Who Will Dominate?





"Tia was aspiring to play in the 2020 Olympics of the USA woman’s volleyball team. She had played on men’s teams all her life, but decided it was time to stick up for her and all other trans people around the world."

Especially-noteworthy: In the NPR podcast entitled “Becoming Nicole” the parents of a child who was born with male genitalia were speaking about their child identifying as a female from a young age. Nicole’s mother made a statement, “She went through a huge anxiety self hating period when she was 6 or 7 years old.” This was heartbreaking to me that children so young could have such self-hate for themself. This topic of self-hate in young children is a conversation that needs to be had. The conversation in today’s society would be much more accepted, and hopefully the conversation would encourage us (as in society) to bring light to mental health in young children and their gender identity.




(For the whole podcast click here.
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Troubled-By: In the video “What it's like to be intersex.” Saifa stated what his doctor said about the intersex community. His doctor that removed his testes said, “You intersex activists don’t know what you’re talking about.” This sentence in particular troubled me because the doctors themselves who perform these surgeries seem to not support their patients (for the most part). It seems to me that if a doctor is willing and able to perform these life-altering surgeries they would at least be supportive, and not call them ”activists.” The surgeons need to understand that it’s their life that their patients are talking about not some movement they are trying be activists about. All around, I found this troubling and sickening as well.



( For the video on intersex click here.
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Especially Resonant: A sentence that resonated with me came from one of the additional readings: “The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes.” "As women athletes' strength and confidence grew, some observers began to wonder if fast, powerful athletes could even be women."This sentence is true to my life, because growing up as a female athlete I often felt as if I wasn’t capable at excelling at a sport, and that people only watched male sports. No, I was never questioned about gender, but I feel that this topic of women’s sports is all too familiar with most girls. Women should be encouraged to try new things. It doesn’t always need to be about comparing genders and who can do what. It’s sad that though women have proved to be strong, and confident in sports, women are still questioned about if they can actually be a powerful athlete.
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Final Thoughts: Overall, these last two modules were a bit confusing, but also incredibly informational. Seeing how our culture and society doesn’t speak up about all the types of gender, and gender identification learning about so many other ways to identify seemed overwhelming at first. After all of the readings, and personal stories throughout the modules it all started to become clearer. I most definitely still have a lot to learn, and I hope I can contribute in a positive way to society, and bring light to people being people, and encouraging them to be true to how they feel and identify.
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Current Event:
The article I chose was entitled “ Do Trans Athletes have an Unfair advantage in Sports?” To me this was never a question I had asked or even thought about so I figured this would be good for me to read. This article spoke about Tia Thomas, originally born male, but now at the age of 32 identifies as a female. She began hormone therapy at the age of 18. Tia was aspiring to play in the 2020 Olympics of the USA Women’s volleyball team. She had played on men’s teams all her life, but decided it was time to stick up for her and all other trans people around the world.
Learning about the transgender movement “a social movement for the acceptance of more than two sex categories” (Crawford, 2011). I can better understand what transgender means, and where Tia is coming from. Though Tia knows she was born male, she knew from a young age that she felt like a female, and hoped to be accepted once she began the hormone therapy, and it became more physically obvious that she we transitioning from male to female. Reading about how society reacted to Tia being accepted onto the Women’s team was heart breaking. Most were not sure how to feel, some were angry, and some saw it as unfair. What I would like to say to them is “imagine if this were your child.” I imagine that if people thought like this, they may have a more open and accepting heart.
Having read this article and having played volleyball growing up, I realized that I had never imagined the confusion a person may go through identifying as one gender, but having to participate with and play against the other gender, simply because of their original sex at birth. Hearing this first hand story reminded me of a quote from the YouTube video “Kids honest opinion on being a boy or a girl.” One girl in the video stated: “Before I transitioned I was just pretending to be a boy, and now I’m a girl and I’m a lot happier” (N, 2016). Hearing a young girl speak these words makes me feel like I have let society down in a way. My ideas on feminism, sexism, gender, and gender equality were non-existent. I just didn’t take the time to see what was happening to people who weren’t “like me.” That feels horrible to say, but it’s the honest truth. The girl in the video, along with Tia were both born males, but now identity as women. Tia deserves to be happy as well, and if that means being a woman and playing women’s sports, than that is what she should be able to do. She shouldn’t have had to debate the board at the Olympics about her gender, and what she could and couldn’t do. I understand that society is confused by all of this, as am I at times, but we are all people no matter how we identify. This information has yet again opened my eyes to parts of society I never thought about. I need to keep educating myself, and get to know everyone and what they are going through, just like me, because we are all human. 












References

Crawford, M. (2011). Transformations: Women, Gender and Psychology:2nd Revised: edition. London: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Grinberg, E., & Stewart, D. (2017, July 26). How some trans people are preparing for life under Trump. Retrieved August 16, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/31/health/transgender-gender-change-id/index.html

Jackson-Gibson, A. (2017, June 01). Transgender: Do trans athletes have an unfair advantage in sports? Retrieved July 23, 2017, from http://www.excellesports.com/news/trans-athletes-unfair-advantage-sports/

N. (2016, December 18). Hear Kids' Honest Opinions on Being a Boy or Girl Around the World | National Geographic. Retrieved July 18, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3ea7IGwLA

Padawer, R. (2016, June 28). The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes. Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/magazine/the-humiliating-practice-of-sex-testing-female-athletes.html?_r=1

Simpson, V. (2016, July 06). What 'Intersex' is and Why the Olympic Committee Still Insists on Doing Sex-Testing on Female Athletes - . Retrieved August 16, 2017, from https://www.ratemds.com/blog/what-intersex-is-and-why-the-olympic-committee-still-insists-on-doing-sex-testing-on-female-athletes/

Transgender athletes crush females: It's. (2017, April 13). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from  https://www.therebel.media/transgender_athletes_crush_females_it_s_violence_against_women

When Gender Doesn't Matter. (2015, October 21). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from http://www.mom-mentum.org/blog/when-gender-doesnt-matter/

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