Making the Cut :: Women Gender Issues Essays

Making the CutIn response to the failure of the world(prenominal) Bill of Gender Rights to pass congress in the fall of 2010, I propose a film that challenges society to examine the controversies surrounding gender identity construction and transgender people (Phyllis Randolph Frye, Esq., 1.) My film, Making the Cut, is based loosely on the true story of Johns Hopkins Hospital case study Joan/John, and chronicles the life of jockstrap Carla/Carlos Garcia (Diamond, 1). The film uses the example of sport as an indication that society is non yet ready to fully accept transgender individuals into its community. The film begins shortly afterwards the protagonist Carla/Carlos has been born. The doctors immediately realize that the churl has been born with a microphallus and determine, as is done to approximately 100 to 200 US children annually, that the child should undergo sex-selection surgery and be raised as a misfire (Diamond, 1). The doctors attempt to explain this to the bab ys mother, but as she only speaks Spanish their terminology are lost on her. Not being able to bear prenatal care, the mother has had no expectations for the sex of her child and rejoices when the doctors bring her a baby girl, whom she names Carla. Carla grows up in Harlem and throughout her childhood is accustomed to participate in activities that society has historically associated with boys sports, building furniture and performing in mock-fighting games. Carla feels to a greater extent comfortable in the company of boys and often finds she identifies more closely with their lives than those of her female peers. As an athlete, Carla excels at basketball game and earns the recognition of her gamey school coach and local media as being a basketball sensation. In her senior year, Carla is recruited to play basketball for the University of Connecticut on scholarship. kindle at the prospect of leaving the projects and being the first member of her family to run into college, C arla joins the basketball team. While studying at UCONN, Carla attends a lecture round sex-selection operations for a class. Immediately, she identifies with the stories of people whose sex was decided by their doctors at birth and begins to question her own gender identity. She starts an investigation into her childhood and discovers the medical exam records recounting her sex-selection operation. Nervous about the significance of her discovery for her future, but protruding to learn that her inclinations towards feelings of masculinity had biological backing, Carla decides to live her life identifying as male.