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Christina M Holt
Barrett
English 1010
April 25, 2016

Views on Gender Dysphoria/Identity

Transgender, Gender Identity Disorder, Gender Dysphoria these are all common terms we
have heard some time or another in our lifetime. The relevance of these words are becoming
more common in our daily lives as are the people who identify with these terms. Transgender is
the reference given to a male or female whose self-identity does not conform to the stereotypical
roles of male or female. Gender Identity Disorder now known as Gender Dysphoria describe a
persons symptoms and feelings of anxiety and distress within themselves caused by the
biological sex they were born with ( APA.n.pag.). Gender Identity Disorder was the original
diagnoses given to individuals that had feelings of gender nonconformity, psychiatrist and
physicians believed that this disorder was something that could be cured. The measures taken
for curing these patients were extreme, using different types of therapies for example,
electroconvulsive shock therapy, institutionalization, and adverse conditioning (NCLR.n.pag.).
Gender Identity Disorder was first added to the DSM-III (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders) in 1980, the APA (American Psychiatric Association) had been asked multiple
times to remove categories that labeled or characterized transgender people as being mentally
ill. It wasnt until 2013 when the DSM-V was released that they decided to change the
diagnoses to Gender Dysphoria. The diagnoses of GD (Gender Dysphoria) focused on the

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internal feeling of gender nonconformity and the anxiety and stress that is associated with it. The
GD diagnoses can be beneficial in some ways or in some case potentially hurt the person more.
Insurance companies recognize this diagnoses and will cover gender reassignment surgery or
hormone therapies, while on the other hand transgender people who have been diagnosed with
GD can face years of humiliation and hardships for being classified as having a chronic mental
illness ( Beredjick.n.pag.). I have been researching Gender Dysphoria. This issue is crucial in
todays society and plays a huge role in social/self-acceptance and equal rights to all. I have
focused on four points of view regarding this topic: Choice, Psychological, Cultural and
Biological.
Gender has been spoke about for years, how you feel about your gender and what it
means to the world has always been a topic of controversy. Some say that the answer lies within
and is a choice that you make on your own. Transgender males and females report to have
feelings of not being in the correct body since young ages of childhood usually around two or
three. When these feelings are buried deep inside going unacknowledged into adulthood the
person often reports that the inner battle has never really ended or gone away it has only been
covered up mainly in fear of others reaction if they were to express themselves (Sarver.n.pag.).
Some of the research I have reviewed includes the stories of personal struggles of individuals
going through gender nonconformity. Thomas Lobel was three years old when he started
showing signs of gender nonconformity. Thomas used sign language as his form of
communication, he signed to his parents one day that he was a girl. Thinking he was confused his
parents corrected him saying No, no. Thomas is a boy. Pointing to himself he replied I am a
girl. Thomas was visibly unhappy, antisocial and very different from other boys his age. He
taunted and teased for reading Wonder Woman comics and playing with dolls. When Thomas

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was seven he went to his parents and told them he wanted to cut off his penis. Very concerned at
this point they took Thomas to see therapist and psychiatrist and it was then that Thomas was
diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (Park.n.pag.). Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
are two terms that are often confused. Gender Identity is who you are and sexual orientation is
who you want to have sex with according to professor of clinical pediatrics, Dr. Johanna Olson.
She also states that trans children are thought to experience a disconnect between sex and gender,
and at the age of three arent interested in sexual orientation (Park.n.pag.). Today Thomas is
known as Tammy and has shown a significant change. As soon as we let him put on a dress, his
personality changed from a very sad kid who sat still, didnt do much of anything to a very happy
little girl who was thrilled to be alive, said Pauline Moreno, Tammys parent. A social transition
is when a trans individual takes on the appearance of their felt identity, usually associated with a
name change also resulting in a change of the referenced pronoun he or she.. Tammy is now
11 and has made the choice to begin hormone therapy treatment, the second stage of
transitioning. With the support of her parent she knows she can go back at any time but they
dont see this happening. A similar example of gender identity being a choice is of a seventyyear-old man who had to live with this internal battle for his entire adult life before making the
choice to come out to the world. Bill Rohr at age 70 was a retired surgeon who would soon
become Kate. Bill opened up to his wife about his feeling of being a woman trapped in a mans
body about three years prior to his gender reassignment surgery. Just like Thomas Lobel, Bill
said he had felt this way since childhood but it wasnt about wanting to be a princess or play with
girl toys it was simply the fact that he felt like he wanted to be treated like a girl (Nutt.n.pag.).
Something just told me, Im the other half of the population this was how Bill used to describe
the way he felt about his identity (Nutt.n.pag.). He didnt find out there was an actual term for

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the way he felt until he was an adult and seen an article about a book written by Harry Benjamin
called The Transsexual Phenomenon. Harry Benjamin claimed that being transsexual was a
medical issue and not psychiatric (Nutt.n.pag.). Bill went and bought the book immediately and
as he read through it he felt like it had explained his situation. Bill started taking female hormone
replacements and claimed that for once he had felt truly happy and relaxed for the first time in
his life. Hormones play an essential role in masculinity or femininity, research has shown that
once a person is on the right dosage of hormones they have expressed feelings of happiness and
comfort (Nutt.n.pag.). At age 70 Bill and Linda decided it would be best for him to wait until he
retired to make his final transition to Kate an undergo sex reassignment surgery. To this day there
are many studies being conducted on transgender and the underlying cause, the hope is that if it
can be validated early on then the less vulnerable the person will be to mental health issues as
they grow older (Spitzer.n.pag.).
The psychological aspects of gender identity are always ever-changing. Studies have
been conducted nation wised and the research in this field is growing rapidly. A study that was
conducted by psychological scientist Kristina Olsen involved thirty-five trans kids and thirty-five
cisgender kids all between the ages of five to twelve. Cisgender is a term used for people who
are gender conforming. The study was conducted to see if the trans kids gender was something
deeply held within, made up or confusion. Results showed that the trans children were not
confused or pretending. They had deep held emotions to their gender choice as did the cisgender
children. Other studies such as one conducted by Swabb and Garcia hypothesize that gender
identity disorder is something that happens in the brain during the fetal stages of brain
development. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is exactly what
the title infers, a manual for mental disorders. Gender Identity Disorder was added to the DSM-

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III in 1980 and it created a lot of controversy. The original diagnoses summed up to say, a man
that believes he was destined to be a woman is considered to be mentally ill (Basu.n.pag.).
Persons of the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community and others were not
satisfied with the stigmatizing definition and asked for years that they revise and or remove it
from the DSM. In 2013 the DSM-V was released and GID was now revised and renamed as
Gender Dysphoria (GD). Gender Dysphoria diagnoses is given to a person or child who is having
an internal conflict with their gender identity for at least six months or more that causes
significant stress and anxiety socially, mentally, at work or school (APA.n.pag.). I think its a
significant change says Jack Drescher who is a member of the APA and part of the group that
worked on the subject change for four years. The National Center for Transgender Equality had
also reported being happy with the change. The change has been said to shine light on the
transgender community and show that they are just like the rest of humanity (Basu.n.pag.).
Cultural views of gender roles have been analyzed multiple times. Culture tells how male
and female roles are perceived and how we should identify with our born gender. It sets a
standard and also leaves room for failure. If you dont live up to your cultural standards of what a
male or female role should entitle others can say you have failed your gender role. Gender
stereotypes are set in every culture and can be influenced by many factor such as relationships,
media, history and so on (Stanners.n.pag.). Multiple studies have been conducted trying to define
the differences in gender roles across different cultures. Margaret Mead conducted her own study
in 1935, she compared the gender roles of three different tribes in Papa New Guini. Mead had
first said that after her study she concluded that culture had no ties to biology. Her research was
thought to be bias and she later changed her theory to say that some female and male
characteristics are universal (Jan.n.pag.). Another study conducted in 1990 by William and Best

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was spread over thirty countries involving 2800 participants. At the end of the study they
concluded that in all the countrys males exhibited characteristic of dominance, independence
and strength, while the females showed characteristics of nurturing, deference and interest with
affiliation. This study supported the theory that gender stereotypes are universal but is not
concrete (Gender Revision.pg24). In Samoa they have a third gender they refer to as Fafafini
this is a man that acts and dresses as a woman. The Mojave Indians are also believed to have a
fourth gender (Gender Revision.pg24). In some counties being transgender is against the law. In
Malaysia a man that feels to be a woman and is caught dressing in female clothing will be
punished and incarcerated. The Islamic Sharia claim that this against the wisdom of God in his
creation of males and females in their specific gender. Nisha Ayub, a Malaysian transwoman has
suffered punishment under this law and has done everything in her power to have this law
overturned to help support equal rights for all transgender in Malaysia and around the world
(Azizan.n.pag.).
Biological views on gender are based primarily on the production of hormones and
chromosomes. The evidence that gender is hard wired into the brain is growing rapidly
(Neporent.n.pag.). A males biological make up is based on the XY chromosome pair, and
females are based off the XX chromosome pair. During the first six weeks a fetus has no sex
structure and during every stage of development the fetus has a chance to develop either sex. At
six weeks The Y chromosome linked to males has SRY genes attached that beings to produce the
male hormone testosterone. The production of testosterone influences the brain in the
development of sex organs. Once the female or male hormone is released the development of
either testes or ovaries begins (Clarke.n.pag). The secondary stage of development beings after
birth at the onset of puberty (Gender Revision. pg8). From a biological standpoint it is said that

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sex and gender have no distinctions, biological sex is the foundation for gender behavior
(McLeod.n.pag.).
In conclusion after many hours of research along with personal experience on the matter I
believe gender identity to be something that is a personal choice. Deep inside the soul of an
individual at any age is sense of being and a more profound level of who they are, science nor
man should be able to judge and tell this individual that their feelings are wrong or unjust. As a
parent living with this experience it has become a whole life change not only to my child that has
to struggle through this but our whole family in its entirety. Acceptance and love is the key to
growth and development of being the person you want to be whether it be male or female. In my
generation I hope to see equal rights provided to all transgender kids, women and men. Judging
someone by what physical features you see on the outside instead of the heart of the person is
unfair and inhumane.

Work Cited

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American Psychiatric Association, Gender Dysphoria. DSM5 2013.Web.

http://www.dsm5.org/documents/gender%20dysphoria%20fact%20sheet.pdf
Azizan,Hariati. From Religion to Science. The Star. April 17, 2016. Web.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/04/17/from-religion-to-science/
Basu, Moni, Being Transgender no Longer a Mental Disorder in Diagnostic Manual. CNN.
December 27. Web. http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/27/being-transgender-nolonger-a-mental-disorder-in-diagnostic-manual/
Beredjick, Camille. DSM-VT to rename, Gender Identity to Gender Dysphoria. Advocate.
July 23, 2012. Web. http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2012/07/23/dsmreplaces-gender-identity-disorder-gender-dysphoria
#Born Perfect: The facts about conversion therapy. NCLR. Web.
http://www.nclrights.org/bornperfect-the-facts-about-conversion-therapy/
Clarke, Adam. Topic 2 Biological influences on Gender. brain-freeze. Pg8. Web.
http://www.brain-freeze.co.uk/files/psygendernotes.pdf
Gender Revision Booklet. Cultural influences on Gender. Pg24. Web. www.pyychbug.co.uk
Gender Revision Booklet. Cultural influences on Gender. Pg8. Web. www.pyychbug.co.uk
Gleaser, Elizabeth. Aspects of Gender Identity Development: Searching for an Explanation in the
Brain. New York University 2016. Web.
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/appsych/opus/issues/2011/spring/gender_identity_development

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Jan, Jill. Cross Cultural research into Gender Roles. October 9, 2014. Web.
www.Slideshare.net/Jjanpsychology/a2-cross-cultural-research-into-genderrole
McLeod, Saul. Biological Theories of Gender. Simply Psychology. 2014. Web.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html
Neoporent, Liz. Gender Identity is Biological, Study Says. ABC News. March 3, 2015.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/gender-identity-biological-study/story?id=29335854
Nutt, Amy Ellis. Truth and Transgender at Age 70: A couples journey through gender
affirmation surgery. The Washington Post April 21, 2016. Web.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/21/truth-and-transgender-at-70/
Olson, Kristina. Mikolak, Anna. Transgender kids show consistent Gender Identity Across
Measures. Web.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/transgender-kids-showconsistent-gender-identity-across-measures.html
Park, Maddison, Transgender kids: Painful quest to be who they are. CNN. September 27,
2011. Web. http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/health/transgender-kids/
Sarver, Jordan. I am Transgender, and I want my voice heard. CNN iReport April 14,2010.
Web. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/14/transgender.irpt/
Spitzer, Gabriel. Parents Support may help Transgender Childrens Mental Health. NPR New.
KPLU 88.5. April 11, 2016. Web. http://www.npr.org/sections/healthshots/2016/04/11/473292576/parent-support-may-help-transgender-childrens-mentalhealth

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Stanners, Fiona. How does Culture Affect our Gender Identity. June 13, 2014. Web.
https://prezi.com/x5quwcvvrqrn/how-does-culture-affect-our-gender-identity/

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