Ways of Terminology

•         This week I found the Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing about Transsexuals, Transsexuality, Transsexualism, or Trans___. very inspiring. Although the short passage seems only like a formatting and wording instruction, it shows at least academic respect for these people from our own perspective. When writing about other groups of people, we tend to study them like another kind of spices, which in this case can be very rude. Other than that, wording in unsatisfying ways can not only offer no help, but create more conflicts and misunderstanding. This can be traced back to the class we discussed about wording and labeling. If we write things for acknowledging only, we tend to make wording mistakes because of the lack of caring. When we do write things about something we want to know more about, things become a lot easier because that should be the right attitude. We need to remember that these things are to be read by trans people, too. Also, what we write set certain image for the group as others read it. That is why I would like to say that this instruction is not only for academic writing. It is also for journalists(as they tend to have impact on more people with only a few words) and for people whoever want to write about it.
• Moreover, as we are living in an interactive society, we should not be looking at them only. What we can do for them and how to make things right are more important because those are our objectives for getting to know people who are different from us. This is what makes the society develop. What's more, things sensitive in academic wise research can have bad affect caused by vicious circles. For example, when we write about crime and point out this person is trans or it is on trans people, it tends to be magnified. That's when people would get some invisible hint and make totalization. This kind of memory can cast fixed impression which can cause more totalization and even bad suspects. That is the least things we want if we want to minimize misunderstanding. 
• Sensitive as is, there are a lot of things we should be careful about when we study trans people, or any groups we are not so familiar with. 

BORN WHICH WAY?

         As soon as I took this course, a figure came to my mind as I watched a Japanese TV show a few years ago. It was about a famous Japanese model named Tsubaki Ayana who is working actively now for being accepted by the public as a woman.

She was born to a fairly rich family as the first kid and was raised as an ordinary boy, but it didn’t take his parents long to realize that he acted differently. When little Ayana chose clothes, he liked girl’s clothes better. He played dolls with his sister and he hung out wearing skirts secretly. That was when his mother couldn’t take anymore and sent him to a boys’ school to make him feel like a real boy. However, he was at first not accepted by his classmates and his mother said to his face that she felt him disgusting. Although he finally was accepted by his school as well as his classmates, who took him as real friend and a real girl, he was sent away again to France for homestay. Her French mother Mimi didn’t realize that she was actually a boy until the TV show gave her an interview and brought her a letter after 8 years. Fortunately, she was always seen by the old French couple as their real daughter, making up her loss of love by her born parents. After Ayana went back to Japan, she was abandoned by her parents and that was when she decided to do part time job while attending college where she was not accepted as a girl. She wrote a posthumous paper and then went to Thailand and did sex-changing surgery.

She was alive, born as a whole new person after the surgery. She then was accepted again by her parents as her sister gave the posthumous paper to their parents as soon as Ayana went to Thailand. After 24 years’ struggle, she became a real woman being accepted by all the people she loves, especially her grandma, who was always in support of her even before she went to boys’ school. Right now, she is working actively for the rights of trans-sexual people in Japan. She thinks her story can help all those people who have the same troubles as she did.

Surprisingly, Japan is one of the countries that accepted most trans-gendered groups. Many TV show hosts are trans-gender people who are increasingly being liked these years. So why is that still so sensitive in a country of freedom?

Attached are photos of people who were all born as male and right now love as female on TV in Japan.

Two Spirits

    This week we focused on the discussion on the definition of "Two Spirits" in native American culture. 

    We started with the tragic story of this kind-hearted boy who likes boys and lives as a beautiful girl. In the film "Two Spirits," as well as the readings, we were introduced that although the use of "two spirits" is fairly new, the concept had came to being way before the time we imagined in native Americans' culture. For them, this kind of people are sacred instead of merely acceptable. I am not shocked by it, yet it is actually quite a surprise and it is really good to know this information. 

    I come from China, and I was not introduced any bad things about native American people.  No matter it is a kind of propaganda or not, what I knew was that the "Indians" might have the same ancestors as we do, and just as described in  many films they are good people who loved nature and were invaded by western "civilized" cultures. I think this "civilization" is exactly the thing that blocked the old believes of special sexuality and other genders worldwide. With science improving and technology developing, the "western" way of thinking was used to making definitions for everything and tended to simplify concepts in scientific ways. Also, for easier control over the people by the ruling class, a lot of things might have been thrown away. What's left is a "civilized and simple" culture that has scientific proof or professional terms defined. That is why right now we are reexamining what we knew in a modern way that can be better accommodated to the knowledge we have now. 

    Talking about terms, we have someone mentioned the term "drag queen" today and pointed out how different this kind of phenomenon is from the topic we were talking about. It reminded me of another term "new half." This phrase is a Japanese invented term that seems like a borrowed word yet  not. That is also where I was first introduced to normalize the concept of transgender and see them with no difference, where the Japanese people actually are doing a great job. Of course, I was not taught to look down upon anyone but it was not suppose to be the normal things that I was used to in my system of education back in China. However, in recent years this topic has been more and more covered thanks to the internet. However, I still have the doubt about whether misunderstanding should be categorized into prejudice and discrimination. We recently had a case on the Chinese twitter about an old gay couple trying to get married. They tried to attract attention and get support by fans on the internet. Hundreds of thousands of people retwitted for them. Yet, on the day of the wedding, it was their sons who interrupted the ceremony. They were kind of sad and people were blaming the sons on the forums. But are the sons really the only ones to be blamed? After all gay marriage is not so widely accepted by the people in China, especially for those who DO NOT use internet at all. There might be difficulties for them to face because of the social conventions. I think every improvement needs a process. So as things here in the U.S. So as new identities.