Gender Identity: Sex And Gender

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Furthermore, at this point of the interview it does not surprise me that Matt (ie) wanted to play dress up or play with girls’ toys. I for one, knew numerous kids that did that at an early age, even I personally wanted to play with my brother’s toys at times and I never liked wearing dresses when I was young. Even though these confessions didn’t alarm me, I felt the need for more understanding.
Egan, Susan K and Perry, David G, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, argue in their article “Gender Identity: a multidimensional analysis with implications for psychosocial adjustment” from the American Psychological Association, that gender identity is “feelings of psychological compatibility with one 's gender”. Meaning the characteristics
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Matt (ie) “had these strong urges to put on women’s clothes, and when I would, I found myself jealous of other girls, it was very strange, so I would cross dress in private, and I would wear women’s clothes in private” (Lines 44-47). With conflicting feeling and no place to turn, Matt (ie) found a book on the shelf at home about sex. The issues are sex and gender are very different things and gender issues were categorized as a kind of mental condition at that time. They used two words transvestite and transsexual, which none of those described Matt (ie), all of this very difficult for an 11-12 year old to understand (lines 48-52).
Arnold H Grossman, Professor of Applied Psychology, New York University and Anthony R. D’Augelli, PhD, The Pennsylvania State University, discusses in this article “Transgender Youth: Invisible and vulnerable” that youth from ages 15-21 who identify as transgender are vulnerable to mental health issues. Most of the young people felt they had these feelings at puberty. Some of the issues they have are the nonexistence of safe environments and insufficient places that deal with their mental health problems

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