Transgenderism and "Gender Identity Disorder" in the DSM-IV
I for one cannot relate to this concept because I do not struggle with my gender. In fact, my gender is completely arbitrary to me and I don’t really think about it at all; except when I’m laughing at myself for being so “manly” by drinking pints of beer in a tavern in Saint Paul with a bunch of uber-straight macho guys, talking about power tools and football. I think a lot about being a human, but not really about being a male, nor about not being a female. That’s one viewpoint.
Another viewpoint is that of those who do not struggle with their gender identity because they do think about their gender quite often, and they are happy about their gender because it matches who they see themselves as, which is completely fine. The problem is when these folks start misplacing their own gender-identity comfort onto others. If they’re comfortable with their gender, then someone else should be, too, right!? Struggle with one’s gender identity, to them, is something that can be analyzed as “illogical” or “inappropriate” or, what’s most fulfilling to label someone, “abnormal.” Just like it’s illogical or abnormal for a woman to want to vote, or for a man to want to love another man. They then feel the need to look for a brain “abnormality” or some other biological difference in order to justify that these people are not mentally sick-rather they are simply "biologically diseased.” Biological justification takes the blame off of these aberrant individuals (i.e. it’s okay to be gay if your brain is gay!--if you've got the gay disease...especially if you were *born* with the gay disease!) and makes things much more okay in many people’s minds…to a degree. However, in the end these people who are struggling with their gender are left dehumanized, and labeled as biologically “aberrant” or potentially so (once big old Science “proves” that they are and society brings in all its nasty connotations surrounding statistical deviance from The Norm). Hormone therapy and sex conversion shouldn’t be seen as a “treatment” for a “disorder”/”disease”, but rather simply a means for a human to express him/herself in a way that is more representative with his/her identity.
This issue speaks to a larger problem, with filthy roots in Psychiatry, of how we conceptualize and deal with “normal” and “abnormal” classification of humans-both at the societal and medical/psychiatric institutional level. As the article points out, DSM-IV (the most current version of the Bible for American Psychiatry/Psychology) still classifies issues with gender identity and transgenderism as “Gender Identity Disorder.” Not too long ago we fought to remove homosexuality from the DSM, and after that battle was won there was a long struggle to remove the residual notion of “disordered human being” from people’s minds. So too is a major battle needed on the behalf of people who struggle with their gender identity. It’s not just about getting Gender Identity Disorder out of the DSM, although that would be a formidable and crucially important start since there are so many drones who operate at the whim of whatever the DSM tells them, and who in turn embody what they read.
Foucault was totally at the helm of such issues--he was chewing on Psychiatry’s hide several decades ago. This little transcript from a tribunal held in his name says it all, possibly adding some words that are clearer than those I am able to come up with right now:
The aim of the tribunal is an offensive against forced institutionalization and treatment and the currently accepted medical term for madness which results in persons being stripped of their self-determination and the very essence of their dignity by medical academicians who have their own particular view on society and who pursue pecuniary (monetary) interests in the exercise of their profession. The justice system works hand in hand as an accomplice to these academicians and acts as a legalizing body. As a result, psychiatry is the one large domain in society which is excluded from all social controls, to which every executive power in a democratic constitutional state is normally subject.
Psychiatry is after all not a penal institution, but nevertheless open to the arbitrariness of doctors with such uncivilized powers at their disposal such as physical punishment (e.g. being strapped to a bed) and the use of personality-changing drugs. All this is diametrically opposed to the freedom-creating functions of a modern democratic state. (http://www.foucault.de/description.htm)
Or, from a more contemporary philosopher, Pink says it a bit more poetically and poignantly, perhaps….It’s all about being "missundaztood" - not about being negatively-connotated “abnormal” or “diseased”:
I'm not going down on my knees
Begging you to adore me
Can you see it's misery
And torture for me
When I'm missunderstood
Try as hard as you can
I've tried the hardest I could
To make you see
How important it is for me
Here is a plea
From my heart to you
Nobody knows me
As well as you do
You know how hard it is for me
To shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these
Understand me
Some people have to be
Permanently together
Lovers devoted to each other forever
Now I've got things to do
And I've said before
That I know you have too
When I'm not there
In spirit I'll be there
Here is a plea
From my heart to you
Nobody knows me
As well as you do
You know how important is for me
To shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these
Understand me
Here is a plea
From my heart to you
Nobody knows me
As well as you do
You know how hard it is for me
To shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these