How do we get our ideas about gender roles and norms? What we are *supposed* to be and how we should act as girls and boys who will grow into women and men? Much of our socialization in this and other regards comes from formal schooling. What happens when students push the gender envelope? What happens when their parents allow them to express their gender (or lack therof) how they feel most comfortable? As can be seen from films, recent news stories, or babysitting, kids as well as adults have a lot to say on this subject. Both children who do not exactly conform to their assigned gender roles and parents who allow or encourage this are deeply stigmatized within the school, the community, and internet message boards.
The purpose of my study was to dig a little deeper into the transgender stigma as it affects those in institutions of learning, focusing on K-12. This project revolved around one recent News Story- the case of Aurora Lipscomb in Ohio, a 6-year-old girl who was taken away from her "unfit" parents when they tried to fulfil their child's wish to be a girl and enter her into school as such, even though she'd been assigned male at birth.
I have received feedback from many different types of people, ranging in age from 14 to 66 (plus a whole bunch whose ages I don't know.) I spoke with some *interesting* folks at vote.com and hatewatch.org, (who would often answer my questions like "why are you so worried about gender-transgressive behaviour?" with such intelligent comments as "but why do gays spread AIDS?") and also with amazingly profound students, social workers, teachers, parents, boys who want to wear skirts, trannies, and those who think that just going from MtF isn't really transgressive, just moving from one gender stereotype to another. But that's another paper.
Speaking of papers, we hafta get all academic now, so here's mine. Sugar & Snails & Spicy-Dog Tails: On August 26, in Columbus, OH, A six-year-old child, Aurora Lipscomb, was taken from her parents, Paul and Sherry Lipscomb, by the Franklin County (Ohio) Children's Services (FCCS) citing concern for the child's welfare. The parents say the county took their child because they refuse to force her to conform to narrow gender stereotypes. 'Zachary' Lipscomb was assigned ‘male’ at birth, but has identified as a girl, Aurora, for four years - since she was two years old. Her parents have raised her since that time as a girl. Last November she was diagnosed with gender-identity disorder (GID) after being hospitalized at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center. (www.gpac.org)
It is not news to say that, in most societies at least, transgressing gender roles is often greeted with confusion, hate, and/or disgust, whether it be a boy playing with dolls or two women having a sexual relationship. Claiming to be a different gender or sex entirely from the one you were assigned at birth is cause for one to be labeled with a disorder, and if parents decide to support their child in such a feeling, it is cause for the state to remove that child from hir home, because of "concern for the child’s welfare."
This year alone there have been seventeen reported cases of murders where the victim’s transgendered status was the main impetus for the crime, and there are innumerable cases of other hate crimes against those who are a-typically gendered, including abuse, harassment, disowning, and medical neglect. Every day in the U.S., five babies are born with "gender-ambiguous" (intersexed) genitalia, and most of them are "fixed" by doctors into either penises or vaginas, often without parental knowledge or consent.
Over the past month I have surveyed over fifty people, both on the Internet and in person, I have asked questions in various chat rooms and bulletin boards, and engaged groups of people (often whoever I happen to meet) in dialogues about gender, GID, and Aurora in particular. I have only scratched the surface of what there is to learn about attitudes towards gender-transgressive behavior in children, but it is clear to me that, even for those who describe themselves as liberal and open-minded, anything which seriously crosses the 'scientific' boundaries of assigned sex can be uncomfortable, problematic, and frightening. And for many, the stigma attached to transgender and transsexual people seems justified.
For every respondent who commented on the "ridiculous" nature of GID, ("who is to say what is a disordered view of gender?") there was at least one more saying, "what do you mean you don’t know what gender you are? Look in your pants."
Again and again, fear was sighted by my respondents as the reason why people are so concerned about gender-transgressive behavior. Fear of the unknown, of what is different. Some said that there is a fear of the "breakdown of society" or of having to question one’s own sexuality and gender. Several touched on our culture’s dependence on dualism and patriarchy, and the need for strict definitions of sex and gender to support that. One nineteen-year-old respondent gave this explanation:
"Society likes to be able to categorize people, and because of the power structure between men and women, most of our establishments don't know how to accommodate people with penises who are women and people with vaginas and clitorises who are men. If we agree as a society that transgendered people are "acceptable", the lines between male and female would be blurred and the male-dominant structure of society would definitely be threatened."
This comes very close to my conclusion as to why
'gender-transgressive' behavior is so stigmatized. Sex seems to be a very simple dichotomy, something which we are assigned at birth based on our genitalia. If there is any ambiguity or confusion at birth, there are medical ways to "fix" it. Sex is the basic system on which everything else is based- gender, sexuality, class, and even race. Children like Aurora put into question this seemingly simple dichotomy, and force us to re-assess a "look in your pants" mentality. If such a seemingly easy, natural, basic distinction is shown to be faulty, then what happens to our other systems?
Our ability to stigmatize is based on the capacity to categorize, to place people based on various attributes into clear-cut sections of our consciousness labeled 'very good,' 'good,' 'acceptable,' 'bad,' 'deviant,' and 'unmentionable.' If the very attributes become less rigid and harder to define, then there is no pre-determined way to fit someone into any of these boxes. We would have to evaluate each person based on their personal merits and weaknesses, discovered through our interactions with them and how they self-define. Broad pre-judgeable categories of 'sex,' 'gender,' 'race,' 'class,' 'ability,' and 'sexuality' would disappear, leaving only individuals with unique genetic, emotional, physical, and sexual make-ups. Why would this be such a problem? As one thirty-two year old respondent put it,
"(Humans) are fearful of anything that threatens their rigidly defined view of the world. I think if we ever solve gender/transgender discrimination, we will find we have solved racism, sexism, and homophobia too -- it is the blind fear/hate of whatever is different."
A twenty-year-old responded along the same vein:
The reason this is so frightening to most people is that the status quo demands effortless categorization to uphold the power structures that support and imprison our way of life. Without male and female, white and non-white, rich and poor, able-bodied and disabled, straight and queer, Christian and non-Christian, etc, there would be no basis for mass oppression such as job discrimination, hate-crimes, sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, or any other discrimination that is not based on individual valuation. Get rid of dualistic systems, and 'differentness' becomes 'difference,' to be dealt with on its own terms. Get rid of dualistic systems, and you get rid of "us" and "them."
the Stigma of Gender Dysphoria in Children
"people want to be able to label each other--to put people in little boxes that automatically give them characteristics, based on a label. people don't want gender/sex to be so fluid, because then there will be no way to assume or know anything for certain about people."