The Inner Battle of the Sexes

In our society, there are two clear genders: male and female. Androgyny may be trendy, but there are only ‘male’ and ‘female’ check boxes on driver’s license forms, birth certificates, and other forms. So what happens if you just don’t fit into either category? What happens when the doctor picks you up at birth, slaps you on the backside, and pronounces you a bouncing baby girl…but you don’t feel like one? How are you going to live, growing up your whole life waiting for your male sex organs to grow like all the other boys, but they never do? Gender identity is how you see yourself. You might have been born a man or woman and “just know” that you are male or female. But when you don’t fit into a specific category of gender, you’re put under the umbrella term of transgender. The term ‘transgender’ is broad and covers many aspects of the gender experience. Typically, transgender people have come to the conclusion that they are trapped in the wrong body. Some will go through hormone therapy, electrolysis, plastic surgery, or sex reassignment surgery to complete their transition to the correct body. Being transgender is different from cross-dressing because cross-dressers don’t necessarily want to be the opposite sex. The terms ‘transgender’ and ‘transsexual’ are slightly different as well: while a transgender person typically will not have the sex reassignment surgery, a transsexual person will. FTMs (female-to-male) and MTFs (male-to-female) have a difficult time dealing with their gender dysphoria within modern society. They may be labeled homosexual even when they are not so inclined. Some transgender showgirls have exploited their physiology, particularly in the pornography industry, and coined the term ‘she-male,’ which can be highly offensive to MTFs. While some trans-people have a clear perception of themselves as being either male or female, some do not share this view. Some feel: Bi-gendered: They have a male and female side to their personalities.Genderqueer: They possess qualities that fall outside the world of accepted sexual binary categories. They may also see sexual orientation and gender identity as overlapping and fight the strict gender regime in society.Two-spirited: They may subscribe to the Native American idea that one can embody masculine and feminine genders.Androgyne: They may reject gender roles entirely. Their biological sex is not apparent and they integrate both masculine and feminine traits. Many trans-people have been killed out of the fear and loathing of transgenderism (transphobia). Hundreds of names of innocent trans-people, murdered and tortured not only by their perpetrators, but by being trapped within their own bodies, are listed at www.rememberingourdead.org. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Don’t continue to be ignorant of this cause. How do you measure who is a man and who is a woman? What if an accident happened and caused a man to lose his external sex organs? Would you still call him a man? Genitals do not define the person. How we perceive ourselves makes us who we are. This is the real battle of the sexes.