Discovering The Transphobia and The Concepts Behind It

Introduction

Transphobia is the intense dislike, sometimes even hatred, or prejudice towards transsexual or transgender people. People with transphobia often will disagree with non-transphobes about the number of genders in the world, believing there are only two. Values like this are often rationalized by religion or religious beliefs, and therefore can lead to the debate of religions, but as I discuss later in my paper, the theory of transphobia is not a debate between religious beliefs.

Discovering Transphobia and the Concepts Behind It

The idea of genital determinism is prevalent throughout most of society, but quite controversial among many. Tumblr is a major modern way that transphobia spreads, as most of the controversy and so-called "fake" created genders are spawned from this website. Many of these genders are created as jokes, traveling across the internet until they offend someone and spark hatred towards these “fake” genders. While this is how it forms in modern days, the original philosophy of transphobia started when people felt offended by the idea that there are other genders. This causes them to offend transgender individuals or transgender sympathizers, who in turn direct their hate towards transphobes. This is a vicious cycle and it is not very helpful to anyone, except in policymaking, when the decision is to be made to benefit either the most or harm the least number of people.

Transphobia and Homophobia: Similarities and Differences

Some consider transphobia to be much like homophobia, and in part this is true, because many people with transphobia are also homophobic and vice versa for the same reason they other the other one. However, make no mistake, these two philosophies are very different. Transphobia is against those who do not know or are confused about their gender as many transphobes would claim, in other words, those who are or claim to be neither male nor female, but somewhere in between. Homophobia, on the other hand, is against those who claim their sexual orientation is towards their own gender. While these issues may be closely related and over-generalized to the LGBT community, they are separate topics.

Gender Essentialism and Genital Determinism

One core belief of transphobia is gender essentialism. Gender essentialism is the belief that males and females are anatomically different, such as having different sexual organs, chromosomes, and even different brain lobes. Gender essentialism perpetuates the idea that transgenders do not exist to transphobes, because they believe there are no defining characteristics for transgenders, but there are defining characteristics for “real” genders. Thus, transgender and transsexual individuals do not really exist physically, but are rather an imaginary construct of the mind. Extreme transphobes would even argue that believing one is a different gender than the sex they are born as is a sign of a serious mental illness.

Another concept of transphobia is genital determinism. To them, the concept of being genderfluid or genderqueer is totally incorrect, claiming that biology, not psychology, defines a person’s gender. In a sense, society considers this to be correct, because when a baby is born a doctor says something along the lines of "congrats on your new baby girl or boy." They are assuming the gender of the child because they understand biology, but sometimes this may offend parents, because they are just assuming the child’s gender. In this sense, society is basically saying that everyone is born a certain gender, and transphobes take it to mean that everyone dies the same gender they are born, and there is no changing that in between.

The Equivalence of Sex and Gender

A final core concept that I will touch on is that sex is the same as gender. According to Google, gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones), while sex is defined as either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. Google admits that there are only two genders, male and female, but still has different definitions for these two words. A transphobic individual will argue that Google is halfway correct but still needs to correct themselves about the fact that the definition of sex should be the same as gender. A transphobic trying to define gender in one word would say "sex," and if they were defining sex in one word, they would say "gender."

Transphobia in Debate and Public Policy

As I said before, transphobia is an extreme dislike or prejudice about transgenders, and this applies to the debate stage, because on any issue involving gender, there always must be solvency for males, females, and everything in between. Playing the transphobia card can lead into the discussion that utilitarianism is void, due to the fact that there are many people out there with transphobia. People of such would not benefit from either their opponent’s advocacy, therefore smashing an argument’s framework and/or even some cards used by the opponent. On the flipside, in opposition to a transphobia argument against utilitarianism, is giving evidence that there are more transgenders in the US than transphobes or by making the claim that many transphobes have transphobia due to the marginalization and exiliation of transgenders, and that making their issues more public would solve the problem. Thus, their advocacy is made stronger by helping transgenders, both on the issue of public opinion as an added bonus.

Recently, controversy has sparked in the US about the concept of allowing transgenders into the public bathroom of their choice. Many transphobes were outraged by the suggestion of this, not just for the fear of themselves, but for the fear of people taking advantage of the law and then advantage of their children. In contrast, those who are in favor of passing such laws believe that such harms will not occur and that transphobes are demonizing decent transgender people. This leads to a debate between the two sides and there would be no clash between the two, because they are arguing two separate issues from each other, except in the case when they meet on the common ground that is transphobia.

In this argument, an affirmation of it could use transphobia as a comparison to racism and other prejudices that have occurred in the past as empirical data, which would prove transphobia is bad and then advocate for change, which is a vital step in it. On the negation of this, one could base their argument on the main principle that many transphobic beliefs are deeply rooted and would not change, therefore angering the public and ending up with a net loss. This results in a debate focused more on idealism than pragmatism, thus the burden of proving feasibility is on the affirmative. But if the affirmative proves that either feasibility does not take place in this round or that the affirmative advocacy is feasible, then they have won the argument.

Conclusion

In conclusion, transphobia remains a deeply rooted issue that manifests in various forms, from societal norms to policy debates. Understanding the underlying concepts such as gender essentialism and genital determinism is crucial in addressing the prejudice and fostering an inclusive environment for all genders. While debates around transphobia can be complex and multifaceted, they offer an opportunity for societal growth and the promotion of equality. As society continues to evolve, it is imperative to challenge transphobic ideologies and advocate for a world where everyone, regardless of gender identity, can live authentically and without fear of discrimination.

References

Google. (n.d.). Definition of gender. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/

Additional references can be included based on specific articles, books, or other resources that were consulted during the research process.