Reflective Essay On Family Studies

For as long as I can remember, I have been a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece—a girl. I have never been referred to, or referred to myself, as “sir,” “mister,” or “him” and if I had. my family, and anyone else, would have shot the idea down immensely. This is because of society. Ever since my sex marker was labeled as female when I was born, or even before when my parents went to a pregnancy check up to have my sex revealed, everyone obtained a generalized idea of what I would be like. This consisted of a precious little girl with sass, ponytails and pretty pink dresses, who would later grow up, marry a man, and have children of her own because that is how society says the life of a girl should be portrayed—and that is how I was presented. My closet flooded with a never-ending pattern of pink, purple, and glitter, puffy dresses and skirts, …show more content…
Initially, I would say that I did not become familiar with transgenderism until high school and even then, I thought it meant having your sexual characteristics physically altered to that of the opposite sex. However, after taking an Introduction to Family Studies course during the Fall 2017 semester and reading The Gender Book last week, I would change my statement to say that I was first introduced in elementary school. The Gender Book (Hill & Mays, 2013) describes transgender as having “some element of crossing over or challenging gender roles, expressions, or expectations.” It is an umbrella term that includes drag queens and kings, cross dressers, masculine women, feminine men, transsexuals and numerous other identities (Hill & Mays, 2013). I then realized that, not only did I know many people who fell into this category, I was once in a relationship with a transgendered person, as my ex-girlfriend was very masculine and only wore men’s clothing. I, however, am