Britney Griner

In Thursdays class we discussed the incident with the female world championship sprinter and the legality of her disqualification. At the same time we discussed how the best female athletes are sometimes considered male like because of their talents. I brought up Brittney Griner a female basketball player for the University of Baylor, who is one of few female players who can dunk the basketball. She led her team to a 40-0 Championship season winning MVP. Because of her build, deep voice, and athletic ability some think she is a male. Even the coach of the opposing National championship game team Notre Dame said "she plays like a man" after there 20 point defeat to he last week. In the end no matter how good a female is that doesn't mean calling he a man is right, even as a joke. Keeping with basketball Dwayne Wade one of the best basketball players in the game is friend with Lisa Leslie a WNBA player and has said he has played her a few times and that she has beat him. It isn't always a correct association of athletic with man, and it should be changed when it does. Just because women always shop doesn't mean that any men who shop should be called women. Here are some links to articled written about Britney Griner and discriminatory remarks made in her direction.

John Plevel

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-57409191/irish-coach-brittney-griner-plays-like-a-guy/
http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/the-misgendering-of-brittney-griner/

Susan Stryker

After reading the Susan Stryker article, i was very overwhelmed. I did not realize that there were so many terms used within the area of transgender and transsexuals. I often use the terms interchangeably and do not think anything of it. It could be offensive to someone if you mix them up. I also had more respect for the reading when we found out in class that she herself is trans. Did she write the article so that people can keep the terms straight and stop using them wrong?

Response to Shawna

I find the question about Thailand and the issue of finances interesting. I think that in America the acceptance of gender reassignment surgery is much lower because we feel the need to put people in categories and if they fall somewhere in between the well structured categories, they are considered deviant. Doctors do not want to be associated with making people different from the norm when the goal is to usually bring people back into the norm. I think that is the problem with financing. No doctor in America can make it affordable so that an individual could even think to afford the surgery. In Thailand it could be more acceptable to express the desire to be a transgender. Doctors could be more used to performing the surgery so that it is less expensive.

Social Media Ignorance

Myself like I am sure many other in our class as well as today's society had a very different view of the trans-gender society before this discussion and moreover this class. I had images given by ignorant movies that painted awful and unthoughtful pictures of a society that like many others is often confused and misunderstood. Primarily in the past this was done because of ignorant people who lacked the necessary information. Nowadays this ignorance isn't really found in the people as much but spread because of today's social media. Because it is more appealing and and entertaining to use these groups as disgusting or evil then it is to actually explain the problems and create intelligent views on the subject. In the end we used to lack the power of communication, that was why we couldnt understand what we didn't know; thus creating ignorance. However now that we do have the power to spread ideas we use it for negativity most times due to humor and appeal. When will we take the next step?

John Plevel

Lady Boy Thailand Beauty Pageant.......

After watching the video about the Lady Body Thailand Beauty Pageant that Shawna posted, I found it interesting but kinda of scary as well. First, I just want to say that the transgenders in this pageant were beautiful. I made a comment to one of my male friends on Friday after reviewing some pictures from this semester drag show I stated, "Its' amazing how some of these men dress in drag look way better than a lot of females on this campus and in general." He replied, "Yeah, that's because females are slacking it takes time to look like that..to look your best." After the conversion was over, I begin to think about the effects that society has on male and female gender roles. I agree that we as individuals should be able to live life freely, even if it means that one will want to change their gender. I can not pretend that I could understand why anyone will want to change their gender, but than again maybe its not meant for me to understand. I find the things that science can do to the human body amazing and scary at the same time. Scary...because I often wonder the consequences that science may have on society when it comes to rearranging and changing the human body. After all, good intentions can only go so far due to the fact that we as human beings are easily capable of manipulation, selfishness, corruption.....but most importantly we are weak in many ways.......In conclusion, I think we as human beings should be allow to live our lives the way we want. But I often wonder to what extend do we say enough is enough? Is there even an 'extend' to look for?...Also, I do not know what is more scary the advancement in science or the effects that society has on us all.

Transgenders: Medicalized Freaks?

I thought that the question Jeff asked in class on whether all the media attention given to Christine Jorgensen was a good thing or was is making her a "medicalized freak" was an interesting question to think about. I do agree with what others said in class that the media attention was good in some aspects. Such as making society aware of transgender people and letting others who want to change genders see someone who as already gone through it as a sort of inspiration for them. On the other hand I do see how the media attention towards Jorgensen could be seen as making her a "medicalized freak".


Earlier in the semester we talked a lot about "freaks". People payed to go see these people who were labeled as such for their own entertainment or to assure themselves that they were normal. In sensationalizing Christine Jorgenson, the media was in a sense giving society a form of entertainment. Here is a woman who used to be a man! Look how beautiful she is, you would never know that she had once been a man! Look at how amazing medical technology is today! It just reminds me of the one "freak" in the movie we watched (Freaks) that was half man and half woman. I feel like if Christine Jorgensen had been in an earlier time period she would have been a prime candidate for the circus freak shows (theoretically if the medical technology was available then). I am not saying that I think that she is a freak, I just mean that if you look at the medias attention on her you can relate it to the media attention on the circus freaks.

Response to one of the questions that Shawna proposed in a previous blog..

In Thailand, gender reconstruction surgery is relatively inexpensive. Why do you think these surgical procedures are more expensive in the United States?


I believe it is because most Americans do not see gender reassignment necessary. So if the surgery is overprice here in America, not so many procedures will be done in the U.S., so we as a country will not have to think or deal with the topic of transgenders any time soon. Also, because trangenders and gender reassignment surgery is not socially accepted in the U.S. in many ways, individuals probably do not undergo this type of procedure often, so to make a good profit it will almost be necessary to overprice this procedure. Finally, the U.S. is more advance in medicine and science even though certain countries have been performing gender reassignment surgeries longer.