The Cuntmentality

ritabearded:

crabkidd:

NOPE

Gender roles are a social construct.

You might think you mean well by claiming gender is a social construct, and I know you do, but in essence you are basically saying the identities of transgender people are socially constructed. Ask most transgender people why they…

^ I completely disagree and i’ll tell you why!!!! 

I am gender dysphoric and understand that while gender may not be explainable to each person it is socially constructed. There is an overwhelming amount of research on this but what seems like  the most prevalent idea is that transgendered people base their gender on the person in their life that they consider stronger in their gender role. 

This seems plausible because the majority of transgendered/ gender dysphoric people that I meet follow the traditional gender role of the gender they want to be. 

I feel like I am included in this as well because I emulate my mother more than my father. When I was young my mother was the abusive partner in a domestically violent situation, while my father was a very weak person and an alcoholic. My parents got divorced because of their situation, but even to this day I am still more of my mother than my father!!! 

I agree that gender roles are a social construct, but I also think that GENDER as an umbrella term to describe identity and expression is also a social construct. Transgendered people even describe themselves in binary terms, they are Female to Male, Male to Female, and they act like a man or a woman corresponding to their (desired/required) genitalia.  

The statement about Gender being a social construct is completely correct because of this. How else can one act like a woman if they don’t have a regulated definition, CREATED BY THEIR SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT, to define themselves by. Especially in a society where a traditional gender role is regulated and defined down to the smallest detail of how long to keep your nails, hair, and what clothes to wear it would be impossible to say that just because you were born with one set of genitalia and you require a different set that your gender is defined by this requirement of your psyche. 

Now if the statement said that “Gender is defined by biology” then your arguement would be valid. However it is more than evident that gender is a social construct and even though someone is transgendered and cannot define what has made them feel like their personal gender is in disagreement with their biology does not mean that their gender isn’t constructed by their social environment. 

No, it’s not and your argument is somewhat cissexist…and sexist too. You mention being gender dysphoric so I’ll assume that’s internalized.

Firstly, transgender is not a verb; it is an adjective and therefore transgendered is not a word. Secondly, you’ve also erased me. Not ever trans* person is a man or a woman. For instance, I am not. If gender was social construction how could I exist if there is no societal influence available for my gender to be fluid? Furthermore, gender dysphoria has no influence either. We do not learn these behaviors through observation because in a cissupremist world, we either don’t exist at all or thought that we shouldn’t exist. Which also points out that since society has regarded us to nothing more than unicorns, then how our trans* folk, even those that identify within the binary are products of a social learning and construction?

Now, sex and gender are two different concepts all together. Sex is a social construct. Sex is what you’re assigned at birth (i.e. male or female). Gender roles are what your parents, guardians, teachers and any other respectable figure in your life including your friends EXPECT of you, are social constructs as well deriving from several institutions of oppression. 

But gender? Gender is something different all together. We have no idea what makes us man or woman. At all. You don’t need a specific definition to tell you how to be a woman. You are you’re own definition. A woman can be many things and neither of them are wrong. Same goes for man and non-binary folk. They all come in all shapes and sizes, colors and tones. Women (which includes trans women, just so you know) can be masculine, femme, or somewhere in between or switch it all around. So can any man. So can any non-binary. They are not wrong. That’s because gender is limitless. Sure, I do not hold doubts that our environment can aid into self-identification, however, I do doubt that even if it is a factor to a person’s gender it is not the sole reason. I am not close with many people in my family, and no one in my immediate family save my siblings who are both under ten, but I am nothing like the ones I am close to. 

Gender is not bound by societal restrictions of what you SHOULD be, it’s simply how you are. It is as vast as the Universe and sometimes just as dark when we are trying to figure out the right star or stars that fit us the best. 

That is not something that society has taught us. Society has never asked you to question your gender, to question if you are really a woman or man. It has never given you any other option because the only thing society asks is if you have a vagina or penis and then they tell you who you are for you. This is not something we could have observed but came to by a desire to identify ourselves with the language we’ve been taught despite social institutions that tell us who we are suppose to be. 

Love,

Taylor

(Source: bustathyme)