I am...

Navigating the process of growing up—maturing from a young child through the teenage years to adulthood—is equivalent to running a gauntlet of questions about personal identity. Finding and embracing sexual and gender identity is among the most challenging aspects of development; amid societal pressures and perceived and actual expectations, each individual must identify and address their own insecurities.

To further complicate this process, in the United States, traditional norms are changing, and the roles of men and women in the home, the workplace, and the public sphere are not as concretely defined as they once were.  With the advent of technology and, in some ways (although certainly not in all), a more open and accepting culture, men and women are not constrained to the physicality of their biological sex.  Gender, as a framework for establishing identity in relationship to society, is recognized as more of a spectrum than a dichotomy.  For example, some individuals identify as transgender, meaning that their inner feelings of gender identity do not match their biological sex or the expectations for men and women established in the larger community.  Some individuals are born intersex, or with some degree of biological ambiguity physically, genetically, or hormonally.

Recognizing this range of selves is changing the nature of relationships, as well; partnerships are not just about men and women, but about person and person.  That is perhaps what we all can learn from our friends and peers that identify differently than we do—love, partnership, finding support can be about the characteristics of a person, just as they are, not as they are defined by social structures.

It goes without saying that in The Vagina Monologues and I Am an Emotional Creature, both by Eve Ensler, the author is addressing gender and identity.  There are two monologues in particular, however, that address gender norms specifically, albeit from very different angles.

In I Am an Emotional Creature, the monologue “Stephanied” tells the story of a young woman in love with another young woman.  And yet, for herself, as the narrator states, “I’m not gay/ I’m not straight/ I’m Stephanied” (35).  This monologue said to me, as a reader, that love or passion or infatuation—whatever the case may be at a particular point in life—can be about an individual.

“They Beat the Boy Out of My Girl… Or So They Tried,” a Spotlight piece from The Vagina Monologues, looks at gender through a much more overtly sexual lens; this narrative is written from the perspective of a transgender individual who was born male but internally identified as female.  Later in life, after enduring scrutiny and discrimination, this person is able to go through the transition, through surgery and hormones, to becoming physically female—finally, this person is able to find peace and harmony between her body and her spirit.  She is able to live fully in herself, in her identity.

You may not agree. But in writing these two monologues, Ensler is furthering her purpose in writing, to put each reader or audience member in the shoes of another.  She is asking for openness and acceptance, so that every voice—male, female, person, human—can speak, can express, can explore every avenue and endure every blow that lines the path to self-discovery and self-confidence.  

*I would like to say thank you to Ethan Fusaris, who gave a presentation on cultural sensitivity in the Public Health Education Theory class that I took last semester.  His presentation contained much of the information about defining biological and gender identity spectrums that I discuss in this post.