How Sex Changes A History of transsexuality in the United States(169)

Summary:
Christine Jorgensen went on to develop a mantra that she used on friends, interviews, her writing, and in public. Her mantra was that all human beings are both make and female. She explained during an interview that the most a person can be at a certain sex is 80 percent. In her case she was more of a woman than a man. "Her vision of overlapping sexes" was like history repeating itself with the theory of human bisexuality from the early 20th century European science. She took this from the doctor that treated her in Denmark and Harry Benjamin who treated her in the United States.
On the other hand, other doctors and scientist felt that Transvestism and Transsexuality was a mental illness. The cure would be to see a psychoanalyst and to go through psycho therapeutic treatment, in order to eliminate the mental illness. Because of this, the United States the Psychological positions seemed to predominate throughout the 1950s. However Scientist that proved that every man and every woman was somewhat a hermaphrodite. Which is when the two sexes are part of the human. The reason as to why they felt that every human was so is because, just as Jorgensen had suggested the human s a mic of female and male traits. The predominant trait demonstrates the sex of the human.

Harry Benjamin said in 1954 that "Originally sex is always a mixture of male and female components"(Meyerwitz 106). He also stated that therapy was useless as a cure for transsexuality. On the other hand, Psychiatrist Emil Gutheil responded by saying that there was something other than biological factors leading to transvestism and transsexuality. That something involves "six psychopathology factors," which were :

1. Homosexuality "with an unresolved castration complex" 
2. Sadomasochism 
3. Narcissism
4. Scopophilia
5. Exhibitionism 
6. Fetishism   

The different stances about transsexuality, and transvestism come from the two thoughts about what can be the actual cause of people wanted to change their sex. Some doctors felt that something was wrong with the body, that is why they try to modify it in order to have it match the sexuality in the mind. On the other hand  Psychoanalyst and physiologist felt there was something wrong with the way the patient was thinking; their mentality had to be changed or at least adjusted in order to match their body. This is an example of how there was a battle between the psychoanalysts and the doctors. Both groups were trying to find the cure for transsexuality and transvestism . While one felt that medical intervention was wrong the other felt that psychoanalytic or phychotheraputic intervention will be wrong. Turns out, this was an ongoing battle. For decades the two groups have been challenging each other in various areas. The question, however, was always the same. Was the origin of this problem psychological or biological?  

Quote:
"Some transgendered people worked to educate the doctors. In San Francisco, Louis Lawrence devoted herself to teaching medical authorities ad scientists about transvestites and transexuals"(Meyerowitz 154).

Reaction:
This reminded me of the gay straight alliance,GSA, in my school. Through activities like the day of silence, they teach people within the school to respect and appreciate people that are different than them when it comes to their sexuality. Just as these transgendered put effort into explaining who they were and  what it actually mean to be a transsexual/ transgender from a primary source.  

How Sex Changed A history of Transsexuality in the United States(97)

Summary:
In the past section the question and the true definition of what makes a woman and what makes a man was brought up. In other words, what is it that makes someone their sex. At the end of March in 1959 a, now female, named Chris Jogensen was applying fr a marriage licence for her and her husband could get married. Because, in the mind of many, only men can marry women. She was denied the licence because her birth certificate stated that she was actually a man, and two men could not marry. However, because of  her surgical rebirth as a woman, she was able to get a letter from the doctor in Denmark stating that she must be considered a female. Sadly, even so, she was denied the licence. Through her story, the question and concerns of sex changing was brought to light, especially through the media. She also began to question if the world would be ready to have a new understanding of sexuality. She knew that her new fame, due to all the press, was like a revolution. Before the World War II, people had a limited amount if individualism, and as of now she was a new type of individual. Some reporters even characterized her as a "freak" or a "pervert". This was what she meant by the world being ready. Would they be able to adjust to this? Luckily , whether the world was ready or not, Jorgensen continued on, and because of that she came to realize what was her metier. She was very successful with "making sex change an inspiring story of personal triumph as well as a titillating tale of sexual transgression"

While young, growing as a boy feeling like a girl, was difficult to Jorgensen. Because there was so much "inner turmoil"(Meyerowitz 5) in her life as a boy, she felt isolated, and different from others. She eventually came to the conclusion that having the surgery would be the cure for this battle of feeling like a woman but looking like a man. Jorgensen, at one point in time, felt that maybe he just had to act more manly, and still there was no change in what he felt. She knew she was a woman, rather that a confused man, or a man trying to emulate women. While her confidence increased, the controversies increased. Some news and magazines would question whether she was actually a fabricated woman or simply a different man. Ignoring the fact that she had stated that she did not want to live as a man who likes men, she wanted the complete transformation. These news stories did no damage at all to her confidence, in fact she began to play the game also. She maintained her views, and used attention in order to launch her new career. Not only did it keep her in the news, but it also increased her chanced of reaching true miserably.

Quote:
"While Jorgensen courted fame, the popular culture exploded with new stories on sex change"(Meyerowitz 81).

Reaction:
After reading this I concluded that Jogensen's story was the start of a new era, or a revolution, and she was the ring leader. That is, she took a risky step, took rjection in something so personal as being able to marry the person you love, and constantly coping with the bad press. Although one would think that with al of that, fame was going to be difficult, she not only was able to surpass the negative aspects of her new life in the fab lane, but she was able to pave the way for the future.

 

How Sex Changed A History of Transsexuality in the United States(50)

New Book!

Summary:
The first section of this new book about the history of transsexuality, I come to realize that there is an actual definition of transsexuality. The word transsexual did not exist in the mid twentieth century. That is because people did not actually know there was difference between a transsexual and transvestite. People simply combined the two into one: transvestite. While being a transvestite has to with cross gender identification and cross dressing, transsexualism has to do with the actual change in gender . This means that if I was a transvestite I would refer to myself as the opposite sex, and choose to dress like the opposite sex. On the other hand if I was a transsexual i would MAKE myself the opposite sex. That is, the person request surgical sex change. This type of surgery did not even appear as an option as a medical category till the lat 1940s and early 1950s. Although this difference was still unknown, the idea existed, primarily in Europe. European scientist decided to run sex change experiments with animals before humans. When in Germany (1920s-1930s) they began doing the experiments on Human, the patients were called "transvestites".  Without even thinking of this idea of gender swapping surgery, in 1915 the testicles of healthy men were surgically removed and given to men born without the or no longer have them because of an injury or disease.

This new idea came to the United States through the media and news during the 1930s and on. The original body parts removed where that of the Testicles, Uteri, and Breast. With its beginning there, most of the sex change surgeries continued to occur in Germany, rather that immediately being practiced in the United States. The surgeries reached their peak in the earl 1930s. So much that in Germany there was a vocal campaign for sexual emancipation. That is because, with all of the buzz about this new surgical transformation that made a new group of people(transsexuals), the difference between a male and a feminine male, a female and a masculine female, and a transsexual was highly noticeable. In a more physiological way, it was also noticed that men had women traits, just as women had male traits. What makes then that particular gender is that those opposing gender traits are undeveloped, thus the actual gender traits outshines them.

Quote:
 "In the min-twentieth century, sex was already high on the American cultural agenda. For decades Americans of all sorts had found themselves inundated with news, research, stories, opinions, and imperatives about the multiple meaning of 'sex'(Meyerowitz 2).

Reaction:
Upon reading this, I immediately thought the times truly haven't changed. Although the definition of sex may be a bit more clearer nowadays, there is still a constant talk about it. Whether it is on the news because of a sexual offence, or a discrimination because of gender, or  its constantly addressed in school because of the derogatory terms used against people with a different sexual orientation and pejorative terms used towards friends or enemies in the hallways, it is always around. This also made me think that there must have been many people confused about who they were since there was a constant talk about sex in the mid-20th century. I sometimes wonder how would the world be if speaking of sex, and gender in general was prohibited by the law.