The interview schedule chosen was semi-structured consisting of several questions to assist in defining the areas the researcher wished to explore. It was selected since its design allowed the interviewer and the interviewee to diverge to pursue the ideas being investigated in the transgender phenomenon and this exuded very articulate responses and in detail. For example, when asked of what the respondent thought of transgender, good or bad, the response was elaborate and the genesis of the phenomenon, development and the challenges encountered were discussed. The respondent said, “At first I had a sensational feeling, I strongly wished to experience having female anatomy even for a few minutes. I did not know what that meant and after talking to a friend, he told me that it is ok to identify with both genders and that my feelings were totally valid. Gender identity is a complex thing since it is non-binary. My friend introduced me to the rest of the transgender community in town and they supported me on my journey.” The semi-structured interview was convenient for the survey since it provided the respondent with some guidance on what to talk about. The instrument was also flexible since it enabled the discovery of other important areas and their elaborations as had not been earlier thought of for example, the respondent cited that. “There are amazing things that I experience that I did not before, but also things that I do not like, dysphoria is the greatest of them all.” This aspect of the interview schedule also brought out the aspect of peer pressure in influencing the gender choices and preference. The interview was flexible to the extent that new discoveries were followed by probing questions which contributed to the findings. The most important aspect of the interview was its ability to provide a deeper understanding of the transgender phenomenon and it was therefore the most efficient instrument since only little was known by the researcher concerning the phenomenon. Its convenience to the respondent was also an aspect considered since its structure allows for the exploration of sensitive topics and is appropriate for persons who do not want to talk about issues in the “group environment”. The respondent revealed that it was very difficult for her parents to cope with her new life since they strongly were Christians and thought that he was born in the right body not the cross gendered suggestion. It was also a difficult moment for the respondent as her parents almost threw her out of their home upon disclosure. The parents panicked and resisted for some time until therapy helped calm the situation. Finding a cooperative respondent was also not easy until, Pauline initially Paul – not her real name, accepted to go through with the interview. Her family has accepted that fact and are supporting her henceforth.
Being feminine or masculine sometimes depends on the natural mentorship of those around an individual. When a boy child grows close to his mother as the immediate and present parent, to the male child during the learning of role identity he may learn to be a woman by "learning to be a woman...involves the continuity and development of a child’s relationship to the parents, and is based on generalized personal identification with them rather than on an attempt to learn externally defined roles categories." He illustrates this pattern by citing that the course prepares the child for, and is fully reinforced by, his or her central role in later life—motherhood or fatherhood.
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This means that the child will become involved in the world of men or women, characterized by few formal role differentiations, and specifically in relationships with their parents or mentors involving again "personal identification," and so the cycle begins anew 1 . To explain this to satisfaction at least, the source of the feminine personality lies in social structural arrangements rather than inborn differences. But, for all purposes, the significant point is that, insofar as a "feminine personality," characterized by personalism and particularism, has been a nearly universal fact, albeit an unconscious byproduct of social arrangements, then having such a psyche may have contributed to the universal view of women as somehow less cultural than men 2 . That is, woman's dominant psychic modes of relating would incline her to enter into relationships with the world that culture might see as being more "like nature," immanent and embedded in things as given, rather than, like culture, transcending and transforming things through the superimposition of abstract categories and transpersonal values.
Woman's relationships to her objects tend to be, like nature, relatively unmediated, more direct, whereas men not only tend to relate in a more mediated way, but in fact, ultimately, often relate more consistently and strongly to the mediating categories and forms than to the persons or objects themselves. This support the fact that Pauline mentioned that her father was always out fending for their family as her mother was a house wife thus she supported her mother in doing the household chores, cooking and other things. Her father being rarely at home, meant that there was little bond or natural tendencies learnt from him hence the theory applied for Paul, now Pauline.
When gay liberation movement began in the 1960s, there was no historical backing for the gay and lesbian community. Building a movement for rights was difficult since there was no history for the latter. A myth was created to forge history for them. In the 1960s when homosexuality was first discovered, individuals had the desire in isolation and had no idea what other around them felt and had no reading or any resource to help them understand their feeing. They therefore made up a myth characterized by silence, isolation, invisibility which lasted decades till today 3 . Other forms of sexuality have since been discovered and sexuality in many countries considered a basic human right therefore guaranteeing legal security among other disparity issues. Joining the trend was bisexuals and transgender. When Pauline discovers herself, there already exists a transgender community ready to ‘take her through the journey’. He also cites in the history of the colonial era, that there existed homosexual behavior but no space was allowed for homosexual identity sine survival was based on the nuclear family and no one could fashion out of this way of life.
A research about the genesis of transgender and their perceptions by focusing his study to the Brazilian transgender prostitutes, known as travesty was done by Kulick. He was surprised as none of the travesty offered to give the explanation of a woman trapped in the body of a man theory. They were contented with their natural orientation of being men and that they were in the dresses for financial reasons and that no man can ever be a woman. When asked why they do their body modification to look feminine and their feelings about their male genitals they revealed that they valued their ‘penis’ and all the biological functions that package them up while the only challenge is that they kept them tightly imprisoned between their legs. It was important for him however, to understand particularly because popular and academic discourses about prostitution tend to frame it so narrowly in terms of victimization, poverty, and exploitation- that males do not become travestis because they were sexually abused as children or just for economic gain.
Only one of the approximately 40 travestis, interviewed, was the victim of child- hood sexual abuse. And while the vast majority of travestis like, one must realize, the vast majority of people in Brazil, come from working-class or poor backgrounds, it is far from impossible for poor, openly effeminate homosexual males to find employment, especially in the professions of hairdressers, cooks, and housecleaners, where they are quite heavily represented. This among other issues has made the issue of transgender worldwide to be misrepresented as the example from the Brazilian male prostitutes dressed up like transgender implies.
While men and women cannot change their bodies, seems unlikely that the physiological different between men and women would be adequate to motivate the devalued view of transgender where the view has not been lent further weight by the social and psychological variables discussed above 4 . While there are no detailed programs of social and cultural renovation, it seems clear that the way out of this circle involves society's allowing the society to participate in gender issues actively appreciating, the fullest range of social roles and activities available within and without of the culture. Men, women, transgender among others can, and must, be equally involved in projects of creativity and transcendence. Only then shall transgender, bisexuals, lesbians and gays easily be seen as aligned with culture. The culture and the society as a whole needs supplementary legal frameworks to redefine the sex and gender related issues so as to reduce stigma and abuse of the latter thereby making a clear-cut societal fitting all the five genders. Pauline was comfortable since she had both her family and the society through the legal frameworks appreciating her kind and she is now a mentor to those who are discovering themselves in her gender type.
Bibliography
Chodorow, Nancy. Feminism and psychoanalytic theory . Yale University Press, 1995.
D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and gay identity.” Families in the US: Kinship and domestic politics, (1983): 131-41
Kulick, Don. “The gender of Brazilian transgendered prostitutes.” American Anthropologist , 99(3), (1997): 574-585.
Ortner, Sherry. “Is female to male as nature is to culture?” Feminist studies , 1(2), (1972): 5-31
1 Sherry B. Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” in Feminist studies, Vol. 1, No. (Autumn, 1972), pp. 22
2 Nancy Chodorow, “Family structure and feminine personality” in Feminism in the Study of Religion (1995): pp. 74
3 D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and gay identity.” Families in the US: Kinship and domestic politics (1983): pp 133
4 Don Kulick, “The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes” in American Anthropologist, new series, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Sep., 1997) pp. 577
