Research: Difference between revisions

::*The use of full-body scanners at airports, along with passports that assume binary gender, leads to a "hypervisibility" of genderqueer and trans* bodies in which they are scrutinised in a negative manner. Security systems based on binary gender further feed into the societal perception of trans* people as 'dishonest', or 'pretending' to be of a different sex, as well as leading to increased with of transphobic harassment and suspicion.

::<blockquote>"If it is analytically and conceptually productive to see transphobic violence as the violent reproduction of a stable sex/gender system that ‘naturally’ privileges cisgender performances because such performances are associated with normality and safety and trans- performances are associated with danger and discomfort, it then becomes possible to ask questions about the ways that trans-in(/hyper)visibility, cisprivilege and a regulative, exclusionary ontopolitical social order are violently reproduced in inter/transnational relations."</blockquote>

<blockquote>Discussion of the ways in which awareness of genderqueer and trans* people causes others to question their own [http://nonbinary.org/wiki/Gender_identity gender identities]. Also highlights various archetypes and misconceptions that tend to be used in discourse about trans* and genderqueer issues, and discusses points for and against the use of the word 'cisgender' to describe non-trans* people.</blockquote>

::*Discussion of trans* people often uses a narrow understanding of gender that prioritises dominant social identities, and objectifies trans* individuals as abstract representations of how to think about gender relations:

::::*There is a tendency to treat trans* people as a 'threat', which centres discussion on how to police gender boundaries, rather than on how to oppose gendered violence. Gendered oppression is made the only thing that matters, making white cis women more comfortable, whilst pushing out women who are 'othered'.

:::*The idea is discussed that the existence of trans* people "creates non-trans people as something new". Non-trans* women have been placed in relationship to trans* women, causing them to question what it means to identify, and be identified, as a woman.

<blockquote>An online survey was carried out to assess gender identity, gender dysphoria, and gender performace in both 'normative' men and women and "queers" (people who self-described as either transgender or "other") in Israel. The questionnaire used - the Multi-Gender Identity Questionnaire, or Multi-GIQ - was newly constructed (although it was based on existing measures), and was designed to measure different degrees of multiple genders ('man', 'woman', 'both' and 'neither') existing within the same individual. The findings were compared to a student sample, also in Israel, in order to discern whether findings might generalise to the rest of the country's population. Sexual orientation was also assessed in both samples.</blockquote>

::*"Feeling as a man" and "Feeling as a woman" were neagatively correlated. Self-described men felt more like men than women did, and vice versa; "queers" scored in-between.

::*"Feeling as two genders" and "Feeling as no gender" were positively correlated with the wish to be the 'other' gender, and negatively correlated with being content with the affirmed gender.

::*Men were more compliant with gender expectations relating to language and dress than women; both were more compliant than "queers". Heterosexual people were also more compliant than homosexual and bisexual people. For dress, this difference was larger for women, and for language the difference was larger for men.

::*"Normative" participants also scored more highly than expected on items relating to gender dysphoria: 36.6% of "non-queers" said they sometimes feel as the 'other' gender (with 24% giving scores above 1), 63.7% sometimes wished to be the 'other' gender (and 34% above 1), 49% did not always wear clothes 'appropriate' to their sex (26% below 3) and 41.9% were sometimes discontent with their sexed body (52% above 1).

::*Correlations between sexual orientation and gender identity, where they were found, were small, and do not support the idea that "the heterosexual– homosexual binary constitutes, stabilises and naturalises the male–female binary".

::*Causal relationships cannot be assumed, since cross-sectional data were used.

::*Future models should taken both risk factors and protective factors into account.

::*There is currently no evidence for or against the theories proposed here; this paper appears to be the first formal scientific investigation of bigender identity, and as a result the discussion section is highly speculative.

:::*Bigender people may have unusually amplified functional [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralization_of_brain_function hemispheric dominance] patterns; cycling of dominance between hemispheres may lead to alternate expression of cognitions and emotions that are traditionally considered to be 'male' or 'female'.

<blockquote>A very brief review of evidence for a neurological basis for [[gender dysphoria]], and some informed but speculative discussion of how this neurological basis might emerge during [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_development fetal development]. The specific findings discussed involve binary trans* participants, but they are potentially relevant to anyone who experiences gender dysphoria.</blockquote>

::*Both studies examined postmortem brains, and the majority of trans* participants had been on hormone replacement therapy during their lifetimes. Findings relating to the BSTc may therefore have been due to hormone use rather than an innate marker of gender dysphoria.

::*Only a single transsexual man was studied, so firm conclusions about the brains of transsexual men can not be drawn from the study described.

::*Accepting genderqueer people under the law would also be an admittance that gender is fluid and constructed, which may lead to reduced medicalisation of trans* identities and wider acceptance of less rigid attitudes toward gender.

::*90% of genderqueer people surveyed report experience of verbal harassment in the workplace, barriers to advancement, and pervasive fear of these outcomes.

:::*There is precedent to show that laws based on gender stereotypes should not be upheld - see the case of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_v._Boren Craig v. Boren], in which a law would have allowed women to legally buy beer at a younger age than men, as men were caught drunk driving more often. The law was not upheld, as it was felt that differential treatment of the genders played a role in women having fewer opportunities to drive when drunk.

:::*The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause Due Process Clause] protects “personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education.” There is precedent for this clause being used to affirm the right to an abortion and undermine ant-gay sodomy laws.

:::*Genderqueer people could therefore make the case that they should be free to define their own gender without intervention by the state in the form of binary classification.

:::*The First Amendment prohibits 'state-compelled speech', particularly that which conveys an 'ideological message'. There is precedent for this being used to justify refusal to display passive, state-issued messages (e.g. citizens removing the New Hampshire state motto, "Live Free or Die", from their license plate, because they disagreed with said motto).

:::*'Genderqueer' or 'queer' (42% of GNLs; 6% of total sample)

:::*'Both', 'either', 'neither', 'in-beween', or 'non-binary' (9% of GNLs)

::*The statistical test used - Pearson's chi-squared - only produces generalisable results when applied to a random population, which this was not. In addition, the non-random nature of the study may have compromised the test's ability to find statistical significance. '''The findings of this study should therefore not be taken as read, but instead be used to provide hypotheses for more in-depth research.'''