Gender Versus Transgender: Transgender Communities at the Crosshairs:: Science Publishing Group

Gender Versus Transgender: Transgender Communities at the Crosshairs

Madambi Sanction

Business Studies, King Sabata Dalindyebo Technical and Vocational Education Public College, Mthatha, South Africa

Social Sciences, Volume 12, Issue 5, October 2023

Pages: 253-259

Received: Jun. 25, 2023

Accepted: Jul. 18, 2023

Published: Oct. 31, 2023

DOI: 10.11648/j.ss.20231205.14

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Abstract

Transgender as a gender is currently a worldwide topical issue. There are raging debates between those who are pro-transgender, fighting for the rights of the transgender people and those who are anti-transgender; fighting for traditional culture conservation; arguing that only the traditional male and female categories of gender must be observed. Include to the debates, the conflict between the South African Constitution and on the other hand, Christianity and the traditional cultural customs and values, then the debates become intense. The heterosexuals; being in the majority; tend to muzzle the voices of the minority transgender. This has bred insurmountable challenges for the transgender community. This paper illuminates the challenges encountered by transgender learners in South African schools as found by a recent study. Guided by the otherness theory; applying a qualitative research design and using questionnaires, observations and interviews to gather data from the purposively sampled students and staff, the study found that transgender learners were abused, discriminated against and stereotyped. The study also made some worrisome finding: that the transgender learners feared for their lives. These findings underline the importance of shifting from traditional approaches which define gender as a social construct, and pursuing perspectives that view gender as a biological construct.

Keywords

Gender, Othering, Otherness, Sexual Orientation, Transgender, Transgender Challenges

To cite this article

Madambi Sanction. (2023). Gender Versus Transgender: Transgender Communities at the Crosshairs. Social Sciences, 12(5), 253-259. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20231205.14

Copyright © 2023 Authors retain the copyright of this article.
This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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