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Gender and Sex: The Issues between Sex and Gender Identification in Transgendered Individuals

Written by: Ari Mortensen, a ftm individual

              In recent years, gender and sex have developed new definitions to accommodate the growing number of members in the LGBT community. Gender has been redefined as the mental identification of an individual based on their own preference and feelings towards their role in society. Sex is now defined as the biological characteristics of a person’s body that determines them as male, female, or something else along that scope based on what doctors observe upon birth. Now, while gender has come a long way from what it was once considered in recent years, the term sex still has a long way to go as many times, the distinction between female bodied and male bodied individuals acts to invalidate those individuals of the LBGT community that assign themselves as some other gender than their body, at one point, suggested. Society conceptualizes sex on a male to female spectrum, which in my mind is a disgusting and invalidating idea for transgendered people such as myself. As a female-to-male transgendered individual, my gender is male though it was once considered to be female not by myself, but by society and the doctors that aided in bringing me into this world. While my gender is all good and dandy, what with it being increasingly accepted by society as science sees the errors of historical gender roles, my sex is a different matter entirely. As I was born with a “female” body, my sex is still considered to be female while my gender is male. In a biologically scientific standpoint, this should pose no problems, as it makes it easier to give healthcare and aid to those with specific body parts that determine their bodies as male or female. On a psychological standpoint though, the same is not true, as the distinction between the sexes (male and female) invalidates everything that transgendered individuals are trying to work for in their lives. Because of society’s distinction that, despite ftm individual’s gender being male, their sex is female, the work we have put into appearing male is destroyed, reducing us to our uncontrollable biologic traits and presenting us to society as female-bodied-males. This concept and stigma of sexual characteristics needs to be eradicated on a scientific standpoint, again because of how it works to diminish the gender identity of an individual. Society needs to get rid of the concept of defining sex along a spectrum of male or female to describe specific biological traits, and instead transition to defining sex as just labelled biological parts that describe the body part itself and not establish that the body part is inherently male or female. The terms male or female are distinctions that should only be used when speaking about gender identity, as they are merely two of the many genders present in the world. Male and female are terms that should not be used to describe biological body parts as there is nothing inherently feminine or masculine about such body parts, and are merely what society is trying to impose on individuals whose gender identity is something different from male or female. When referring to the body parts for reproduction, nothing should be described as a male body part or a female body part, but should only be described as what the body part really is: penis, vagina, uterus, testes, breasts. These terms have no distinction of what is male or female, and merely describe the role of the body part in the reproductive process. Having a vagina should not make my sex female, nor should having a penis make my sex male. Sex should be described only as a reflection of our internal gender, so that that even if we have vaginas, those parts are considered to be male parts because they are on a male-identifying body. My sex should only be described by the actual body parts that I have and not an incorrect umbrella term, like male or female, to describe what is between my legs that has nothing to do with what I identify as. Those umbrella terms and categorizations essentially destroy the work we transgender individuals have put into making ourselves appear male or female. This is especially true in regards to the healthcare we receive, as a clinic that deals with vaginas or pregnancy should not be considered a women’s clinic, but should just be considered a uterus, breast, or vagina clinic. That way any ftm individuals like myself will not be singled out in such a clinic that defines itself as a Women’s health clinic, thus being able to be more comfortable with receiving healthcare that is aimed not to female health, but to vaginal or uterus health. I for one, would be glad for this to happen because it would allow my dysphoria towards my “female” biological traits to diminish as those body parts of mine would no longer be considered as female parts but merely just considered as a vagina, breasts, or uterus. These body parts are not innately feminine or masculine as they are just body parts that do not denote a more feminine alignment, as that is all a person’s own mental gender preference. It wouldn’t hurt nearly as much going to the Doctor’s office knowing that your body parts that may be having problems are not masculine or feminine and are just genitalia. In a way, for some ftm individuals (not me though), it would make it much easier for them to have biological children. They would know that their body parts that enable them to carry their child are not female body parts but are just the more attuned (not motherly) genitalia to carrying a child than the genitalia of their partner who may have a penis (which is not a male attribute). In this hypothetical situation, being described as motherly or fatherly is not based on whether the individuals in the relationship have specific genitalia that society considers to be male or female, but is instead based entirely on the individual’s gender identity and personal preference to be called motherly, fatherly, or something entirely different.

              In addition to the issues mentioned above, it also needs to be accepted that, even with developments of society in these directions, such developments don’t destroy a transgender individual’s desire to have been born with the body parts we want that are described as male or female. As an ftm individual, I wish I had been born with a more “masculine” body despite my belief that a penis or more muscular body does not denote masculinity or a male body. This is just an aspect of those who are gender non-conforming that must be accepted despite how contradictory it may seem. I want a more masculine body (muscles, facial hair, penis) because those traits are generally what are found on male bodies at present day. I feel as though my wish to have a more “masculine” body is simply based off what I see around me. Everyday, I see individuals that describe themselves as men or males with their more muscular bodies and facial hair that I want myself, who has an unfortunately softer body that people describe as female (oftentimes against my will). This is really the only way that I can describe this seemingly contradictory wish of mine and other ftm and mtf individuals. I hope that one day, society reaches a point where a ftm person considers their genitalia to be undoubtedly masculine as a vagina on a man should be. In society right now though, this level of self-confidence is almost unreachable, so much so that even I wish not to have been born with breasts or a vagina.

Inktober 2018 Day 28

“Gift”

I am so goddamn glad that I have two perfectly functioning hands, because i would never be able to do this sort of precise stuff with a pressure dependent ink pen.

Art © Me

Decided that instead of flailing aimlessly in doing color, I’m instead gonna start doing photo studies. So here’s the first one that I wanted to be a short study, but took way longer cause I was figuring out how to do that blur effect and how to paint water droplets. I really like painting water drops now XD. The second image is the ref image, tho I can’t for the life of me find who to credit for the pic.

Three guys are for a creature design project I'm working on in school. Gonna be painting and drawing them at large soon. I'm really liking this concept though!! Also, I'll be trying to post more often here instead of just doing reblogs, so stay tuned.

A wip i have where im trying to better understand lighting and color. Also trying to kinda emulate the style of @rema-rin cause i adore how she uses a more flat colors to denote shadow instead of blending. Idk i just really love that style, where its kind of sketchier and  has less rendering to it. Clean lines not in the linework but in the actual color itself.

Inktober 2018 Day 24

“Chop”

Honestly had no idea what to do for this one, so just defaulted to something with a hand. I guess the hand is getting chopped by another dimension??? Idk but it was fun, I tried watering down the ink and instead of using a brush, I just used my crowquill as normal, and that was quite enjoyable so I’m definitely doing it again.

Inktober 2018 Day 12

“Whale”

I’ve always thought that humpback whales are hella cool. Like look at their teeth?! They don’t got any. And they still fight Orcas to protect their young. Thus I based this off humpbacks, but with a few better offensive tools.

Art © Me

So for all those who know next to nothing about me: I love bugs. Specifically preying mantis and dragonflies cause they are badasses. I’ve been feeling a little bit of art block lately with drawing humans and doing more experimentation into color and digital art, so I wanted to go back to my comfort zone for a bit. This is the result after looking at a whole bunch of “creepy crawlies” that I love so damn much. I will probably add some lazy colors to this at some point just cause I’m starting to somehow enjoy the struggle of it?? Nothing better than a little pain and suffering right? Click for better quality Art © Me

Inktober 2018 Day 15

“Weak”

These are more words than a drawing, but it’s something I think a great deal about. I find the whole concept that men don’t cry is bullshit and weak. If a person cries in front of you, I see that as a huge strength, as they are willingly showing a weakness to another person. That takes immense strength to do..... not to mention crying is a literal way to dump excess emotions in the form of chemicals from the body. 

a video i made to cope with myself