23) What stereotypes are put on trans people?
I've been thinking about this one and have been having a hard time getting my thoughts out correctly on this. So I found this on Yahoo answers that seems to get some of the stereotypes:
1) Almost everyone seems to believe that transsexuals are gay pre-transition. That is, if a man announces that he wants to become a woman and will be transitioning, everyone assumes that he is attracted to men (and same for women who do so). It used to be impossible for straight (pre-transition) people to get sex changes; Lou Sullivan (a gay transman) fought very hard to change that, and won. In reality, there are roughly equal numbers of gay transsexuals (those who are gay post-transition) and those who were gay but, after transitioning, lead heterosexual lives.
2) Nearly everyone, including some transsexuals, believe that you must adhere completely to gender binary stereotypes if you have a sex change. That is, if a man transitions to a woman, the new she is expected to be feminine to the nines; after all, what's the point of spending all that money unless you're going to really "be" a woman (or vice-versa, a man)? But the fact of the matter is that there are trans individuals who encompass a wide gender range; not too long ago, I remember reading a blog or some-other by a transsexual woman who was agonizing over the flak she got for being a butch woman, since everyone assumes if you're chopping off your penis, you should "look like a woman, too" (whatever that means; women come in all shapes and sizes).
3) A lot of people seem to think that female-to-male transsexuals are "trying to get 'male privilege'" by transitioning. They are accused of 'taking the easy way out' and becoming men rather than challenging our gendered world and making it possible for women to have more power. I've heard people say that they are anti-feminist for this, and a lot of them get generally spat upon by people who see them as betraying their sex. In reality, of course, nobody is doing that at all; the brand of being a transsexual (not to mention the massive cost, both monetarily and physically, pyschologically, and emotionally) is far worse than being a woman in today's society.
4) Similarly to #3, people seem to think that transsexuals aren't allowing themselves to be who they are. They seem to think that they are perpetuating the gender binary by wanting to transition their sex. For example, someone might think that a transwoman is a disgrace to the genderqueer cause, because rather than stay in a male body and help people understand that feminine males are possible, she cowardly switched over to look like a 'natural woman' so that she wouldn't get any flak for being different. This is, of course, completely untrue- there is lots of research out there showing that there are possible brain differences in transsexuals, and moreover, your sex/gender has more to do than with just how others treat you; it's also about how you feel in your body (and you'd be surprised at how much a difference male and female hormones can make someone feel; read a transsexual memoir and you'll understand).
5) People assume that it's a choice, and not an actual disease (gender dysphoria), or if they think it's a disease, it's in a "they're sick" way, versus having an actual clinical, perfectly normal condition. Moreover, lots of lay people seem to think that the way to deal with this is not to change the body, but, since there is a mind-body discord, to change the mind instead. Of course, in reality, there is no (proven) way to change the sex of someone's mind; our brains are immensely complex, full of interactions between genetics, biology, personality, past experiences, formative childhoods, our feelings, our fears . . . the list goes on. You can't just go in there and say "Here, you're a man."; therapy is not going to work like that.
6) People seem to think that transsexuals just decide on a whim to do what they want; few know that they have to go through tons of gender therapy to get permission to get hormones and to have surgery OK'd, and have to live as that gender for a year or longer. It's rigorous, and the people who transition are dedicated.
7) That their bodies don't function correctly. I don't know how many questions I've answered on here from people wanting to know if transsexuals can orgasm. If surgery is done right, with a skilled professional, then transsexuals of both sexes can have ultimately wonderful, fulfilling sex lives and do so.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070212220254AAAidK9
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