In his article, "Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gender Body," Jonathan Alexander intends to demonstrate how transgender theories along with feminist compositionist approaches can help us understand the narration of gender as a social construct. He explains that gender is "neither natural nor essential, but rather the performance of self-expression within any dynamic relationship" (201).
Like Gee, Villanueva and Delpit, Alexander focuses on identity and its importance in the writing process. He believes that how we understand ourselves as gay or straight is socially infected by labels that can stigmatize certain behaviors and reify others.
APPLYING AND EXPLORING IDEAS
3. I believe "normally" gendered students can gain a new perspective about transgender lives and maybe relate to them somehow. We can apply this to other social constructs or minorities.
4. He describes gender as a construct because people have an idea of what gender is and most of the times that idea is wrong. I think that gender is both personal and political because, as he explains, "there are many ways to be a human being" (200) and we all get to choose how we live our lives.
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