Priyanka.LEC052035.Gender dysphoria development in Lee Makobe's poem "What it's like to Be Transgender"

 

Priyanka

Professor Joseph Koyipalli

Academic Writing

2 February 2021

Gender dysphoria development in Lee Makobe’s poem What it’s like to Be Transgender.

What it’s like to be a transgender is an extremely revealing poem about the emotional traumas and struggles of a transgender who has little choice but to survive in a world that is highly gendered culture. It effectively discloses the gender identity issues in a transphobic society and about the alienation that transgender people feel which mostly results in challenged psychological development and suicides. The poet Lee Makobe is a transgender himself and shares his soul-baring experience of growing up as a transgender. The poem is an autobiographical poem about the history of one’s gender expression, Makobe openly talks about his experience of coming out as a transgender.

Lee Makobe is an award-winning African slam poet and the founder of Vocal Revolutionaries, a volunteer-run literary organisation focussed on empowering the youth of South Africa to find their voice through art. Lee Makobe has been a TED Fellow since 2015 and mainly serve as a political activist who criticizes the lack of freedom of expression in South Africa. In his autobiographical poem, he writes “I was the mystery of an anatomy, a question asked, a question asked but not answered, tight roping between awkward boy and apologetic girl, and when I turned 12, the boy face wasn’t deemed cute anymore” (Makobe 20) . These lines are powerful descriptions on bodies and the stereotypes poured into them, the poem addresses the identity crisis imposed on the transgender people every now and then by the mainstream culture.

Every human's gender identity develops time to time, changes depending how the individual perceive their gender identity since children until adults. Other than one's own capability to understand the gender identity, an individual also depends on the social interaction and peer's pressure on observing and recognizing their own gender identity. In the poem being a transgender, the poet is insecure and the development of gender dysphoria is highly evident.  Gender dysphoria can be defined as a feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people may experience this quite often. In the poem the poet feels trapped inside a body and forced to follow gender roles that contradicts from the desires his mind posses. From childhood to adulthood the poet went through an emotional and psychological roller coaster that finally end up making him pessimistic as he recognizes his non-acceptance in a world where religions preach universal love.

“In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female,” (Woolf). In a world dominated by the two-gender classification, it is very difficult to be a transgender person. Most of the transgender people are ill-treated, alienated, insulted and even attacked by others. This causes the development of gender dysphoria in their minds and make them insecure and frustrated. Makobe in What it’s like to be Transgender cites the examples of people like Mya Hall, Leelah Alcorn and Blake Brickington. These three were transgender, Mya Hall was shot dead by the police. The other two committed suicide as they were unable to resist the alienation, contempt and ridicule poured on them by the transphobic society.

Victims of transphobia experience harassment, bullying, and violence from their early childhood days and as adults they experience public ridicule, harassment including misgendering, taunts, threats of violence, robbery, and false arrest. These attitude from the mass make the transgender feel unsafe in public, they also become victims of sexual abuse. Transgender people suffer discrimination in the workplace and even denied job opportunities and healthcare facilities. Besides the increased risk of violence and other threats, the stress created by transphobia can cause negative emotional consequences which may lead to substance abuse, running away from home (in minors), and a higher rate of suicide. Lee Makobe’s poem open up such fears of a transgender, the murder and suicides of transgender people, the isolation and gender dysphoria they feel are directly conveyed through the poem.

 

Work Cited

Bray, Sean. “Gender Dysphoria, Body Dysmorphia, and the Problematic of Body Modification.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 29, no. 3, 2015, pp. 424–436. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jspecphil.29.3.0424. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.

Makobe, Lee. "A Powerful Poem of What it's like to Be Transgender." Ted.com. 15 May 2015 Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.

Makobe, Lee. "An Ode to poetry.” YouTub.com, 15 Nov. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FbyoQdqsBQ.

Romano, Aja. "A transgender woman was shot in Baltimore and no one is talking

about it". Daily Dot: March 8 2017. https://www.dailydot.com/irl/transgender-sex-worker-mya-hall-death-nsa/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.

Zucker J. Kenneth. “The DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Gender Dysphoria”. University of Toronto, 2015.