John Stemmer

Professor Washington
6 March 2015
Transgender Children
Transgender is the common term used for children struggling with gender identity
disorder, or gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a condition in which there is a
conflict between a person's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies with
(nih.gov 2015). Gender identity is our internal sense of being male or female (Brill, Ryan
et al. 2007). For children and adults who are transgender, their basic sense of being
male or female (their gender identity) does not match their body (Brill et al. 2007). This
conflict of gender can be diagnosed as early as two to three years old, and
diagnosis/treatment of this disorder early can reduce the chance of depression,
emotional distress, and suicide (nih.gov 2015). Symptoms of gender identity disorder
can vary by age and include being disgusted by their own genitals, feeling alone and
distant from peers, believing they will grow up as the opposite sex, saying they want to
be the opposite sex (nih.gov 2015). Although a child doesnt develop a gender identity
until about two years of age, I believe there are signs that can be of concern to a parent
as we saw in the three videos about three unique cases of gender identity disorder.
The first of the stories tells us of a young girl Josie, a transgender child who is
physically a boy holds a female gender. Josie was originally born a boy, Joey, when her
parents Joseph and Vanessa would soon find out Joey had gender identity disorder. By
age three, Joey was throwing temper tantrums and doctors told Vanessa and Joseph he
was depressed. The diagnosis led to Joeys 17 dose/day prescription, including the

common anti-depression drug Prozac, ADHD medication, and turrets medicine. Upon
one physical visit, the doctor noticed how Joey was playing with his toys, and
determined that Joey had gender identity disorder. All of Joeys behavioral problems
were due to a conflict of gender. His mother and father, in Joeys best interest, decided
to let Joey take on the role of a female. This was very surreal for Vanessa and Joseph
as they realized Joey was no longer their son, but now their daughter. They changed
her name to Josie, and ever since that drastic change, Josies problems had
disappeared. Josie was a happy little girl, and finally comfortable in her own skin. As a
parent, all you want is for your child to be happy, and I see Vanessa and Josephs
justification of this situation. The problem that arose was puberty. Due to Josie having
male genitalia, puberty could change everything in her life and bring about the same
conflict that she started with. There was a solution to this problem, hormone blockers
and estrogen. This would counteract the male attributes brought on by puberty. The
question is, would this be ethical? I mean, Josie is only nine, so is she old enough to
understand the consequences of this decision and also make the decision with true
logic? It is an extremely controversial decision. Doctors say many children grow out of
this disorder, so doing something permanent could fare to be terrible. During the
documentary, Josie and her mother Vanessa have a conversation in which Josie shows
some uncertainty, possibly due to immaturity. Everything up to this point to me feels like
the right decision by the parent. However, I think the child needs to mature before they
decide to alter their lives in a way that will be permanent. I do feel that the hormone
blockers arent unethical, because the effects are only blocking the hormones which

isnt permanent. The decision to have a sex change needs to be made solely by the
child, when they are an adult.
The second story is about a young girl named Jazz, and a very similar story to
that of Josie. Both Josie and Jazz were born boys, but developed gender identity
disorder around age three. Jazz showed signs of her disorder as a toddler, sneaking
into her sisters closet to get her cloths to wear, playing with dolls, and enjoying feminine
things. Jazz seems 100 percent sure this is her calling to be a woman, and throughout
the documentary, she has no doubts. She is anxious to get her treatment for hormone
blockers. She says several times throughout the documentary that she wants boobs,
and she wants to change her penis into a vagina. Unlike Josie, Jazz seems to be very
knowledgable on what is going on in her head and body. She attends colleges
seminars, speaks about puberty, and her answers all lead to her concrete decision to
become a female. Jazz turns 11 in the documentary, and upon her doctor visit, is told
she is in the beginning stages of puberty. The documentary closes with Jazzs decision
to begin hormone blockers. Jazz is nervous about hitting puberty, not about stopping it.
She stands by her decision to start the hormone blockers. The same controversy faces
Jazz and her family as she heads towards adolescence.
The final video documentary we watched took a drastic turn. It was the story of
Dr. John Money and the boy with no penis. The story is about David Reimer and Dr.
Moneys, what I believe to be, sick pursuit of science to answer the classic nature vs.
nurture question. This is the tragic story of a boy (Bruce Reimer) whose penis was
burned beyond surgical repair during a circumcision attempt, and a psychologist
specializing in the biology of gender who set out to prove that gender identity is nurtured

rather than innate (documentary storm 2015). The distraught parents took their son to
Dr. John Money, a pioneer in the field of sexual development (documentary storm
2015). Despite the many hormone treatments and surgeries he went through, and the
John/Joan case papers Dr. Moneys published claiming otherwise, Brenda never
identified as female. In later interviews, he would say he never felt female and was even
teased in school (documentary storm 2015). By the time he reached 13, Brenda was
threatening his parents with suicide if they ever made him see Dr. Money again
(documentary storm 2015). At age 14, Brenda decided to assume a male gender
identity and he became David Reimer (documentary storm 2015). In 1997, in a move
which would cause Dr. Moneys studies to come under intense criticism from the
scientific community, he decided to go public with his story (documentary storm 2015).
In 2002, Davids twin brother, Brian, died from an overdose on drugs used to treat his
schizophrenia- apparently Dr. Moneys therapy sessions with both boys had left him
psychologically scarred as well (documentary storm 2015). Two years later, David
Reimer himself committed suicide (documentary storm 2015). The safety and concern
for the child was completely ignored for the pursuit of science. I believe Davids parents
should have told him when he was old enough that he was a boy. I think he should have
been treated like a boy from the beginning. This was not a case of gender identity
disorder, but a sick attempt to make the best out of a bad situation. Davids childhood
much have been a nightmare wanting to do all the things that boys did but being treated
like a girl. I see no reason why this would have been a good option for David. I think Dr.
Money exploited his parents distraught psyche for his own personal gain of fame in
proving his theory.

Socialization is a twofold process; It includes the process by which a society,

culture, or group teaches individuals to become functioning members, and the process
by which individuals learn and internalize the values and norms of the group. Charles
Cooley proposed the looking-glass self, which stated that this process of discovering the
nature of the self from the reactions of others (Mondal et al. 2015). According to Cooley,
there are three steps (stages) in the process of formation of looking-glass self: the
imagination of our appearance of how we look to others, the imagination of their
judgment of how we look or how we think others judge our behavior, and how we feel
about their judgment, i.e., our feelings (self feeling) about their judgments (Mondal et al.
2015). For a transgender child, this theory of developing the self may be crucial. As they
develop, believing they are the wrong sex, they must think that others think they are
weird based on their own self-image. Growing up knowing they are different and feeling
as though they were created wrong probably makes their imagination of others
perception of themselves negative. As far as their looks I believe that is something that
they feel comfortable with, that is, until they hit adolescence being the opposite sex.
Due to Jazzs and Josies hormone blockers, they should go on looking like girls and
feeling comfortable with their looks. Both Jazz and Josie seem very comfortable with the
way they look, so I would imagine they feel that others think they are attractive. I feel
that Cooleys concept of developing the self is unrealistic. We develop our self by our
self image mostly by what our interactions tell us. If a kid is popular at school because
he is good at football, his perception of what others think of him will most likely be
positive based on the fact that most people praise him. I feel that our development of
the self is simply an extension of real experience. If Jazz and Josie are popular at

school, they will imagine that people see them as friends. In David Reimers case, he
probably imagines peoples view of him is negative because he was picked on in school
for looking masculine. Though, if the child is different (in this case transgender), they
probably feel alone in who they are, and therefore might feel that others view them this
way. In reality, people may not even think they are weird or different. For Jazz and
Josie, they are probably perceive others views as positive because they understand
their situation and have been given so much support from family. For David, he probably
perceived others views as extremely negative because of his hard upbringing and the
fact that he himself felt ugly due to not knowing his true sex.
The second is George Meads I and me theory. The I is the immediate response
of an individual to others, people do not know in advance what the action of the I will
be; The me consists of the attitudes of others that the child adopts and makes his own
(Mondal et al. 2015). In the play stage, infants and young children develop as social
beings first of all by imitating the actions of those around them (Mondal et al. 2015). In
the game stage, which according to Mead occurs at about eight or nine, the child starts
taking part in organized games (Mondal et al. 2015). The child at this stage learns to
grasp what Mead terms the generalized other, or the general values and moral rules
involved in the culture in which he or she is developing (Mondal et al. 2015). I think for
transgender children, the play stage is pretty much the same as any other child. Josie
and Jazz both believe themselves to be girls. As we saw in the documentaries, they
adopted their social behaviors through imitating the actions of girls. We see Jazz wore
girls clothes and acted like her mother and sister. Josie adopted her behaviors from her
mother and other girls she came into contact with in school and public. David situation

its different in this case because he was programmed to be a girl, though felt like a boy.
He imitated the actions only because he was told this was what he should be doing. The
actions which he probably wanted to imitate, masculine actions, were not imitated
because he was under the impression he was a female. As far as Meads game stage,
this is an area which transgender children could struggle. As we saw in Jazzs
documentary, she was not allowed to play in her soccer games because she was a
biological male, though she did learn the general ideas behind Meads generalized
other. Considering that the childs real objective in the game stage is to learn the
organization and equality, a game could be chess or something less common like
gymnastics. To gain the idea of organization and equality could be done in other ways
besides a game like a club or hobby. In Davids case, he never really got to this stage
because he was picked on and outcasted by his peers. I dont really believe Meads
stages to be the best theory of socialization, and I agree with the critics that it is vague.

Work Cited
Resocialization and Total Institutions - Boundless Open Textbook. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 8, 2015, from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundlesssociology-textbook/culture-and-socialization-3/agents-of-socialization-38/resocializationand-total-institutions-241-8259/
4 Theories of Socialisation Explained! (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/4-theories-of-socialisation-explained/35088/

How Do I Know If My Child Is Transgender? - Helpstartshere.org. (n.d.). Retrieved

March 8, 2015, from http://www.helpstartshere.org/kids-and-families/early-childhooddevelopment/how-do-i-know-if-my-child-is-transgender.html
Gender dysphoria: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2015,
from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001527.htm
Dr. Money And The Boy With No Penis. (2010, March 10). Retrieved March 8, 2015,
from http://documentarystorm.com/dr-money-and-the-boy-with-no-penis/
I am Jazz. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Bk_YlBM5JAE&feature=youtu.be
Living a Transgender Childhood. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epDPui27QZQ&feature=youtu.be