Kameron Warlitner
6/18/19
HR: Artifacts, Notes

Final Reflective Essay

First off, let me go ahead and say that I am incredibly thankful for having the opportunity to take this class. It has allowed me to explore my own thoughts and opinions as well as affirm previous opinions that I have had in the past. This course has both allowed me to grow and learn as a person while at the same time allowing me to justify why I have had specific thoughts in the past which we will explore shortly

Sex and Gender

First off, I have always thought that sex and gender were the same things. Being interchangeable and meaning the same thing referring to what an individual is based on the external genitalia that they were born with. However, while I was a little bit anxious to say that gender is different from sex, I began to rethink my decision after being exposed to how much society banks off gender norms in order to identify male and female as well as those who may be born with ambiguous genitalia. For example, I bring up in Artifact 1 that I have witnessed gender stereotypes with my previous job using the example of a man being shamed for working for his wife.
As I continued, I went a little more in depth into the idea of transgender and third gender individuals and what other cultures had to say about it and was quite surprised. For example, what shocked me the most was the fact that Native Americans had what they called “Two Spirits” which can be considered third gender. The more I began to think about it, I began realizing that those individuals simply weren’t looking for attention nor were they trying to affect other people’s lives, they simply wanted to attempt to find themselves just like the rest of us.

The Gender Health Gap

I further found my eyes being opened when we began discussing the gender health gap and the issues that society has when attempting to treat both men and women. I was always under the impression that society had always had an issue with addressing men’s mental health, but I had not understood that women were also facing. I discussed how each gender faced more risks with being diagnosed with specific illnesses such as women being more likely to be diagnosed with mood disorders while men are more likely to have their depression symptoms overlooked. As I further researched points for Artifact 2, I noticed that inequalities extended farther than the mental health of both genders. Although I am still a little iffy on the gender pay gap, it is pertinent to recognize that maternal leave in the United States is nonexistent. Yes, the employer is obligated to reserve the women’s job for when she eventually returns, but many simply fire the women prior to giving birth in order to get out of this obligation. How can we expect women to take care of children when they have no support? How can we expect men to feel more emotions when they are oftentimes ignored? These were just a few of the many questions that came to mind upon learning of this topic.

Female Circumcision

As stated in the artifact concerning female circumcision, I previously had no idea that it even existed in the first place. It was astonishing to me that something such as cutting off a clitoris, removing the labia minora, and sowing the labia majora shut even existed on this planet. However, I find myself at an impasse. I sternly believe that we should respect the cultures of others because I would prefer that other cultures don’t attempt to judge mine. However, I found myself questioning the reasoning behind a culture practicing such a dangerous tradition, and this involves male circumcision as well. I remember a specific documentary following an African tribe’s tradition of circumcising a young man and leaving him out in a hut, restricting him from drinking water and eating, until it was fully healed. As I said before, I believe that we should respect other cultures, however I find myself wanting to change such a dangerous practice. Especially when proper medicine is not being used. I have yet to quite figure out how to deal with this concept, but I am still contemplating it.

Female Menstruation

Now this is one of those moments when my previous beliefs were confirmed. In my house, we have never had an issue with menstruation. We have all accepted it as a natural thing and refuse to acknowledge it as an excuse to be moody. On the other hand, we don’t judge it either. If it happens, then you simply help where you can (buying tampons, pads, etc.) and you just go about your regular day. However, I found that, apparently, the rest of society and the world doesn’t quite agree with us. From being embarrassed to have it all the way to being temporarily exiled for having it, it seems that female menstruation isn’t fully accepted just yet. As I discussed in Artifact 6, I believe that education is the most important step in getting rid of this idiotic stigma. If parents and public education institutions educate the children on the reasons behind menstruation and set the example that it isn’t something to be made fun of or ashamed of, then we may be able to look forward to a future generation that accepts it, ending the negative stigmas and stereotypes.

Closing

Once again, I am very happy with having the opportunity to take this class. It has opened my eyes to issues that I had previously been ignorant of and taught me to be more accepting of individuals and ideas that I may not be familiar with or may not fully understand just yet. Talking specifically about transgender men and women, I had always found myself talking about them as though they weren’t people just like you and me. It also affirmed that we don’t live in a society that specifically demonizes one sex over the other. Both men and women face issues with expectations and practices in our society, and it simply isn’t a contest to see who suffers more. We need to back up a little and understand that we all have expectations, stereotypes, and do things that will be frowned upon by someone. The important thing is to realize that it is as simple as respecting other cultures, people, and practices regardless of whether you may agree to it or not. Because there may be reasons behind the actions and ideas that we don’t quite understand yet, but I hope that we can come to some sort of understanding soon. Our society needs it.

References:

Artifact 1: https://sites.vmi.edu/warlitnerkh20/2019/05/22/artifact-1-sex-and-gender-crocodiles-cannot-physically-stick-their-tongues-out/

Artifact 4: https://sites.vmi.edu/warlitnerkh20/2019/05/30/artifact-4-gender-health-gap/

Female Circumcision: What’s This All About? https://sites.vmi.edu/warlitnerkh20/2019/06/09/female-circumcision-whats-this-all-about/

Artifact 6: https://sites.vmi.edu/warlitnerkh20/2019/06/12/artifact-6-what-do-you-think-about-menstruation/

Who is Robert Eads?

Robert Eads is an transgender man that lives in the United States. Originally being advised NOT to go through with the gender reassignment surgery, Robert was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1996. In his life prior to transitioning, he was married to a man at one point and birthed two children. However, he would later say that pregnancy made him feel as though he is more trapped inside of a female body, and would later begin transitioning in his forties.

Southern Comfort

The film Southern Comfort follows Robert’s journey to a conference held in Georgia for those who are also transgender know as “SOCO” or the Southern Comfort Conference. Also, it shows the effects of cervical cancer as well as how the treatment affects the patients. Simultaneously, the film explores the relationships that Robert has with his fellow transgender friends and lover, Lola. This is what he calls his “chosen family”, and the film goes through each of their lives and sheds light on the day to day life of a transgender man or woman as well as their stories of transitioning. I believe that the underlying tone of the film is to show that transgender individuals are humans just like us, and truly does shed light on the idea that they simply want to live their lives as normally as possible regardless of whether they may be different from the norm.

Family Support

The film sheds plenty of light on the idea of family. I myself have learned first hand that social support is an important part of human development with family support being extremely important. We learn early on that Robert’s biological parents weren’t too keen on him transitioning, even going as far as to say that they wished he would have just remained gay instead. However, while this film does delve into the negative reality of not being accepted, it shows that this can all be turned around into something rather beautiful. As mentioned before, Robert has what it called a “chosen family” which consists of his fellow transgender friends and their lovers. Throughout the film you can both see and feel the strong bond between everyone. Their willingness to help each other out in emotionally difficult situations, the joy you see on their faces as they joke around with each other, and the pain felt as Robert eventually succumbs to his illness. All of these factor into the idea that while family has traditionally been biological, it isn’t required to be that way. Robert was not related to a single individual in his group, yet the love and respect they had for one another seemed to be more visible than what I’ve seen in biological families in my lifetime.

Personally, my family is truly the only thing that I have. So if I were ever to lose them for any reason it would certainly crush me as a person. However, I believe that it would be worse if I were to be rejected by them. There’s something just a little bit more painful about the thought of your family making the choice to no longer interact with you as opposed to them passing away. Thankfully, I don’t believe that there’s anything I could do that would cause my entire family to reject me, especially my immediate family. However, the thought still scares me to death and I would never want to risk it.

Stereotypes

From what I’ve seen, the main stereotypes that surround transgender individuals consist of assumptions that these people just want attention, they want to control individuals by dictating what pronouns other people use, and how they’re individuals who are extremely sick in some way. While how them feeling as though their gender does not align with the biological parts that they were born with may be confusing to non-transgender individuals, Southern Comfort shows that this simply isn’t the case. Most transgender individuals just want to be accepted and live their lives as normally as possible. It appears that that’s not where the stereotypes end, however. It appears that when transgender individuals are represented in television shows, it appears that most of the time their character’s profession is overwhelmingly involved with being a sex worker. Basically only being a fetish tool for heterosexual individuals and nothing more. Furthermore, there is a myth surrounding the transgender community that every transgender individual has to have the surgery in order to be considered transgender. This can not be further from the truth. It is solely based on the opinion of the individual, and as we have seen with the example of Lady Boys in Thailand, one doesn’t necessarily have to have gender reassignment surgery in order to feel whole.

Cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Eads

https://sccfla.org/

https://www.glaad.org/publications/victims-or-villains-examining-ten-years-transgender-images-television

https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/5/13/17938088/transgender-people-rights-myths

Women’s Opinion on Menstruation

Women in the U.S., while not going through some of the hardships that some women around the world face, still seem to have quite a bit to deal with when talking about menstruation. Normally, the topic of menstruation is usually a topic that is kept “hush hush” within the American household, and it appears that even most women have adopted this “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude. Why is this? When asking my sisters and mother why they may have negative views towards menstruation, I was met with responses that centered around their symptoms. Cramps, bloating, and bleeding were the reasons for them having a negative view on their period, but there didn’t seem to be any sort of embarrassment involved with it. However, this opinion is not shared with most other women within the U.S.

Why the Stigma?

In my personal opinion, the reason for menstruation being such a taboo topic may stem from multiple things. One, maybe it’s even the slight mention of blood that causes people to be squeamish and not want to talk about some things. Two, and the reason I think is the most probable, there isn’t a lot of general knowledge behind why menstruation occurs and what happens during it. This lack of knowledge trickles down to the very beginning when teenage girls experience it for the first time. a young girl experiences her period. At first, she isn’t aware of what’s going on and is terrified. Then, when surrounded by young boys who also don’t understand it at all, she decides to hide it in order to not cause a disturbance or disgust someone. Fast forward later on when the girl is now a woman and has a better understanding of what her menstrual cycle consists of, yet her male partner does not. This ignorance causes a misunderstanding and a lack of empathy for something that is generally out of the woman’s control due to it being natural.

All in all, this negative attitude towards menstruation eventually causes both girls and women to feel as though they need to hide the fact that they’re on their period, and may cause them to believe that them having their period is a burden to themselves and to others. As anyone may understand, it isn’t easy to believe that you have to “deal with something” that occurs naturally every month.

How Can We Fix It?

Education. Education. Education. The key to destroying a negative stigma is to educate young individuals so that they may grow up with knowledge about it so that they may not fear it. For women, tell young girls exactly what goes on and why it happens, and inform them that it isn’t something to get ashamed about due to it being a natural occurrence. On the flip side, inform boys that, while they may not go through it, understand that it is an important part of being a woman, and while they may not enjoy the idea of blood coming out of a vagina, they should be respectful of the natural process and attempt to look at it in a less negative light.