A Small Focus in Gender Violence

This week in Gender Comm we studied the chapter of power and violence. On Tuesday we broke up into groups and discussed different sections of the chapter (something we do on the regular). I found myself in the group that covered genital surgery as well as gender murder. A topic of particular interest to me was the circumcision differences between men and women. For instance a male circumcision seems almost pointless. Its kind of like a tradition that has been going on under the guise that it is heather. Our book however tells us that it is not. Not only that but it doesn't make sex more or less pleasurable. To me it's kind of like the difference between a belly button that's in and one that's out. When we look at female circumcision it becomes a whole different topic. In the book we read about a few different female circumcisions which are Sunna, excision or clitoridectomy, and infibulation. On a side not as I type this my browser is showing me that it doesn't even have these words in it's dictionary. That's kind of just a show of how little is known about these surgeries. Personally I don't want to get into describing each one because its pretty painful just to think about. In general these types of surgeries are much more painful then male circumcision and usually prevent females from experiencing sexual pleasure. That is just downright evil on a the most basic level. I believe they are done out of fear. Men fear that women will be promiscuous and they do these things to "protect" the idea of a sacred marriage. That's were it ties into this idea of power and control. These things are built around fear and feed off of it. It's not to say that women don't struggle for power and control in a relationship and then abuse it but men seem to be the majority in this case. Either way it comes down to say that we all have to freedom do with our bodies as we please. We don't however have the right to force others tho treat their bodies in certain ways. Especially when those ways are based in fear, power, and control rather than the overall well being of the person. Doing something because it's the tradition is not an excuse either. If someone wants to mutilate their body in that way that is their choice and no one else's. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more click on this link to view a great document by the World Health Organization: Eliminating Female genital mutilation

Gener and Medication in Schools

It has been a few weeks since we discussed this topic in class, but I did want to make sure and blog about it because of the interesting conversation that we had. The topic at hand was gendered education. Now after a hospital, a school is the earliest gendered institution that we as 1st world children are introduced to. There, kids are expected to act a certain way, use certain bathrooms, and are subject to being criticized by peers by the way they act. A big thing that has come up in schools in the last 10 years or so though has been the use of medications for children who have A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. Some of us in the class had taken medications such as Ritalin before and some of us still take them. Personally, I had been on them for about 8 years from 5th grade till my sophomore year in college. One of our supplemental materials was talking about the increase in diagnosis of children specifically young boys. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated in 2007 that boys were about twice as likely to be diagnosed for either of these disorders. I'm surprised that the number isn't higher. So why is it that boys are more likely to be diagnosed? Well young boys are more likely to be active and rowdy in school. I think most people can agree with that. Public education is just not tailored for that kind of behavior. In class, we debated whether this was an institution problem, or if students really have this disorder. Does it make sense to drug our children in order to make them conform to public education? It certainly is the easy way out. In my opinion I think we need to work towards alternate education that will keep kids interested. Public education has been so generalized it's no wonder it doesn't work for everyone. Medication should be a last resort but instead it's being used as an easy way out. There's a reason that boys are being diagnosed more then girls and it's because sitting quietly at a desk for 6 hours is not what little boys want to do. There is much more that goes into this discussion but unfortunately this is all the time that I have. It is not only about gender but also of our society as a whole.
Here's the the information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention if your interested in more scientific data: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

Living Transgendered

So it's been a while since I posted... but I was just so busy learning I didn't have the time! Plus with Spring break over here at the university there just was a lot going on. Anyway, we had another guest in class via Skype this week. His name is AJ and he is female to male transgender man who is a second year PhD student at Ohio University. AJ was very open to discussion and was giving us lots of insight on his life and how he came to make the decisions he made in his life.
At first, before top surgery, she found herself to be very depressed and didn't know how to cope. Even being part of the lesbian community, she was unable to find happiness because inside she felt as if she was a man. When she finally decided to get top surgery, some people he knew were for it and some against it. In my opinion the most interesting response she got was that she shouldn't change her sex because it was more political to be a lesbian.However it wasn't about being political to AJ. He really just wanted to be happy and judging by the conversation we had, he seems to be very much so.
Another topic of interest in our conversations was having to do with his sexual preferences. Right now AJ is with another transgendered man. Both of them have to take hormones once a week and have received top surgery. However, neither of them have had bottom surgery. Despite this fact AJ still considers himself a homosexual man. This was confusing to my classmates and I but this is exactly how it was explained. It's confusing because we are trying to label all of these things in a specific manner when sometimes they don't fall under a specific category.
Someone might say, well if AJ is a man and he is homosexual then why doesn't he get bottom surgery? Well from what he said, technology is a major factor here. According to him, bottom surgery for female to male hasn't changed much since 1950. So until there are medical advancements AJ will stay where he is. In my opinion it is probably for the better to not use outdated technology. It seems better to wait until he can get a desired result.
AJ's situation is more common than you would think. Because of these technological setbacks, many people live as as transgendered males who have not had bottom surgery. There are more people who live as transgendered than one would think. In fact AJ told us that the first boy she ever dated is now living as a transgendered woman. This comes as a surprise to me and many other I'm sure. On the surface it is extremely hard to tell. That's how the saying goes: can't judge a book by it's cover.

Here's a video about a family who has a male child who practical from birth felt as if he was a girl. You can see how difficult it can be for a family to go through this, specifically the parents:

Skype Enhancing Learning

    Like mentioned in the first post, our class has covered a decent amount of material. One part of the class that our teacher Dr. Abbey has incorporated is having guest speakers via skype. A couple of weeks ago we had our first guest who goes by the name Shark-Fu. She writes regularly on here blog entitled Angry Black Bitch. When she came and spoke to our class a good amount of students including myself found it difficult to align with her approach to gender issues. One of her articles that caused some discrepancy was called Battle Hymn of Dangerous Black Woman. We had to read it before class and as we were waiting to connect with her via skype, my classmates started talking about it.
    Shark-Fu's thoughts when it comes to her activism seems to be focused specifically towards African-American women. The post she made about the Battle Hymn is a perfect example of this as it defines the gender and sex issues she discusses as relevant only to "black" females. This upset at least one of my classmates including myself. Shark-Fu's approach towards these issues is limiting. She is certainly focus on the little-d discourse here.
The second guest we had via skype was Doug Gertner, Ph. D. Personally I really enjoyed listening to him much more than I did Shark-Fu. Focusing on Men's Movements, Doug took the time to explain the various groups that are related to gender and sex issues. My favorite part had to be his Gender Role Journey: Five Phases in Our Own Lives. The path describes how progress is made in reducing sexism in one life. Here are the phases themselves:

1. Acceptance of Traditional Gender Roles
2. Ambivalence about Gender Roles
3. Anger
4. Activism
5. Celebration and Integration of Gender Roles

    For whatever reason I love these things because it really puts it into perspective. At times I find myself in many of these phases and by looking at them I can better understand why. Usually I'd say I'm somewhat stuck in-between 3 and 4 but honestly I find myself in every phase at some point (not so much Phase 1 I hope). The Gender Role Journey also reminds me of the Kubler-Ross Model or the Five Stages of Grief. I think that Phases 1-3 of Doug Gertner's are heavily related to this model.
    So going back to Shark-Fu, it seems to me that she comes off as being stuck in Phase 3 as well. After all her blog is entitled Angry Black Bitch. I'm pretty sure she does some activism as well but can't say for sure. Shark-Fu didn't click with me because it seemed like she believed that only "black" women can achieve their freedom for themselves. However I think that it's more than that. These issues are just microcosms of the human condition. The Gender Role Journey is one that all people travel.

If the Models discussed here interest you, perhaps you will enjoy The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements by Bill Moyer

Oh and here's another Free to Be for good measure:

Little Boxes on the Hilltop

So this semester I'm taking a Communication, Gender, and Sex class. As part of the class we have to create a blog and talk about the things we cover in class as well as anything external to the class that relates to it. This is the first post as you can see, but as far as the class goes we're a month in. Posts are going to be made weekly this first one may be a little more broad considering all of the topics we've covered up until this point. Anyway, enough is enough lets get down to it.

     The first thing I'd like to bring up is one of these articles that we read for class that really intrigued me. "X: A Fabulous Child's Story" by Louis Gould is a story about a child raised genderless. The parents do not reveal to anyone what the sex of the child is which upsets a lot of people. What happens is people wind up not knowing how to deal with the child. Instead of saying "oh what a handsome boy" or "oh what a cute little girl" they become practically speechless. So why is this important? Because gender is a social construction. As a society we judge each other based on our sex. By doing this we wind up limiting ourselves. We set boundaries for how we're supposed to look and act.
    To me it's important to be aware of these boxes that we put each other in. For the majority of my life I have been judging people based on the way I was raised. Even though I want to treat all people equally, the social constructs are son engrained into me that it can be difficult to escape. That is why I say being aware is what will really help make progress. It's one thing to make a mistake and it's another to know when you're making it.
     So even though I constantly am putting people into these boxes, I have to be aware of it and understand that not all people want to be put in them. Back to the baby x example, there is actually a family in Toronto who is doing just what was in the story (click here for a related article). They are not revealing the sex of the baby. It has become a huge story in the area and nationwide but it's making me ask why? In all reality it does not seem like a big deal but to the news it is. People do not know how to react to not knowing whether a person is male or female. It's certainly not something you encouter everyday. In fact I never have. I have encountered people of which I was unsure of their sex however. They may have looked genderless and to me I was unable to tell if it was male or female. Looking back, I can't say that I had any difficulty conversing with them. All people deserve to be treated equal and you don't have to use gendered language to communicate with them. Let's look at these boxes that we've been putting people in and see how they aren't meant for everyone.

Since taking this class, I've found that a couple of the people we read about often cite themselves as being raised on a television program entitled "Free to be You and Me". I started watching some of them on YouTube and have really enjoyed them. It's hard to believe that they were producing these kind of videos back in the 70's. Check this one out below, it's one of the ones I've enjoyed most.