Gender Identity we might ask ourselves? Gender identity is our personal sense of what our own gender is. How a person feels and who they know themselves to be when it comes to their gender. Most of us were taught that there are only two genders man or women and two sexes male and female. However, there is a lot more to it than you might think. There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, agender, pangender, third gender, and alot more. Even though in our society the genders that are usually more common based on someone’s anatomy,which is the genitals they were born with.
There are many types of gender people feel that they personally fall on the scale between male and female. Most commonly people identify as male or female, but some fall in the middle or move throughout the scale. Some types of gender are male to female is when somebody that is assigned as a male at birth identifies as a female. Female to male is when somebody that is assigned as a female at birth identifies as a male. Gender fluid is moving between genders or having a fluctuating gender identity. Agender means not identifying with any gender. And there is still so much more to name but these are just some types.
Gender roles often tend to develop or start off in toddlers and children by certain ages. On or before their third birthday most all children can easily label themselves as either a girl or boy. By age four most children have a strong feeling of their gender identity. Throughout the time of, children learn gender role behavior, by learning ‘things that boys do’ or ‘things that girls do.’ The point is that all children learn to develop a clear view of themselves and their gender over time. Spectators have a tendency to judge little kids and how they act based on their gender.
More teenagers are not fitting into the usual genders (male or female) as they were before and that percentage is growing more and more. A study research a postdoctoral named Rider at the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality. For their research, Rider’s team examined data from a 2016 survey of almost 81,000 Minnesota and asked the students in a school from grades 9th and 11th grades a question. “Do you consider yourself transgender, genderqueer, gender-fluid or unsure of your gender identification?” About 2.7% answered yes to the question. That number is higher than researchers expected. That’s a big difference from the UCLA study, which was published in January 2017 and estimated that 0.7% of American teens ages 13 to 17 see them selfs as transgender. Rider’s study is only in the state of Minnesota’s but she is hoping to increase this study around the nation to get more accurate information.
Majority of people think that gender identity is the same thing as sexual orientation or sex and gender areas well but they are not. Gender identity is our personal feeling of what our own gender is either by being a man or a woman or as someone outside that cannot relate to neither. Sexual orientation is basically to choice that you like a women, men or both. Sex is something that doctors put on your birth certificate after you come out of the womb, based upon what your genitals look like and the particular set of chromosomes that you are given. So if you are born with a penis you are male and if you are born with a vagina you are a female.
Gender on the other hand is much more complex, it has to do with more with expectations from society and social and legal status and stereotypes that society considers normal or acceptable behaviors. Gender is very broadly how one defines oneself in regards to social gender roles and their own body. Each culture or religion has their ways about how people should behave based on their gender.
Back in history men were the only ones that would be participating in sports, but all that has changed now and keeps on changing as the years go by. Female participation in sports has dramatically increased in the twentieth century. Many may wonder what being a transgender person really is like, a lot of people think that they are confused with who they are. Transgender people are often discriminated from certain groups of people at school and in public and even while playing sports. These people are frequently subject to verbal harassment and physical assault. In this paper I talk about the eligibility in sports for transgender people.
Reene Richards, who is the most famous and first transgender athlete in the world. In the 1970’s she endured a huge amount of abuse for just being who she was. She tried to stay private and to herself as much as possible, but her efforts were no longer working when she played in the very popular women’s tournament and won and that’s how everyone found out who she was. Which steered so much controversy about if transgender people should be allowed to play in sports or even if they should be allowed to play in the opposite sex sports.
When allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports, there’s always going to be a question, is it fair to the biological women or men? In the 2003 the Olympic established guidelines for transgender people. Transgender women atletes can enter female categories as long as they demonstrate testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre for a least one year, while transgender men may compete in male categories without restriction. Obviously men are taller, have bigger bone structure and have a better lung capacity than females. As a consequence, if males and females are required to compete together, women will most likely always lose. There are also more restrictions that were placed in the Olympic guidelines.
Gender roles are influenced by social beliefs and generalizations that have been in use for centuries. Gender roles in society means how we are expected to, speak, wear and act based on being male or female. For instance, men are generally expected to be though, aggressive, money provider and the man of the house. As for women are generally expected to dress feminine, colors like pink, purple, nurturing, nice, cook for the household.
Every society, culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very different from one another. Society has changed some of the gender roles and how they are perceived. For example, according to the article “the balance careers.com/gender roles changing in the us” For the first time in the survey’s history, it showed that women under age 29 are just as likely as men to want jobs with more responsibility. Each generation had and will have different views of how male and females should act, dress and socialize. Older generations could find it more difficult to understand this new change since they are not used to this lifestyle any more.
My opioin of about transgender athletes in sports is not fair and I do respect anybody no matter what race or religion or how you look like. But a man will always be a man no matter how many surgeries they undergo and vise versa for women too. I think that men and trans women should compete with each other because basically that’s how they were biologly born. Transgender athletes should not have the right to transform mean or women’s sports. Some say it’s unfair for a man to be allowed to compete in a women’s sporting event because male bodies are originally different than female bodies and they have an advantage to win.
I fully support and I am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in a good form but thats why sports have always rules, to keep the competition fair. Men are stronger than women, that is a proven fact, so that is why the win in my opinion.
From an early age we are taught that gender is one of the most important ways to differentiate between a boy or girl. There are girl toys such as dolls, kitchen sets and for boys, there are toys such as tools, cars, and guns. That women stay home to take care of the kids, cook, clean and we have thought the men that they are suppose to go to work and make money to support the family. We also have thought them not to be scared of anything not to cry either.
References
- Kohlberg, L. (1966). A Cognitive-Developmental Analysis of Children’s Sex-role Concepts and Attitudes
- Kuper, L. E., Lindley, L., & Lopez, X. (2019). Exploring the gender development histories of children and adolescents presenting for gender-affirming medical care. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 7(3), 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000290.supp (Supplemental)
- More US teens are rejecting ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ gender identities, a study finds By Mercedes Leguizamon and Brandon Griggs, CNN
- BUCK, D. M. OBZUD, T. Context-dependent transprejudice: Attitudes toward transgender individuals in gender-integrated and gender-segregated settings. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, [s. l.], v. 5, n. 1, p. 117–121, 2018. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 7 nov. 2019.
- Transgender athletes deserve compassion, but not the right to transform women’s sports by: Anita Y. MilanovichOpinion contributor
How Gender Roles Are Changing in the U.S. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/gender-roles-changing-in-the-us-3545177
