example of the use of disciplinary power is – “When activists form consciousness-raising groups that encourage people to question standards about how they see their own bodies and identities and replace those norms with other ideas they consider better, they are engaging with the disciplinary mode of power.” According to Spade, disciplinary control is inadequately addressed in today’s society because the law tends to apply on individualized perpetrator – victim mode of power, it challenges the disciplinary mode of power.

The last type of power that Spade raises is the ‘Population Management Power’ in which national campaigns, programs and laws that affect the entire population. Examples of the population management power include taxation, military conscription, welfare programs, and many more. As this type of power is influential nation-wide, it is much more significant than the individual level types of power such as the Perpetrator-Victim Operation of Power. Spade points out that the influential power of this type of power operation did not only equally distribute the ‘life chances’ to all citizens in the United States, but it also further increased the divide in racial wealth. For example, the expansion of the criminal punishment system in the U.S was promoted by racialized-gendered narratives. The underlying intention and the subsequent result of the program increased policing in poor neighborhoods while providing law enforcement with more tools for surveilling, arresting, and caging poor people and people of color. Dean Spade emphasizes the importance of looking at the problems through the lenses of Disciplinary Power and Population Management Power principles.