"A critical issue of "transgender politics-that the sex of the body does not bear any necessary or deterministic relationship to the social categoary in which that body lives (Stryker, p. 11)."
The film Beautiful Daughters is narrates the experiences of four trans woman who are participating in the production of the first all-transgendered version of the play The Vagina Monologues (written by Eve Ensler). A interview Ensler has with Janes, one of those four women emphasizes Stryker's assertion .
Eve asks Janes: "What about your parents?"
Janes replies: "At same time, I was chosen for them[adopted], they choose a sex for me that didn't feel right."
(directed by Josh Aronson, 2006)The quote Janes make is that due to her being born male, her parents inscribed a masculine/ male identity for her. A person's sex is not naturally correlated to their gender. Gender is a socially constructed role that we are taught to adhere to from infancy. The simplicity of Jane's response struck me.Without knowing that she is adopted, this quote could be interpreted as relating birthright to gender. For the women spotlighted in this film while their biological sex is male their gender identity is female. They fight against physical differences that make their living as a female a difficult process. In our society there are barriers that transgender people face due to failing to meet a strict gender and sex alignment. Our legal, educational, and governmental institutions demand that a person be classified as male or female in order to classify people and group them. Transgender people fall outside of such a simple construction.
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