First off, I'm going to try to handle this topic with care because it's one you can't just research to understand, you have to be in the skin of the person who knows.
I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the Chaz Bono controversy on Dancing With The Stars. For this post, I think it's best to leave out the homosexual aspect of transgender people because it will make my points more confusing and isn't necessary.
Society has clear definitions of male and female: the male has XY chromosomes, the female XX and both have corresponding genitalia. What makes us male or female isn't just based on how we look; it's sewn into every cell of our bodies. There's no changing it. Then we have the categories of men and women, which used to be synonymous with male and female, but the once black and white groupings have been blurred to create a gray area.
For example, there is no right or wrong to being female, you just are or are not, but society tells us there are degrees of being a woman or man. Men are still the primary breadwinners; they chop wood and fix leaking pipes. Women still typically cook and clean and wear clothes that show off our curves and cleavage. So if you are a man that can't mow the lawn or even grow a good beard for example, you are seen as less of a man. I respect this system, but I also resent it at the same time. I love being a woman in every aspect, but it does get old to be categorized by my gender.
This brings me back around to the transgender topic. The message of this decade seems to be love yourself the way you were born; it's okay to be different unless you're genuinely a crappy person or have different ideologies. My first instinct is to say that having ten and up surgeries to outwardly change who you are, physically, is going against this love your body lecture. In fact, most plastic surgery brings to question the idea of self-hate and if it's "right". However, changing one's gender seems like a much higher degree of non-acceptance than just a nosejob. Thinking deeper though, men or women that have these procedures say that since childhood they have felt like the other gender, which I'll admit is a hard concept for everyone else to grasp. After all, how do they know what being the opposite gender is like? A five year old boy can wear his mother's heels and lipstick, but he can't say from then on he wants to be a woman; there is so much more to it than that. Just like a 13 year old girl still has yet to learn what being a woman means. At this time, I would pull the period and having babies card, but being a woman goes beyond that as well!
This is where I start to get testy (definitly no pun intended, sorry :( ). I truly believe that no matter how many times women and men communicate there will still be a lack of understanding of the opposite gender. Yes, we're equal, but we're not always alike. Men that want to be women that think all it takes is to have surgeries and inject estrogen everyday will never have an idea of what it's truly like to be a woman. So it upsets me that because they have a new pair of breasts and cry a lot, they think they know what it's like; it's not all about make-up, frilly tops and heels (technically, it's sexist to think so).
I feel sad because I wish they could have been born the way they wanted. I wish I was born with blue eyes, but instead got these big ol' cow eyes. And women wanting to be men can change themselves on the outside to match how they feel on the inside and if they think they understand men good for them, but I still think men are an enigma.
People that take on these procedures, I'm sure, are scared of such a big transition and despite their gender, hair color, nose, breasts, etc. God loves them. I'm not saying go out and be friends with every transgender person; I'm saying don't care. I don't care that Chaz Bono is on television. I don't think it's going to screwup children; I thought Michael Jackson was a woman when I was young and here I stand, still a little confused, but a functioning human being none the less. I think that so many people (maybe just the media????) making such a big deal about it is the real big deal.
All in all, I'm trying to make a larger statement; I'm more of a black and white kind of person. It doesn't make me bad or hateful. Gray area distresses me, always has. It seems like every mainstream thought like "love yourself" has to be given 100 exceptions like 'love yourself only after you've had surgery to become the real you'. What do you agree or disagree with?
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