Science, Context, and Gender Fluidity in Public Policy

Abstract

This interdisciplinary essay combines science, social sciences, and the humanities to argue in favor of a less rigid understanding of the traditional gender binary of male and female. Relying on recent scientific studies on the sex/gender of the body (internal organs like the brain and chromosomal constitution, for example), this essay mentions results of scientific studies that challenge the binary understanding of gender. These studies point to a much more fluid biological spectrum of the binary male/female—to a trans fluid nature of gender. A less rigid understanding of the nature of gender of all human beings–not just those identified as trans sexual–might help in eradicating prejudices that lead to discrimination and harassment towards the trans community. As the public policy literature reviewed in this article documents, even with laws and policies to protect them from discrimination and harassment, the trans community is still subjected to both. One reason is that laws and policies are still subjected to the interpretation of policy makers and administrators whose decisions, consciously or not, are not immune to biases and prejudices. To further illustrate the scientifically proven trans fluid nature of gender, I will analyze two recent cultural products: One is from Latin America, the Chilean film “Una mujer fatástica,” and the second is an autobiographical essay by a transgender Chicano Professor of Women and Gender Studies—Francisco J. Galarte’s “Transitions: The Dolorous Return of a Chicana/o Transfronterizo.” By analyzing these two cultural products, my aim is to illustrate how these works illustrate gender fluidity in everyday life.