Transgendered Child DB Responses. Week 12

Student 1. Kristan Roehrs

In (Hutchison, 2015) one thing that stuck out to me when thinking about Penelope, the transgendered child in the video, when thinking about gender in middle childhood was how girls and boys experience individuation differently. The textbook says that girls can experience this process as emotionally confusing or even deeply overwhelming. It would be interesting to see, I think, if when Penelope goes through their individuation process if their experience would be more categorized as male or female.

The role of the family in Penelope’s family is particularly interesting, I think, especially because the mom states that she grew up in such a positive female environment. At the same time, it is absolutely clear that Penelope’s mother and at least the other children we see in the video are very supportive of Penelope’s identity. The mother even noted the distinction between Penelope saying, “I don’t feel like a boy, I am a boy”, which shows me that the mom is really paying attention to Penelope’s experience of life.

(Hutchison, 2015) says that ““Transgender children and youth are particularly vulnerable to social isolation and other developmental challenges associated with negative experiences in family and social settings (Burgess, 2009). Based on this I would say Penelope is very lucky. Their family and social environments seem very supportive and positive. One of the more touching examples of social support in Penelope’s life is when his mom says that his friends and siblings will speak up for him in social situations, declaring as they arrive, “This is my friend Penelope and he’s a boy”.

The community aspect is interesting too. For example, when Penelope’s mother shared how people were asking her, “how does a 2-year-old know?”. I think community can be judgmental, supportive, or both, and there is an opportunity for that mom and that family to really educate others, show love, and compassion for something that is not as mainstream in our American culture as other things.

Social Institutions, too, can be supportive or judgmental. For example practices like at Silberman where we all expressed our preferred pronoun the first day of class, really goes towards normalizing gender choice, as well as bathrooms that are gender neutral can go along way toward people feeling comfortable going into the bathroom of their chosen gender, whereas if it’s not a gender neutral bathroom the person may have fear and concern for their safety. I think there are small things that we can do as social institutions to include more people.

Some of the unique factors that face transgendered children and their families were highlighted in the video. One example is when Penelope’s mom talked about her own concern for when Penelope hits puberty, wondering if that will be particularly depressing for Penelope.

I appreciate the two pieces of wisdom Penelope’s mom shares at the end of the video, too. One that she has learned to “accept happiness in any form” and “winners are losers who got back up”.

Student 2. Megan Memije.

It was wonderful to watch mother, Jodie, interact with her children and to see how supportive she is of Penelope’s gender identity. While learning about transgendered individuals, we are typically taught that being gender affirming is important to their socioemotional health, however varying cultural and religious beliefs about sex and gender often impact people’s ability to do so. It is fortunate that Penelope has a parent that does not seek to contradict who he is.

The other video this week, “Friendship and Play in Middle Adulthood”, as well as our reading talk about the importance of peer acceptance in middle childhood and note that groups often form along gender lines. According to Hutchinson (2015), peer groups help children develop important social skills but the degree to which a child is “accepted” by his peers will have a great impact on the quality of their relationships and psychological wellbeing. As transgendered individuals like Penelope are a minoritized group, it is likely that he is more at-risk for non acceptance if other children or adults do not affirm his gender identity or diversity from them. It follows that his brother’s acceptance of him into their male group is an important supportive factor for Penelope’s developing self-regard and identity.

It’s also worth noting that, as mentioned by his mother, the more progressive area/time they live in may allow for Penelope to flourish more whereas a trans child with different parents or who lives in a more conservative community would likely have a different experience. For example, they may have differing levels of support from teachers or other families when dealing with issues of discrimination. These environmental factors will impact the degree to which Penelope and his family feel it is safe for Penelope to be who he is and to explore or express his trans identity further. Similarly, political policies such as the one proposed by Donald Trump to force people to identify themselves by binary biological sex may impact the experience of children like Penelope if it influences others to think of gender as binary or to misunderstand trans people.