Gender Identity Disorder

"Gender identity disorder (GID) is a conflict between a person's actual physical gender and the gender that the person identifies himself or herself as."

Causes:
(Those with GID may act and present themselves as a member of the opposite sex.)

•  Choice of sexual partners
• Display of feminine or masculine mannerisms, behavior, and dress
• Self concept 

 Identity conflicts can happy in various situations and appear in multiple ways.  For example, some people with normal genitalia and sexual characteristics of one gender privately identify more with other gender.

Symptoms:
(Can vary it any age, and are affected by social environment)

• Children
• Disgusted by their own genitals
• Are rejected by their peers
• Believe they will grow up to become the opposite sex
• Have depression or anxiety
• Say they want to be the opposite sex
• Adults
• Dress as the opposite sex
• Feel Alone
• Have depression or anxiety
• Want to live as a person of the opposite sex
• Wish to be rid of own genitals

 Treatment:  For those who have GID and their family it is recommended for children to undergo family therapy, and couples therapy for adults.


Complications:

• Depression or anxiety
• Emotional distress
• Feeling alone
• Poor self concept

-Kati
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002495/

When Boys Won't Be Boys

When a mothers concern with her four year old son, she decided to ask the family doctor if his actions were or would become a problem.  Their doctor reassured them, "This is just a phase, nothing to worry about.  He will grow our of it." Although, the doctor was most likely wrong. 

Problems with gender identity includes cross-dressing, exclusive cross-gender play, and a lack of same sex friends should be treated as a symptom that something may be wrong.  Boys you display symptoms are more likely to be unhappy, lonely, and isolated.  To suffer separation anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems. 

The good thing is that if gender identity problems are identified and addressed, and if both parents cooperate in the solution, many of the negative outcomes can be prevented. 

Parents sometimes try their own methods of putting a stop to the behavior, but forcing a frightened child to engage in behaviors in which he feels inadequate is not a proper solution.  Some people may aviod treatment because they believe that gender identity problems are a sign that the child was born "homosexual," and that the parents should accept this. 


-Kati
Catholic Education Resource Center

Value priorities and how the Sexes differ?

        The battle between the relationships and the sexes has always been complex many have tried to research it but across the board there has never been research done that encompasses a wide variety of nationalities and cultures. However, a pretty cool article written at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem finally decided it was time to render an opinion that spoke for the male and female race more so as a whole. It digs deeper into whether or not the confusion is if women give more importance to their values than men or if there are universal differences at all.

       There are some values that are similar within almost all cultures. -power:social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources -achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards -hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself -stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life -self-direction: independent thought and action choosing, creating exploring -universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature -benevolence: preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with who, one is in frequent personal contact -tradition: respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide the self -conformity: restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms -security: safety, harmony, and stability of society of relationships and of self.(1010-1011)

    To ensure diversity samples were taken from university students in 70 different countries, adults from 15 countries and 19 European countries and Israel. Two different methods were used: Personal Values Questionnaire and Schwartz value survey.


          The results showed show that women give more importance to universalism, benevolence and security and men to stimulation and power. Unfortunately, after reading this nineteen page article these results were not surprising. So many times men and women try to say they hate the stereotypes and placed upon them but how can they complain when they are living proof of the stereotypes we see. It seems that no matter where you go men and women remain the same, Although the language  may be foreign to our ears or the food may taste different to our mouths universally we are the same. Next time you sit down to think about our society and how its so different from others at our roots are we the same.

    


-Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Schwartz, Shalom H. , Rubel, Tammy
       2005.  Vol. 89 No. 6, 1010-1018. Apr 20, 2012
 < http://csaweb106v.csa.com/ids70/display_fulltext_html.php?SID=i4knd3tb9h054v466s8ufq43c7&db=psycarticles-set-c&an=2005-16185-013&f1=0022-3514%2C89%2C6%2C1010%2C2005&key=PSP%2F89%2Fpsp_89_6_1010&is=0022-3514&jv=89&ji=6&jp=1010-1028&sp=1010&ep=1028&year=2005&mon=12&day=0022-3514%2C89%2C6%2C1010%2C2005>

-Dominique

Toys for Toddlers

Quick what color comes to mind when you think of the word boy? What color comes to mind with the word girl? Sterotypes are so prevailent in our culture that we are exposed to it right from the womb and it only increases from there. As a matter of fact stereotyping infants has increased so much over the years that it has even started to affect toys that were once gender neutral, such as legos.

Notice how the video on top targeted for girls consisting on baking and playing resturant not to mention that a majority of the structures are assembled. This blog also touches upon the subject of stereotyping toddlerss while breifely comparing two common toys for young infants.

-Asael

Labelpalooza

While it's important to understand how diverse sexuality can be, especially since asexuality contains many more facets than ever before imagined, it has brought about the imagined need to slap a label on every possible sexual/romantic/asexual/aromantic orientation. This is a humorous take on the matter. 

The text reads as follows: GREAT, YOU’RE ASEXUAL! HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT WHAT ROMANTIC ORIENTATION YOU ARE YET?! WE ALL HAVE ONE! (KINDA). THAT GUY OVER THERE IS HOMOROMANTIC, HE’S ATTRACTED TO PEOPLE OF THE SAME GENDER, BUT NOT IN A SEXUAL WAY! ISN’T THAT GREAT! BUT IT DOESN’T STOP THERE! IF THAT DOESN’T HELP, YOU CAN SPLIT YOUR CONCEPTS OF ATTRACTION DOWN INTO SMALLER AND SMALLER PARTS UNTIL YOU HAVE A REALLY GOOD IDEA WHAT MAKES YOU TICK, AND, HEY LOOK, A CONVERSATION ABOUT NON-TRADITIONAL INTIMACY MODELS, YOU COMING? SO IT DOESN’T MATTER TO US WHAT YOU DECIDE YOU ARE–THE IMPORTANT BIT IS THAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR LABEL FITS AND IS COMFORTABLE, AND IF THE WORDS DON’T WORK YOU SHOULD TOTALLY MAKE SOME UP!!! MAKE UP SOME WORDS! GO ON! IT’S FUN! HERE, TRY SOME PUNS!! HAVE A GOURD! DOES THIS FIT? NO? WELL, HOW ABOUT THESE? DO THESE MODELS SEEM USEFUL? LOOK! I DREWED YOU A GRAPH! AND ANOTHER GRAPH, I DIDN’T LIKE THAT ONE!! YOU ARE THE POINT OF ORIGIN! NOW YOU’RE SPECIAL!! HOORAY! LOOK, HERE’S A RIDICULOUSLY COMPLEX SPIDER CHART! HOW MANY MORE DIMENSIONS DO YOU NEED? I’M UP TO 26! YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU CAN CHART YOUR ORIENTATIONS TO BOTH MEN AND WOMEN AND POSSIBLY NONBINARY PEOPLE!! HAVE YOU NOT QUESTIONED YOUR GENDER YET, BY THE WAY? GET THEE TO A YADARY! IT’S FUUUUUUUUN! AND WHAT MAKES GENDER ANYWAY? HAVE SOME MORE LABELS…
-Ashley

Article: "Life without Sex"

David Jay, the leading founder of The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, believes that we are entering a "third phase of the asexual movement." The April 2012 article written by Rachel Hills for The Atlantic gives some insight on the state of the asexual community from one of it's leading figures. There is very large push to remove the stigma of asexuality being a defect from the everyday man's idea of what asexual means. To many it means that there is a past trauma or repressed desires and guilt keeping asexuals from acting in a sexual manner. What Jay and many others wish to make clear is that the majority of asexuals are simply without desire. Through interaction with other asexuals online and local communities many have realized that their lifelong asexuality is far from uncommon. To many who identify as asexual it is a welcome part of their personality an lifestyle but doctors and psychologists often disagree with this contentment.

You can find the article here!

-Ashley

Breakdown of the Community

This is a great visualization of how diverse the asexual community really is. Asexuality is something far more diverse than once thought!

-Ashley