Redefining Realness #5

                                    Redefining Realness

       I will be analyzing a memoir by Janet Mock, a transgender woman who's family and community, supported and accepted her journey to womanhood. This memoir is so informational in the medical, history, governmental laws, and current issues in the transgender community. What interests me most about her story, is the idea that there are more than two genders, and the thought of completely eliminating gender roles and stereotypes.

      "There was no doubt when I was in the moment of Keisha. She was fully me, the me I knew myself to be in those quiet instances when all I had to do was merely be me. But I was certain the falsity of Keisha, no matter how real she felt to me, would result in a whipping or something worse. The boundaries of gender, I was taught, were unmovable, like the glistening white rocks that surrounded Grandma's crawfish pond. Keisha proved, though, that self-determination-proclaiming who you were to others-wielded the power to lift those rocks toward a more honest place."

      In this class we have discussed the struggle to be accepted as a woman, but the struggle to be accepted as a person who wants to become a woman, is new to me. In the passage above Janet learns how comfortable she is as a young boy, playing the part as a girl. She feels threatened by the idea that she will be punished for acting as she felt, and the idea that her characteristics had to fit her gender. She had to hide her identity from others, and herself at times. Trans woman who struggle with identity, and acceptance in society turn to the streets, drugs, and even suicide. Janet explains that her circumstances do not justify journey of most trans woman in their communities. Everybody's experience in their journey is different.

      Her long hair was shaved, she was forced to use the boy's changing room, and wear boy's clothes. Janet's struggle to learn her own identity was always interrupted by the stereotype of a gender's understood characteristics. I think that if we were more accepting of others beliefs and views, we would see a drastic drop in transgender women turning to the streets, drugs, and suicide. I also think that as we have the right to religious beliefs, we should have the right to the belief of who we are inside. It amazes me that these other genders arn't accepted, when even sic people share traits of the opposite sex. A father can be a stay at home dad, a woman can be the bread winner; I see a similarity in the thought of a boy becoming a woman, the idea that we are who we are inside.

   Nobody should have to hide who they are, and in the passage I chose, Janet feels a weight lifted with the realization that playing the part as a girl felt real and honest to herself. That feeling is all a person should need to fined themselves, unfortunately the stereotypes and characteristics we assign to genders, makes it difficult to be who we are. Let's be more open and understanding of other's. Nothing will stop a person from feeling the way they do; like Janet's dad, we cannot prevent or stop someone from who they are, so learn to accept it.