Marina Karasik

3/11/16
English 101
Jesse Brooks

An Issue For The Trans and Non-Binary Community: How Should We Define Gender?

Gender is a tricky subject. It has been the focus of social movements, protests and laws for

decades now. But do the majority of people even understand gender in the first place? The truth is,

gender is complex, and there are differing opinions about what it is, what it entails and how it

should be defined. Many transgender and non-binary individuals struggle with these issues on a

daily basis. Trans and non- binary people are often assaulted in public spaces like college

campuses and bathrooms. This issue can be fixed if more people understood gender and the

various ways it is expressed. Understanding an issue often the first step towards acceptance.

LGBTQ people are not the only one which whom this issue concerns. Parents, friends and

social institutions can benefit from knowledge of gender and gender diversity. In learning about

gender, they can better protect LGBTQ people from predators and stigma. In education the

general population about gender issues, we can hope to better serve the trans and non- binary

communities. The exact definition of gender is up for debate, and there are more than two sides to

the argument. How should we define gender both in terms of expression and the context of

society as a whole? The issue here is both a matter of both identity and inclusion.

The American Psychology Association defines gender as the attitudes, feelings, and

behaviors that a given culture associates with a persons biological sex. The organization

differentiates this from gender identity, which they define as ones sense of oneself as male,

female, or transgender. (APA 2) For most people, sex and gender go hand in hand and, as a

result, the two are viewed as being interchangeable. In 1979, psychologist Rhoda Unger argued to
change that. She was quoted as explaining that a major problem in this area appears to be the too

inclusive use of the term sex, which could be used to describe individuals chromosomes,

reproductive organs, secondary characteristics, psychological characteristics, andwhen used in

the term sex rolesbehaviors considered appropriate for males and females. (Muehlenhard,

Peterson 794) What she set out to achieve was the distinction between biology and brain

chemistry. According to Charlene L. Muehlenhard and Zoe D. Peterson, gender is an aspect of

society, while sex is more an aspect of nature. They go on to elaborate that gender is often times a

set of roles and traits placed on people by their societies, which is why gender norms may differ

from culture to culture (Muehlenhard, Peterson 799-801). In this instance, gender is defined by

the surrounding culture, which makes it hard to pin down. Because gender varies from place to

place, it may be perceived by people in many different ways.

Transgender individuals, who are often at the heart of the gender debate, are those whose

gender do not match their assigned sex, which can make for a wealth of different issue over the

course of their lifetime. In his article for the Vermont Law Review titled Gender Identity Defines

Sex: Updating The Law To Reflect Modern Medical Science Is Key To Transgender Rights, M.

Dru Levasseur goes into detail about how the legal system perceives gender and sex as being one

in the same in many instances. His primary example is the case of a transgender women admitted

to a rehab facility who was addressed as a male, put into a room with other males and not

permitted to have any items deemed as feminine by her superiors. Levasseur goes on to explain

one of the problems many transgender people face: being forced to live as the gender matching

the sex they were assigned at birth. He writes that There is no cure and neither counseling nor

medication will lead a person to conclude that he actually identifies as the gender assigned to him

at birth. Gender identity is not subject to voluntary control, and cannot be changed by therapy or
other means. Rather, the internationally recognized treatment protocol for gender transition is

focused on affirming people in their true sextheir gender identity socially, medically, and

legally. (Levasseur 956) The issue here is whether or not this individual, one who was male

biologically but identified as a woman, should be able to be identified by society as a woman.

While this person had a inward gender identity of being a woman, society (or, in this context, the

rehab facility) viewed this person as a male.

Another, more recent example of this ongoing political and social debate easily manifests

itself in the war on bathroom choices. Recently, Gov. Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota vetoed a

bill that would force public school students to use the bathroom that matched their assigned sex at

birth. For transgender students, this would have been an issue. Since the bill was vetoed, however,

transgender students have been able to breathe a sigh of relief. There was understandable outcry

on both sides of this issue. A transgender student from Watertown, SD told CNN reporters that the

bill singles out transgender individuals and forces them to use something that they're not

comfortable using. Often transgender students are bullied when forced to use the bathroom of

their sex, and they often feel outcast. This bill would allow them to feel more normal, something

almost every teen wants. In contrast, a father from Sioux Falls (who remained anonymous)

claimed that he was for the bill. He was quoted as saying that I don't think I'd want my 16-year-

old boy in the bathroom with a transgender student if that student had a radically different look,

like someone who changed from a girl to a boy and might have a beard now (CNN). Many

parents have similar views, as they fear that these bills will be a gateway to allowing predators to

harass women and girls in public bathrooms. In the context of public schools, parents fear that

boys will use these laws to take advantage of girls. However, since the bill was rejected, the

bathroom laws have been left in the hands of the districts.

 For yet another group of people, gender identity does not even fall into the classic

categories of woman or man. These individuals are considered to be non-binary. Non- binary

refers to gender outside of the gender binary; that is, the man-woman categories. Non- binary

individuals may find that they fall in the middle of the gender spectrum or not on it at all (this is

sometimes referred to as agender) because they either feel as though they are a mix of the two

genders or void of any gender at all. In contrast to transgender individuals, who more or less

(although not always) acknowledge what gender they are, non- binary individuals are caught in a

sort of awkward limbo. Autumn Elizabeth, author of an article in the Journal of Bisexuality

explains that non- binary individuals are becoming more and more visible as people come to

realize that they do not fit into a set gender category. Rose McDormett of Brown University and

Peter Hatemi of the University of Sydney explain that gender is often seen as being with

masculine or feminine and manifests itself in how an individual expresses themselves to the

world. They write that this expression often comes in the form of occupation, appearance,

mannerisms and nonverbal behavior (McDormett 90) They also note that gender is a spectrum

and identify a test that individuals can take to determine where they fall on the spectrum, whether

it be on the more masculine side or the more feminine side. Since gender is a spectrum,

individuals of either sex may fall anywhere on this spectrum. Women may be more masculine and

men may be more feminine. Gender is fluid; but more so for some individuals than for others.

Since APA defines it as a sort of identity that individuals have for themselves, it seems

as though a person should be able to choose or have control over their gender. But, in contrast,

McDormett and Hatemi define gender as a more outward expression of ones self. They base this

off of the view of society, meaning that a person usually has to fulfill a genders societal role in
order to be accepted as that gender. This also relates to the example of the trans woman who has

treated as male, the issue is very similar. Its a gray area.

An article in the International Review of Psychiatry elaborated that people who identify

outside the gender scale often resort to using their sex as a means of identification. The authors

write that many of the non-binary groups of people listed above will use their birth-assigned

gender as a matter of necessity in day-to-day business and bureaucracy due to the fact that many

systems (including health systems) and social circles only recognize binary genders. (Richards et

al 4) There are a plethora of non- binary identities and it is not clear if social institutions should

provide these people with so many options to choose on official documents. Allowing individuals

to mark boxes for genderqueer non-binary or demigirl/ demiboy would make actions like

getting a license or applying for health care much more complicated.

Since more and more individuals are openly sharing their gender identities, it only seems

fitting that their social media should reflect this. For this reason, in recent years, Facebook has

worked to create more gender options for its users to chose from. Time Magazines article titled

Facebook's Gender Labeling Revolution details what this feature did for individuals in the non-

binary and transgender communities. For many individuals, it was liberating, and allowed them to

freely express their gender identity with the online world. But for others it created anxiety. For

many, the problem lies in uncertainty. Many users are not completely sure of their internal

identities, much less their external, public identities. For some, this is how their relatives find out

about their gender identity. This can cause rifts in relationships (literally) with the simple push of

a button. There are mixed feelings that come with revealing such an important aspect of ones self

via the internet.

 Gender is a tricky subject. For many, the definition is clear-cut and easy to understand.

But, for others, it still remains an issue. Gender is not only a matter of identity and culture but

also a matter that interacts and intertwines itself with the legal system. Transgender and non-

binary rights have been at the heart of many a political debate. Bathroom and locker-room laws as

well as the fight for proper pronouns are only some of the battles that this community have

struggled with. But the fight is not over and the answer is not clear. Gender is complicated and so

are the issues surrounding it.

Works Cited

Bothelo, Gred, and Wayne Drash. "South Dakota Governor Vetoes Transgender
Bathroom Bill."
CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Mar. 2016. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/us/south-dakota-transgender-
bathroom-bill/index.html>

Richards, Christina, Walter Pierre Bouman, Leighton Seal, Meg John Barker, Timo O. Nieder,
and Guy T'Sjoen. "Non-Binary or Genderqueer Genders." International Review of
Psychiatry (2016): 95-102. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
<http://docdel.umd.edu/illiad/illiad.dll?Action=10&Form=75&Value=1013456>.

Elizabeth, Autumn. "Challenging The Binary: Sexual Identity That Is Not Duality." Journal Of
Bisexuality 13.3 (2013): 329-337. LGBT Life with Full Text. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

Levasseur, M. Dru. "Gender Identity Defines Sex: Updating The Law To Reflect Modern Medical
Science Is Key To Transgender Rights." Vermont Law Review 39.4 (2015): 943-1004.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

McDermott, Rose, and Peter K. Hatemi. Distinguishing Sex and Gender. PS: Political Science
 and Politics 44.1 (2011): 8992. JSTOR. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

Muehlenhard, Charlene, and Zoe Peterson. "Distinguishing Between Sex And Gender: History,
Current Conceptualizations, And Implications." Sex Roles 64.11/12 (2011): 791-803.
LGBT Life with Full Text. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

"Practice Guidelines for LGB Clients." APA.org. American Psychological Association. Web. 06
Mar. 2016. <http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/guidelines.aspx>.

Richards, Sarah Elizabeth. "Facebook's Gender Labeling Revolution." Time. Time, 19 Feb. 2014.
Web. 06 Mar. 2016. <http://time.com/8856/facebooks-gender-labeling-revolution>