To view article, click link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/08/gloria-allred-donald-trump-transgender-miss-universe_n_1410956.html#s837112&title=Isis_King
This article follows the on-going controversy surrounding transgender beauty queen, Jenna Talackova, being disqualified from the Miss Universe pageant because, although she has since undergone gender reassignment surgery, she was not “naturally born” a female. Donald Trump, who owns the pageant, has since eliminated the rule barring females who are not "naturally born" females, but the offensive rhetoric surrounding the issue continues. After watching the ‘Born a Boy, Brought up a Girl’ film in class last week, I couldn’t help but think about how damaging this ongoing misunderstanding on gender can be.
Although our country has come a long way in the past few decades on recognizing transgender rights, it is frustrating to see that dialogue surrounding gender is still primarily focused on genitals rather than understanding, as Chaz Bono has said, that “gender is between your ears not between your legs.” In the case of transgender individuals, one’s physical sex and gender identity do not match as society expects them to. I find it disappointing that even as this “naturally born female” rule was revoked, the language by both Trump and Allred, Talackova’s attorney, is still completely focused on the physical aspect of sex rather than on gender - from Trump saying that Ms. Allred “would be very, very impressed with me” (referring to his penis) and Allred responding with, "I don't have a magnifying glass strong enough to see something that small.” It’s disappointing that Allred claims to want to get off the subject of genitalia and view people as individuals, yet resorts to the stereotypical small penis insult. I think this goes to show how deeply embedded these ideas of masculinity and femininity are - Allred insults Trump’s masculinity by saying he has a small penis while at the same time trying to argue that gender is not related to genitals – the hypocrisy is baffling!
Also, be sure to check out the slideshow of 20 pioneers in the transgender community on the bottom of the webpage for some really interesting stories and videos from transgender individuals who have made headlines by paving the way and stepping out as who they truly are.
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