Listening to children imagining gender: observing the inflation of an idea

Using three of the clinical articles in this special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality as examples, the author attempts to show how their views of gender may influence clinicians' conceptualizations and treatment choices in response to children diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID), or gender dysphoria. In particular the author argues that the belief that gender is a psychophysiological entity that is organismic and transhistorical, that is, the view known lately as essentialism, promotes more invasive interventions (e.g., endocrinological and surgical) and mistakenly deemphasizes psychological therapies as a clinical response to the suffering of trans children. He tries to show that the drawbacks of essentialism and its correlated treatment approaches are twofold, that a) they promote treatments with insufficient attention to our limited knowledge regarding their safety and efficacy, and b) they advance a reified differentiation of the genders that is politically problematic. The author suggests that a better response to trans children would be one that emphasizes the child's broadly subjective role in his or her construction of transgressive, gender-related psychological and interpersonal phenomena (both painful and not), thus, offering a deeper validation for trans children's challenges to our gender system.     

Commentary on the treatment of gender variant and gender dysphoric children and adolescents: common themes and ethical reflections

This commentary offers preliminary ethical reflections on the range of treatments for gender variant and gender dysphoric children, adolescents, and young adults described in the preceding five clinical articles. After clarifying the terminology used to discuss these issues, this commentary reviews several common themes of the clinical articles. Focusing on ethical values of informed consent, full disclosure, the minimization or avoidance of harm, and the maximization of life options, the commentary expresses concerns about various treatment options endorsed by some of the articles. In particular, this commentary focuses on how these practices problematically reproduce social prejudices and stereotypes and how they fail to acknowledge and embrace the multiple pathways for expressing one's gender. It also compares and contrasts the ethical issues related to gender variant and gender dysphoric youths and youths who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer.     

Sexual Prejudice Among Puerto Rican Young Adults

Abstract

Sexual prejudice is linked to hate crimes, mental health, risk behaviors, and stigma. Few studies have examined sexual prejudice among Latinos. We surveyed 382 college students in Puerto Rico. A structural model tested whether contact and positive experiences with homosexuals, perceived similarities with peers' attitudes toward homosexuality, and religiosity were predictive of sexual prejudice among Puerto Rican young adults. Sex differences in the structural model were explored. With the exception of peers' attitudes toward homosexuality, all study variables predict sexual prejudice. No sex differences were found. Implications for decreasing sexual prejudice among Puerto Rican youth in a college setting are discussed.     

Confronting hate: heterosexuals' responses to anti-gay comments

An online diary study was used to examine the individual and situational variables that influence non-targets' verbal and nonverbal reactions and responses to sexually prejudiced remarks. Results indicated that anti-gay comments were extremely prevalent in a college setting and resulted in a range of reactions and behaviors. Confrontation of the perpetrator was predicted by the perceived offensiveness of the comment, perceived social pressure to confront, and the number of close same-sex attracted friends. Additionally, those who confronted felt more satisfied with their responses than those who did not confront. Implications for future research and prejudice reduction strategies are discussed.     

Gender dysphoric/gender variant (GD/GV) children and adolescents: summarizing what we know and what we have yet to learn

The optimal approach to treating minors with gender dysphoria/gender variance (GD/GV) is much more controversial than treating these phenomena in adults. This is because children have limited capacity to participate in decision making regarding their own treatment, and even adolescents have no legal ability to provide informed consent. Minors must, therefore, depend on parents or other caregivers to make treatment decisions on their behalf, including those that will influence the course of their lives in the long term. Presently, the highest level of evidence available for selecting among the various approaches to treatment is best characterized as "expert opinion." Yet, opinions vary widely among experts and are influenced by theoretical orientation and assumptions and beliefs regarding the origins of gender identity, as well as its perceived malleability at particular stages of development. This article outlines some of the more salient points raised by the clinicians who treat GD/GV and their discussants. This article summarizes what the editors believe is known and what has yet to be learned about minors with GD/GV, their families, their treatment, and their surrounding cultures.     

A comprehensive program for children with gender variant behaviors and gender identity disorders

This article describes a clinical program designed to address broadly defined mental health needs of children who experience stress related to not fitting into normative gender types and argues for the need for integrated services that address the spectrum of gender variance. An array of services useful to children and their families is proposed. The article describes the clinical population served, common clinical and social problems, and a rationale for the interventions provided.     

Wearing Pink as a Stand Against Bullying: Why We Need To Say More

This article presents a contextual discourse analysis of the media response to a campaign against bullying that was developed in the spring of 2007 in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. As a feature of masculine socialization, male-on-male bullying secures the reproduction of an aggressive and heteronormative hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987 Connell, R.W. 1987. Gender and power, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.  [Google Scholar]) for boys and young men in contemporary North American mainstream culture. I argue that the celebration of the “Pink Campaign” is illustrative of the normalizing silences, or “unremarkability,” about the related discourses of sexism and homophobia that motivate everyday practices of male-on-male bullying.     

The Effects of Death Reminders on Sex Differences in Prejudice Toward Gay Men and Lesbians

Terror management research shows that death reminders (mortality salience) increase prejudice toward worldview violators. Two studies investigated whether death reminders exacerbated differences in heterosexual men's and women's reports of sexual prejudice (negative attitudes based on sexual orientation). Results showed that following death reminders, sex differences in anti-gay discrimination and affective prejudice toward gay men (but not toward lesbians) were larger, and that these increased sex differences were mediated by gender role beliefs. The current studies suggest that researchers may attenuate the effects of death reminders by lessening the perceived worldview violation in addition to alleviating the existential terror of death.     

“Still Raped Over Here”: Gay Male Femininity and the Rewards of Camp Ambivalence in Richard Day’s Girls Will Be Girls

ABSTRACT

Girls Will Be Girls (GWBG) delivers a substantive queer-feminist critique of heteronormative animus toward women and gay men through jokes that weaponize that animus for insurgent purposes. The film’s rape and abortion jokes showcase the provocative notion that negative representations of femininity might be wielded strategically and, in fact, more resonantly because they resist recuperation by marginalizing normative hierarchies. GBWG’s enactment of gay male femininity deploys queer dissidence by ameliorating pain through mockery while emphasizing the costs of heteronormative and patriarchal inflictions. This essay offers a test case for a queer feminist politics—one that, without discarding the imperatives for and rewards of more materially grounded political work, mines the critical as well as affective affordances of rage, mockery, and indignity against heteronormativity’s arbitrary but still formidable injunctions. A queer feminist reading of camp denaturalizes heteronormativity with a potency that queer theory and feminist theory might harness yet more effectually in less divided collaboration.     

Striving for Prestige in Samoa: A Comparison of Men,Women, and Fa’afafine

ABSTRACT

In numerous non-Western cultures around the world, a small but meaningful proportion of individuals occupy alternative gender categories beyond the man/woman binary. A substantial body of past research has shown that feminine, same-sex attracted males in Samoa—a nonbinary gender known as fa’afafine—are more altruistic toward their nieces and nephews than are Samoan men and women. The present study examined the degree to which these kin-directed altruistic tendencies of fa’afafine are motivated by striving for prestige, and hence demonstrating value, within their family. Results showed that cisgender men and women do not differ in the degree to which they seek familial recognition of their altruistic behavior toward nieces and nephews. However, compared to men, fa’afafine sought significantly more acknowledgment of this altruism. These results illustrate one proximate cognitive mechanism for the elevated kin-directed altruism of fa’afafine and highlight the importance of the sociocultural context in which these motivations develop.