Introduction
It happens that nature fails to provide a person who feels like a woman with a female body and the one who is a man in mind with a male one. These people believe that they were born in the wrong way, and only the transition from one sex to another can make them feel most themselves. They are known to the world as transsexuals, individuals who need to travel a long way to a life they are looking for (Scutti para. 2).
In the majority of cases, people are born as males and females, which presupposes particular biological characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy. These things are beyond their control and cannot be altered by one’s will. As a result, individuals whose gender and sex identification do not coincide need to live in discount during their whole life. Fortunately, today the progress in the healthcare sphere allows doctors to help these people.
They can do a sex affirmation surgery and prescribe hormones to make one become recognizably male or female. Still, professionals treat such procedures with extreme caution, as a result of which the medical narrative of transsexuality has its own pros and cons. Even though transsexuality is a disorder that influences gender identity and requires special treatment, transsexual individuals should have a chance to become ordinary men or women.
Medical Narrative of Transsexuality
In the medical framework, this issue is known as gender dysphoria. In general, it deals with the situation when one’s brain got wrong ‘signals’ when it was formed due to the misbalance of hormones (“Gender Dysphoria” para. 3). As it is considered to be a disorder, people whose transsexuality is proved after special assessment can have a legal sex affirmation surgery, change their documents, and be treated as they always wanted. They can receive less invasive treatment and be taught how to live in their bodies. Being treated as a disorder, sex reassignment therapy became medically necessary, which allowed it to be covered.
However, the medicalization of transsexualism made it more difficult to receive the treatment as individuals have to prove that they have such problems, and it is not just a temperate state of their mind that occurred because of frustration and negative experiences in personal life. Except for that, people with gender dysphoria are often considered to be mentally ill by the general public, as they require psychotherapy. For the same reasons, these people tend to become vulnerable and afraid of admitting their transsexuality.
Psychotherapy
The requirement of psychotherapy should be maintained for people who desire sex change because “gender identity disorder can result in psychologic dysfunction, depression, suicidal ideation, and even death” (“Health Care for Transgender Individuals” para. 1). It is critical to remember that people who are willing to have a sex affirmation surgery did not arrive at such a decision at the same moment they realized that something is wrong.
Bornstein claims that the culture identifies the roles people will have in their lives, taking naturally-gendered individuals as the basis (12). As a result, those who are not naturally-gendered face problems in every-day life. They do not meet the requirements and expectations of society because the way they should live is not developed. These people feel like strangers who cannot adjust to the environment, which makes them confused and depressed.
Of course, they are likely to identify themselves as transsexuals over the course of time and to have surgery that will help them. But until that moment, transsexuals already have particular problems that require psychiatric care. For the invasive treatment to be successful and bring expected relief, individuals’ mental health is to be decent. Except for that, psychotherapy can make a person accept one’s body and reject the idea to change sex. It can also confirm that one has gender dysphoria and is not suffering from other problems, the solution of which can lead to satisfaction with a person’s gender.
Rights Claims
Today the position of transsexuals and transgender people in society is not clearly defined. That is why they tend to be treated as strangers who are living in their own world. Still, some prefer to adjust to the general public and behave as normal males or females after the sex change. The same diversity can be found in the views of transsexuals and transgender people. On the one hand, some of them want to be the opposite gender as ordinary man or woman so that no one can even presuppose that the issue existed. On the other hand, some feel gender binary is too restricting and want to open up and live in a ‘third space.’
Personally, I believe that it would be better for the whole society to keep the framework of the gender binary and let transsexuals and transgender individuals choose who they want to be. It may sound rather limiting, as those who would like to remain a ‘third space’ will not have such an opportunity, but I consider it to be the best way out. I can agree with Bornstein, who believes that “the culture may, in fact, be creating the gendered people” (12).
Yes, from early childhood, we are to decide whether we are girls or boys and to follow the guidelines prepared for us. Still, such an approach was not created out of thin air. It is based on the natural distribution that allowed people to procreate. Supporting this division, we are moving our world forward and prevent the extinction of humankind. Of course, it sounds exaggerating, but slight changes today may lead to enormous alterations in the future.
Encouraging the creation of a ‘third space,’ we are likely to let it become a part of our culture. As a result, it would become natural to see men dressed as women on the street or in the supermarket. Soon, children will start to imitate such behavior and will act as an opposite gender just because it is the thing everybody does. Having not stable psyche yet, the representatives of the youngest generations may subdue to the tendencies of the modern world and forget about the things that are more natural to them. Moreover, people’s sex presupposes one’s physical characteristics, while the rationale for the creation of a ‘third space’ is more mental.
Transsexuals and transgender people do belong to particular sex that is associated with the masculine or feminine gender. If they adjust to the majority, they would still have an opportunity to act as they want. Children should realize that they have a choice and are free to decide who they want to be, but it seems to be wrong to influence vulnerable populations creating one more gender. Bornstein believes that transsexuals and transgender people need acceptance and understanding, but these can be obtained without the status of ‘third’ (98).
Conclusion
Heterosexuals, transsexuals, and transgender individuals should be provided with equal opportunities and treatment. Still, it is important to be sure that a person is in a ‘wrong body’ before changing it definitively. Minorities should receive advantages that will allow them to have normal lives without stress and harassment, but these advantages should not have an adverse influence on the rest of the population.
Works Cited
Bindel, Julie. Tolerance Is the Last Thing Gays Need. 2014. Web.
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.
Gender Dysphoria 2016. Web.
Health Care for Transgender Individuals 2011. Web.
Manalansan, Martin. “In the Shadows of Stonewall: Examining Gay Transnational Politics and the Diasporic Dilemma.” A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 2.4 (1995): 425-438. Print.
McVeigh, Karen, and Paul Harris. U.S. Military Lifts Ban on Openly Gay Troops. 2011. Web.
Phelan, Shane. Sexual Strangers, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. Print.
Rushbrook, Dereka. “Cities, Queer Space, and the Cosmopolitan Tourist.” A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 8.1-2 (2002): 183-206. Print.
Scutti, Susan. What Is The Difference Between Transsexual And Transgender? 2014. Web.
Sodomy Laws in the U.S. 2013. Web.