Labeling and Defining Transgender

Our culture is obsessed with labels. We label everything from the clothes we wear to the color of our skin. People that do not fit into these labels or categories are immediately considered outsiders or viewed as people threaten to bring down the structure of categories. I believe that in some way we are all guilty of labeling people. It is not something I am proud of but I have found myself walking around campus labeling and putting people into categories based on their appearance. But what happens when you cannot place a label on the person you are looking at? You may become confuse and start to dissect every aspect of that person until they fit into one of the extremely limiting categories. If you are unable to figure out “what” they are, you may just act like they do not exist and keep categories individual that are easier to place. Individuals who are trans-gender deal with this every day. They must walk through a world of limiting labels and boxes that they will never be able to fit into.
There is no clear definition of transgender. I believe the definition various from person to person. In Valentine’s book Imagining Transgender, he says that the conventional definition of trans-gender an “’umbrella’ term that includes all people who are in some ways gender-variant” (37). Valentine mentions that he understands that this is a very board term and doesn’t actually explain anything. By defining what it means to be trans-gender creates a smaller and more limiting box for those individuals who may not fix that exact definition. The definition also helps to create assumptions and judgment about those people. During the 50s, psychologist decided to define trans-gender as a mental disorder called Gender Identity Disorder. This definition states that “transsexuals and others who engaged in visibly gender-variant behaviors and who had previously been understood at least partially through the categories of either homosexuality or transvestism” (Valentine, 55). The definition is constructed by outsiders who are determined to create a label for trans-genders. It is unfortunate that our society is unable to leave a group of individuals without a label. The only people who can define trans-gender are the people who experience that life style.
Over the years, these transgender individuals have been fighting for visibility and acknowledgment from the public. As trans-gender people enter into the public eye, they are assumed to be homosexual. This connection has developed due to the historical privatization of homosexuality. Like transgender, homosexuality was lifestyle that a person needed to hide because it was unaccepted by society. Homosexuality is still not accepted by most people, but I do think labeling someone homosexual is easier than trans-gender. Unlike transgender, homosexuality has a definition which allows for the public to recognize more easily and label those individuals who fit the definition. I am guilty of labeling people based on the definitions I have been taught but recognizing a trans-gender individual is often difficult and when their identity is discover it can never really be defined. Transgender individuals are judged for their lack of recognizable appearance and for their assumed sexuality. In our society of limiting label and categories, can there ever be an acceptable definition of transgender?