Question C The concept of medicalization was one that I didn’t understand right away. At first, I didn’t understand why interest and research from medical professionals was inherently bad, but I’ve come to understand that that’s not what medicalization is. Medicalization is not only objectifying in a lot of ways, but it also can alienate people from their own bodies. In the case of trans people, medicalization has turned the trans identity into one that needs to be diagnosed and sterilized, streamlining the way that one can exist as trans in the world.
As we’ve discussed in class, medicalization leaves room for only one type of narrative, the one that will get individuals access to things like legal name changes and surgeries. This leads …show more content…
A group that we looked at closely, radical lesbians who rejected trans women, were very adamant about how only those they identified as “real women” were acceptable in their spaces. Trans women were, to them, the pinnacle of patriarchal invaders of female spaces; Janice Raymond, author of The Trannsexual Empire, even went as far as covertly comparing trans women to Nazis, and “real women” the victims of concentration camps. Raymond also says that those who go through medical transition are inherently rapists: “all transsexuals rape women’s bodies… appropriating this body for themselves”. The decision to transition medically seems to be a double edged sword: if one decides against it, they will not be taken seriously because they are not succumbing to the societal expectations of what a trans identity should be. If someone does transition, they will be subjected to endlessly invasive physical procedures, legal difficulties, psychological evaluations, and so on. They will also be subject to being called liars and intruders by cis people, as well as being questioned by some of their trans peers. There isn’t a right decision to make when it comes to figuring out how one can feel most comfortable within their own body and their own mind, but the perils on the road to medical transition make the decision a lot more
As we’ve discussed in class, medicalization leaves room for only one type of narrative, the one that will get individuals access to things like legal name changes and surgeries. This leads …show more content…
A group that we looked at closely, radical lesbians who rejected trans women, were very adamant about how only those they identified as “real women” were acceptable in their spaces. Trans women were, to them, the pinnacle of patriarchal invaders of female spaces; Janice Raymond, author of The Trannsexual Empire, even went as far as covertly comparing trans women to Nazis, and “real women” the victims of concentration camps. Raymond also says that those who go through medical transition are inherently rapists: “all transsexuals rape women’s bodies… appropriating this body for themselves”. The decision to transition medically seems to be a double edged sword: if one decides against it, they will not be taken seriously because they are not succumbing to the societal expectations of what a trans identity should be. If someone does transition, they will be subjected to endlessly invasive physical procedures, legal difficulties, psychological evaluations, and so on. They will also be subject to being called liars and intruders by cis people, as well as being questioned by some of their trans peers. There isn’t a right decision to make when it comes to figuring out how one can feel most comfortable within their own body and their own mind, but the perils on the road to medical transition make the decision a lot more