Is Gender Formed by Genetic Biology in Relation to Societies Expectations, or is It Simply Formed as a Result of the Individual’s Imagination?

The term transgender has been heavily criticized over the years, since certain activists, like Riki Wilchins (founder of GenderPac http://www.gpac.org), have fought to make the term more acceptable and understood in today’s society. Numerous times transgenderism has been ridiculed, and thought to be against the norm of the specific gender identity a person was biologically born as. In constructing transgender to be perceived as “normal”, many people who fall under the transgender spectrum have published their own work on the theory, whether it is a novel, or critical writing. My aim is to spread light on the issue, of whether gender is shaped by biology, society, culture or whether it is merely the individual’s imagination? I have chosen to concentrate on the novels of Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge (1968) and Jackie Kay’s Trumpet (1998), with reference to the critical theory of transsexual Riki Wilchins.

In Wilchins book Queer Theory, Gender Theory (2004) she mentions that transgendered people had always been present in society but they were simply grouped together with gay people, and not seen as a separate entity. ‘Transgender people had always been around, living under the broad umbrella of the gay community.’ (Wilchins, 2004, p. 22) Wilchins wanted, and still does, all people of a binary sex to form under the transgender term, and even believes that gay men and lesbians should fall under the category. It merely should not just be transsexuals and transvestites, she believes. ‘The idea is that all people who are visibly queer face common political problems and make natural allies.’ (ibid, p. 26.) However, gay men and women feel that they have been more accepted in society and the association with transgender may put them back in the political minority grouping.

This common conception is certainly present in Kay’s Trumpet and Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, as both Joss and Myra/Myron feel they can’t share their original identity with the people closest to them upfront. However, in both novels when their chosen partner learns the truth they accept it and love them for it.

In Jackie Kay’s Trumpet the transgendered character is Joss Moody, a jazz trumpeter who was born a woman but chose to live her life as a man, marrying Millie and adopting son Colman later on. In Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge the transgendered character is Myra Breckinridge, born as Myron he chose to have a sex operation so that he could live the rest of his life as a woman, Myra. So what was it in each of these novels that made the confused characters of Josephine and Myron change their gender role and identity?

Psychology states that ‘Genes play an important role in the early development of sexual identity, and probably have much to do with shaping gender in the mammalian brain.’ (PT Staff, 2003.) So, if sexual identity and gender are based on genetics from birth, then why do Josephine and Myron feel uncomfortable in the original body they are born into? Wilchins believes that the two characters would fall under the ‘gender binary’ system, which positions them separately from the normal gender system. ‘Thus it is gender as a system of meaning that produces the “natural” Mother Nature, male and female sexes, and the gender binary that establishes what is genderqueer.’ (Wilchins, 2002, p. 32) Wilchins also goes onto say that the basic notion, that there is only man and woman, and they can either be heterosexual or homosexual, was just someone’s philosophy that is now perceived as common sense. She certainly does not agree with this theory, and believes that, ‘When it comes to gender, each of us, in our won private way, is an implicit philosopher.’ (ibid, p. 33) She wants people to see themselves as unique individuals, who can create their own sexual identity and preference. Like Joseph Bristow, author of Sexuality, published in 1997, Riki Wilchins clearly feels that sexual orientation and sexual identity should not be confused as being the same issue, and should be discussed and considered separately. Regardless of the gender role one chooses to live by (if only one), whether they are gay, straight or bisexual is not a deciding factor of their chosen sex. A male to female transsexual could be attracted to a woman, so would that make her straight, because she was born male, or a lesbian, because she lives her life as woman?

Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge tells the story of a man, Myron, who chose to undergo a sex operation so that he could live the rest of his life as a woman. As a woman, Myra is shown to be quite anti-male, and is sick of the male-dominant world she lives in. She has three main missions during the novel. The first is philosophical, the destruction of the American male in all its particulars. The second is sentimental, to finish Myron’s work on the films of the 1940s, and the third is acquisitive, to claim her inheritance from Uncle Buck. Throughout the novel it is not apparent to the reader that Myra is not Myron’s widow, but actually Myron, post-operation. Myra decides to reveal all near the end of the novel, and vividly discusses how the operation went and her feelings.

I was enthralled, delighted, fascinated (of course the anesthetic had a somewhat intoxicating effect). And when, with one swift movement of the scalpel, the surgeon freed me from the detested penis, I amazed everyone by beginning to sing, I don’t know why, ‘I’ll be seeing you’… (Vidal, 1968, pp. 183-184)

Joss Moody on the other hand, did not have a secret vendetta against the gender he chose not to live by. It is apparent near the start of Trumpet that Joss was in fact biologically female, but posed as a male. His wife Millie knew, but no one else did until his death (which happens to be the start of the novel.) The way that Joss uncovers the truth is quite different to that of Myra. ‘He keeps unwrapping endless rolls of bandage. I am still holding out my hands when the first of his breasts reveals itself to me. Small, firm.’ (Kay, 1998, p. 21.) Both descriptions of Myra and Joss revealing their original identity to the reader are visual image descriptions. Myra is a little more pornographic however, when describing her sexual encounters during the novel. Just after her sexual rape of Rusty Myra writes, ‘There was blood at the end. And once my passion had spent itself, I was saddened and repelled. He did not stir as I washed him clean (like a loving mother). Then I unbound him.’ (Vidal, 1968, pp. 145-146) From this you can also sense the urge for Myra to feel like a complete woman, by stating that she mothered him.

Despite the fact that Myra is a transgendered woman, she still portrays masculine characteristics (over powering and tying Rusty down to name just one.) So, if Myron thought that he was a woman trapped in a mans body (which most transsexuals believed), then why, as a woman, does s/he still reveal characteristics of a gender s/he has never mentally been? Could it be that fact that s/he went so many years trapped in Myron’s body as a man that created the characteristics that Myra portrays to be both masculine and feminine? The same can be thought of Joss Moody. S/he, although never actually physically changing gender, lives his life as a man, but consistently portrayed masculine and feminine qualities. Most gender theorists would categorize Joss, without knowing the actual gender, as either being a butch lesbian, or a camp homosexual male. Either way the stereotypical characteristics that Joss conveys would definitely place him/her out of the “gender queer” movement. ‘They consider transsexuals, butch/femmes, and drag queens as not only not genderqueer but actually gender-conforming, because they partake of binary stereotypes.’ (Wilchins, 2002, p.29)

Trumpet is loosely based on the true story of an American jazz musician called Billy Tipton, born Dorothy Tipton. Both Billy and Joss were publicly exposed as women after their deaths. Heated debates were provoked by these revelations, and the fascination the idea obviously applies suggests that, to some extent, most of us believe in essentialist notions of gender. Does the idea of someone simply deciding to change gender invite wonder and disbelief? Then there is the debate of whether both Billy and Joss chose to live their lives as the male gender simply because it was easier to make it as a male jazz musician than a female jazz musician. This idea would certainly place the novel, Trumpet, more as a feminist novel than a step forward in the transgender movement.

Unlike Myra Breckinridge, in Trumpet the idea of Joss Moody actually having sex reassignment surgery is never even suggested. Myra felt like she was not a man, and so needed to change gender to be happier, and perform her missions, as mentioned earlier. Joss, although dead from the start of the novel, also appears to have missions during his stories he tells in the novel.

The first is aesthetic, about music and performance; the second is both historical and psychoanalytic, about the African Diaspora and, significantly, about the absence, return and fantasy of the father, as the present is made bearable for the son only by a necessary recovery of the past. (Hargreaves, 2003, p. 4)

It is his son, Colman, which he feels he has betrayed the most by not revealing his biological gender. Where as Myra feels it is herself she was betraying by living as a male for so long. As well as betrayal being present in both Trumpet and Myra Breckinridge, so is the fact that both novels are satirical. ‘Kay’s novel can be seen as part of a 20th century tradition of literature and film which satirizes, parodies and painfully exposes the discontinuities of dominant sex–gender systems.’ (ibid, p. 2.) Where as Myra Breckinridge could be seen as manipulating ‘realities and invents parodic worlds as a way of satirizing American culture.’ (Kloman, 2001) With such satirical meanings present in each novel, can either Trumpet or Myra Breckinridge, be taken seriously towards Wilchins transgender movement?

So what category could, and do, Myra and Joss fall under? There are limited labels imposed on people, regarding their gender and sexual orientation. As far as gender goes there are anatomically only two; male and female. And where sexual orientation is concerned, there are only three options that would not label you with G.I.D (Gender identity Disorder), heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality. Up until 1973 someone who did not fall under heterosexuality was classed as having G.I.D.

A person with a gender identity disorder is a person who strongly identifies with the other sex. The individual may identify with the opposite sex to the point of believing that he/she is, in fact, a member of the other sex who is trapped in the wrong body. This causes that person to experience serious discomfort with his/her own biological. (Miller, 2000.)

At the time Millers’ article, Gender Identity Disorder, was written the characters of both Joss and Myra would certainly appear to suffer with G.I.D. Myra certainly seems more comfortable since the sex reassignment surgery, where as Joss seems to be more confused. He chose to live as a man, yet every night when he gets undressed, or every time he goes to the toilet, it is a reality check that he still, and always will be biologically female. Regardless of the fact that Myra physically is a woman some critics and people will always believe that gender is purely based on biology, and nothing can change that.

Maleness and femaleness are in the DNA and are unchangeable. A man who has his sex organ removed and takes hormone treatments to grow female breasts is still genetically a male. He is simply a mutilated man, not a woman. This fiction, however, is being perpetrated by a perverted sexual ideology—not by biological facts or science. (Traditional Values, 2005)

This quote is from a website set up by religious people who are intent on keeping traditional values, and not promoting and supporting the “queer” movement. The notion, suggested above, is possibly presented in the conclusion of Myra Breckinridge when she is knocked down by a car and is hospitalized. Myra is unable to acquire her necessary hormones and is forced to have her silicone breasts removed. In the end, she is transformed back to Myron, and in this state he settles into a peaceful, oddly cheerful life with Mary-Ann Pringle. This ending is possibly contradicting all Myra strived for. He even reads over everything he wrote while in New York as Myra and is shocked by what he used to think. ‘I can hardly believe that I was ever the person who wrote those demented pages.’ (Vidal, 1968, p. 203) He even wants to forget he ever changed gender, ‘As it is, neither of us ever mentions the period in which I was a woman and except for my agent, Miss van Allen, we deliberately avoid seeing anyone who knew me in those days.’ (ibid, p. 203) Myron really does appear to just want to live a normal, married, heterosexual life with Mary-Ann, even though they can never have children themselves. However, Gore Vidal did write a sequel in 1974, titled Myron.

In the conclusions to both of the novels I have discussed, Joss and Myra seem destined to revert back to their biological gender. Joss’s may have been since his death but the revelation certainly has distorted some of the memories Joss created during his life. Myron just wanted to forget that he was ever gender confused, whereas Joss managed to live his whole life with no controversy, but has left his loved ones reeling in it.

I have already mentioned the possibility that Joss chose to live as a man because of the music industry he works in, but then there is the possibility that Joss chose the music industry because of the gender role he chose to live by. A way for his confusion to disappear, ‘When he gets down, and he doesn’t always get down deep enough, he loses his sex, his race, his memory. He strips himself bare, takes everything off, till he’s barely human.’ (Kay, 1998, p.131) This here suggests that he is just a person, and that his transgender form is not an issue.

‘Sexual identity is a complex concept that involves biological factors, gender roles, sociocultural influences, and sexual orientation in relation to sexual development.’ (Edwards & Brooks, 1999, p. 49) If this were the case for sexual identity, then surely the same would apply in relation to gender identity. So many people believe that a person should act out the role they were born into, and conform to societies expectations of that gender role. ‘We have been compelled in our bodies and in our minds to correspond, feature by feature, with the idea of nature that has been established for us.’ (Wittig, 1993, p. 103.) However, more and more people today are stepping out of the transgender closet and believing they truly are, or would be, happier if they were conforming to the role of the opposite sex they were born. But why does anyone have to conform to any role? Who made up how one gender role should act? Wilchins believes that people should be able to create their own identity and society should accept it. She also feels that one queer person should not be seen any differently in comparison to another queer individual. ‘These twin problems of identities – boundaries and hierarchies – emerge whenever we try to base politics on identity.’ (Wilchins, 2002, p. 29)

Josephine Moore was raised as a girl, but later on in life decided she would be happier residing as a man. Myron Breckinridge had hated men all his life, and believed he would be happier in a woman’s body. Biology would state that this transition is not natural and against the norms of gender anatomy. Society would state this transformation is an identity crisis and against the norms of society. The individual would state this change of gender should be their own personal choice and they are following their own path to happiness, after all, ‘We do not need to learn to be ourselves, we just are ourselves.’ (Genderpsychology, 2004.)