Seeing Psychology in Personal Experience

Intro to Psychology Term Paper

Christina Cannilla
Dr. Oyenike Balogun-Mwangi
Spring 2019
April 17, 2019
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Gender is a complex word. The topic of Gender is pivotal in almost every mainstream

issue that is present in today’s society. But as quintessential as it is, there is a significant lack of

public understanding. Differentiating between sex, gender, and sexual orientation can be

perplexing for many individuals and ever too often they get grouped together and the lines

between them become blurred. But making these words synonymous with each other perpetuates

the lack of understanding and leads many to be intolerant of individuals that identify as

Transgender.

The first step is creating a clear differentiation between sex and gender. Sex is an

individual's biological status at birth, whether they are born with a penis or a vagina and whether

their natural hormones are testosterone or estrogen. It is medically possible to be born with an

unusual combination of male and female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy. The term for

this is intersex, which is not synonymous with transgender despite the fact that they are often

mistaken for each other. Gender is defined by culture’s expectations about what it means to be a

man or a woman. This is dictated by gender roles which are the social expectations that guide

behavior.

Gender roles help feed our gender identity. Gender identity is our personal sense of being

male, female or somewhere between the two. Taking on a traditional male or female role is

considered gender typing. Gender typing is how boys and girls acquire traditionally masculine or

feminine roles. For example, when you think of a typical 1950s Housewife, you may imagine a

young woman who doesn’t have a job, wears makeup and dresses every day, cooks cleans, takes

care of her children, and makes sure her husband is happy. This woman is taking on the

traditional female role of a woman in the 1950s, therefore she would be exemplifying gender

typing.

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A person does not have to fall into one of the two categories of male or female. Gender is

not black or white, it is a variety of shades of gray. If an individual fall between male and female

and blends the two roles together, they would be considered androgynous. A typical example this

is Ellen Degeneres. Ellen self identifies as female however she typical dresses in pants and suits,

she dotes a short haircut, and she wears very minimal, if any, makeup.

How we form our gender identity is an ongoing curiosity for psychologists. One theory is

the Gender Schema Theory. The Gender Schema Theory argues that children learn a cultural

"recipe" of how to be male or female at a very young age. Essentially, the argument that this

theory puts forth is that when we are young and our brains are developing, we are taught what it

means to be or what it means to be female. Not through a direct conversation or checklist, but by

observing the behaviors of males and females and then boiling each one down to their

commonalities. Another theory that aims to provide a piece of the puzzle of what determines

gender identity is the Social Learning Theory. The Social Learning Theory, which was first

brought forth by Albert Bandura, assumes that children learn gender roles through observation

and imitation, as well as through reinforcement and punishment. In laments terms, the Social

Learning Theory proposes that we observe actions of gender and we imitate them and the

learning is reinforced by how people react, either by positively enforcing or counteractively

disapproving of our actions.

Transgender comes into play when gender and sex clash. Being transgender means that

an individual has gender dysmorphia and their gender identity differs from the behaviors or traits

considered typical for that person’s birth-designated sex. A key identifier of the definition is

gender dysmorphia. Gender dysmorphia is a medically diagnosable disorder that is present in

every individual who is transgender. The guidelines for gender dysmorphia differ based on age.

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For children, there are eight characteristics, six of which must be present consistently for at least

a six month period in order to be diagnosed with gender dysmorphia. The characteristics are the

following:

1. A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that one is the other gender

2. A strong preference for wearing clothes typical of the opposite gender

3. A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play

4. A strong preference for the toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged

in by the other gender

5. A strong preference for playmates of the other gender

6. A strong rejection of toys, games, and activities typical of one’s assigned gender

7. A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy

8. A strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced

gender

The guidelines are slightly less restricted when an individual is older because children are

constantly developing and changing and their behaviors may be attributed to their age as opposed

to gender dysmorphia. For adolescents and adults, the guidelines are not as rigid. They must only

meet two of the six characteristics for a minimum of six month period in order to be diagnosed

with gender dysmorphia. The characteristics are the following:

1. A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary

and/or secondary sex characteristics

9. A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics

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10. A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other

gender

11. A strong desire to be of the other gender

12. A strong desire to be treated as the other gender

13. A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender

Diagnosing gender dysmorphia is often the first stage of transitioning for many

transgender people who hope to begin hormone treatment and then, ultimately, gender

reassignment surgery. It is often a long and trying road that is paved with many struggles and it

takes an indescribably strong and determined person to accomplish. Unfortunately, many people

in the transgender community never have the opportunity to complete this journey for a variety

of reasons, from financial to accessibility to the mounting social stigma.

In recent years, there has been an increased flood of research on the scientific reason and

meaning of being transgender. One of the most influential figures is Dick Swaab from the

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, who is considered a pioneer in the neuroscience

underlying gender identity. Swaab aimed to identify how the structure of transgender brains

compared to the structure of cisgender brains. Swaab worked with a team of researchers to

examine the postmortem brains of six transgender women. They found that the size of the central

subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis was closer to that of cisgender women than

cisgender men.

Additional studies aimed to find links between transgender individuals and their

cisgender counterparts with relation to their functional similarities as opposed to their brain

structure. Julie Bakker of VU University Medical Center and the Netherlands Institute for

Neuroscience in Amsterdam lead a study to examine neural activity during a spatial-reasoning

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task. It has already been proven that exercise engages different areas of the brain in men and

women. The study found that transgender boys as well as cisgender boys, displayed less

activation than cisgender girls in frontal brain areas when they performed the task, indicating a

link apparent for transgender boys to their gender identity rather than their sex at birth.

All of these new studies aim to normalize the idea of being transgender and minimize the

stigma that being transgender is a choice. Julia Bakker urges people to look at it as a clear

medical abnormality rather than a lifestyle choice by likening it to hair color, saying it “is just

part of the biology, the same way as I have black hair and somebody has red hair,” (Bakker).

As we studied this topic, I was unable to divert my mind from thoughts of my brother. My

brother is a seventeen-year-old junior in high school and is transgender. For as long as I can

remember, he has never been my sister, he’s always been, my brother. When I was reading the

characteristics of gender dysmorphia in children, it seemed as though they were written with him

in mind. Two specific characteristics triggered memories for me.

The first was that children with gender dysmorphia prefer playmates of their gender

identity as opposed to their sex at birth. My brother’s friends were almost exclusively female.

Any female friends he did have, were friends of the family or the children of our parent’s friends.

His best friend’s name was Bradley Harris. I remember we always used to joke that Bradley was

my brother’s boyfriend. Looking back, I think that made their friendship easier for me to

understand as a child, but now, it seems more clear that their friendship had much more to do

with the way my brother wanted to see himself.

The other characteristic that stuck out to me was the strong desire to be of the other

gender or an insistence that one is the other gender. I vividly remember a conversation that my

brother and I had in the car one day in the middle of the summer. My mom was driving us to

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camp and the topic of our names came up. My name is Christina and my brother’s name was

Katherine. I remember saying how I wish I had his name because I always liked the name, Kate.

I said it very light-heartedly and as small talk to fill the time. I remember my brother getting very

serious and telling me how jealous he was of me for having my name. He said he would give

anything to switch names with me because if his name was Christina, he could go by Chris. At

the time, I just thought of it as kids always wanting what they didn’t have but now, I realize how

meaningful that conversation was. It wasn’t small talk, car ride conversation, it was a truly deep

symbol of how much my brother was struggling with his identity. He didn’t want to switch

names because he wanted what he didn’t have, he wanted to switch names because he wanted

more people to see him as male, even if it was just through his name.

I felt like the arguments that the textbook made were clear and accurate to my

experiences. I found gender and sex extremely confusing up until my brother and I had a blunt

and open conversation about his gender identity. I think understanding gender was a key part of

understanding his transition and his journey.

In terms of the theories that the textbook presented, while I don’t necessarily disagree

with their arguments, I found that they were too vague to describe my experiences. I felt that

they were accurate but they didn’t get even close to describing my experience. It’s hard to put

into words what it is like to grow up with a brother who is transgender. Maybe part of the reason

I have so much trouble describing it is that he never really seemed like a girl to be. It didn’t feel

like he was transitioning from female or to male because it never felt like he started out as female

or was becoming a male, he was just my brother, Kay. Putting a label on it is like trying to label

family, it’s not necessary. Sure, it helps the outside world understand better but it, in the end, it

doesn’t matter to me what other people call him because I would love him no matter what.

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I still have a lot of questions, and I’m sure other people do as well. I want to know what

biologically caused my brother to be in a position where he had to grow up feeling like he was

living in the wrong body. I want to know how I could have helped him and if there was anything

I could have done to make it easier for him. And I want to know if it can be detected earlier. If I

could save my brother one day of living in the wrong body, I would, so if I could save him years,

maybe even decades, I would do everything I could to make that happen. I think, luckily, this

topic is at the forefront in terms of social issues and while that does bring a lot of negativity, it

encourages many more people to find answers, that I hope will help my brother feel more

understood and less alone.

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