Reading Response 22

Alexander – “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body”

Summary
In his article, “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body,” Alexander attempts to show how transgender theories in relation to feminist studies are essential to understanding gender as a construct. He asserts that this construct shouldn't be governed by gender stereotypes, and should be looked at openly, and uses student examples to help show this.

Synthesis

This article relates a lot to the last several articles we’ve read, especially the ones about identity, because this piece relates a lot to a construct about identity. It relates a lot to Flynn’s work on feminist writings, and on gender identities.

A&E

3. It makes people think about something that they took for granted more in depth. The true meaning of the topic will come forth rather than a vague assumption based on stereotypes. I feel that a wider appreciation for not only other people, but the other gender as well. The concept could then be applied to just about any social construct with negative stereotypes as well.

4. He describes gender as a construct because there are a lot of different ideas about what is correct. The concept of transgender itself shows that it is a construct because it removes all stereotypical definitions of gender. The implications of it being both personal and political are that there are more than one group of people trying to create definitions and boundaries for this construct.

Thoughts

It was long and confusing. His writing style and thought process are light years above me, and he’s obviously put a lot   of thought into this particular topic. Not too much else to comment of, straightforward concept, after I read the apparatus to help clarify.