Cheng 1

Sophomore Reading and Composition

Definition Essay

Professor Michael Cheng

Helen Han Cheng

2009/11/17

Prejudice

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the definition of prejudice is “an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.” For me, prejudice is simply unconfirmed preconception and judgment of things or people different from what we are familiar with. As globalization prompts the interaction of different countries as well as cultures and democracy pervades nearly all the world, people tend to express themselves and their belief publicly; thus, various subcultures have sprung up. At the same time, a great number of social problems skyrocket as a result of prejudice, which can no longer be tolerated in this rapidly changing world. For instance, a representative example of this phenomenon, gender issues, has become a controversial topic nowadays. To elaborate, three major dimensions of prejudice between genders in modern society are denial of the diversity of genders, unequal treatment between Cheng 2 genders, and non-hetero-normative discrimination.

In modern society influenced greatly by Western culture, the fact that there is a diversity of genders more than the original genders, female and male, is hard for some people to accept. Unlike man and woman, third gender, a contemporary term which doesn’t even exist in the Encyclopedia Britannica generally referring to people neither male nor female, is inconsistent in biological sex, gender role, gender identity, and sexual orientation.() For instance, a person born biologically a male may identify himself with female but still desire a female partner. In addition, some third gender people regard themselves as neither man nor women but a neutral gender which cannot be applied to the existing gender categories. According to Ingrid M. Sell in his essay” Third Gender: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Individuals Who

Identify as Being Neither Man nor Woman,” the concept of third gender is widely discovered in a great number of non-Western cultures. For example, women in many

African tribes are possible to transform their gender roles into males by the institution of” female husbands,” a kinship arrangement built on economic basis. In addition, there are numerous terms referring to third gender as evidence to the existence of third gender and 93 percent of third gender people are believed to have power related to supernatural forces(Sell, 2004 ); for instance, as Sell stated, the hijra (Nanda, 1986,

1993) in northern India and in southern India, the jogappas (Bradford 1983) are Cheng 3 sacred “female men”; acault in Myanmar stands for men who indicates cross-sex tendency when little; in the South Pacific, variations on a third-gendered “half man and half woman” include the mahu of French Polynesia (Elliston 1999), Tahiti and

Hawaii as well as the Samoan fa’afafine, Tongan fakaleiti and fakafafine and

Tuvaluuan pinapinaaine (Besnier); and in Native North America, alternative gendered

“berdache” roles.(Sell) While in the Western society, because of third gender’s being so transgressive to the gender norm westerners are accustomed to, opposition against their existence springs up ; for example, some drastic Christians regard third gender as a sin challenging God’s will. For instance, Minister Leroy harshly condemns third gender people in his website Third Gender 666, saying that admitting oneself as third gender is an act of cursing God and depriving oneself of human qualities because the concept of third gender is a blasphemy to God’s creation.( Minister Leroy) According to The Old Testament Genesis, God merely creates two humans: Adam and Eve, who are the ancestors of all men and women. Thus, in Christian conception, there is no third gender besides male and female. However, the subject Christians are chiding is the conception and the behaviors of third gender such as, homosexual intercourse, homosexual marriage, and transgender surgery, instead of the individuals, for they believe that God creates all men equal. (Faith Facts)Therefore, as a matter of fact, the preconception of third gender’s being against gender norm that we take for granted is Cheng 4 a result of the prevalent Western value, for that the conception of third gender has long been existed and accepted in many non-Western cultures. To sum up, the power of prejudice is so strong that it can alter people’s perception toward without conscious awareness.

Unequal treatment between genders stemming from the prejudice of different genders has long been a controversial issue in history (Human Rights Campaign).

However, as feminists’ success in promoting women’s rights pervades numerous countries (Kell), now the subject has turned mainly to another marginalized group, homosexual people. For example, according to Lawrence J. Korb, Sean Duggan,

Laura Conley in their article ”Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the United States had implemented a policy called” Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” since more than 16 years which banned gay people who showed their sexual orientation openly from serving in the military. The prohibition is unreasonable and not based on any realistic proof of gay men’s being unqualified to serve as a soldier. As Dr. Nathaniel Frank, an authority on the military’s current policy on gay troops, stated, “The ban on openly gay service was not based on sound research because no research has ever shown that openly gay service hurts the military.” However, since the policy was implemented, there had been more than 13,000 patriotic and well-trained men and women being imperatively discharged from the U.S. military. Besides the homosexual people, there were Cheng 5 approximate 4000 people voluntarily leaving the U.S. military per year because of the policy. (Korb, Duggan, Conley) Moreover, according to Government Accountability

Office, the DADT policy stemming from a merely prejudice against homosexual people had cost U.S. taxpayers roughly $363.8 million to discharge and replace the homosexual members.(Korb) Fortunately, the unfair policy was lifted recently by US president Barack Obama. In addition to criticizing the concept of third gender, people who disagree with the third gender even go one step further to deprive third gender people of their rights as a human even though the third gender people do not interfere with their life. The inhumane mistreatment issues of third gender expose the ugly face of humanity and also show the ignorance of people under the influence of prejudice.

In general, non-hetero-normative discrimination can be seen as a kind of prejudice between genders but involving certain amount of hatred. The term consists of non, a prefix expressing, according to Compact Oxford English Dictionary,

“negation or absence;” hetero, a prefix meaning” other or different;” and normative, an adjective meaning “relating to a standard or norm” (Oxford University Press)

Therefore, putting three morphemes together, the term non-hetero-normative means people excluding from the gender norm of heterosexuality based on, according to the glossary in glbtq, “an assumption that heterosexuality and heterosexual norms are Cheng 6 universal or at least the only acceptable conditions” (glbtq) Let me take homophobia as an example to illustrate how non-hetero-normative discrimination works.

According to the website of the Anti-Defamation League, homophobia is a biased perception targeting at homosexuals stemming from the preconception that homosexuality immoral. This false belief leads people to despite homosexuals and also makes some homophobic believers consider themselves superior to homosexuals.

However, these biased notions were not merely individual preconceptions but the opinion of whole society in the past. Up till the late twentieth century, homosexuality as a mental disorder was still embraced by many psychiatrists. Although homosexuality has already been disproven as a mental disorder for a long while, homophobia is still enrooted in people’s head. In recent years the violent crime rate is decreasing in some area but anti-gay crime is increasing, which indicates people still cannot get rid of homophobia. (Anti-Defamation League) As a result, the example above also shows that the once the discrimination is formed, it cannot easily be corrected.

The best way to solve the prejudice problem is to have deeper understanding of something different instead of judge it. Just like everybody, I am not a saint who loves every man equally; instead, I do have personal parti pris, too. However, I always tell myself to stay open-minded to different cultures in the way I would like them to view Cheng 7 me. In my opinion, we all should put ourselves into other people’s shoes in order to truly understand the reason behind their behaviors and notions. Here’s a personal experience of mine. Recently, I heard shocking news of one of my male classmates in high school that he began to dress like a girl at school. At first, he claimed that he was doing so in order to break the prejudice of gender stereotype. Rest of my classmates including me could not comprehend nor accept his queer behavior at that time.

However, latter, another classmate of mine discovered his article in a transgender forum saying that he has been identified himself as female since he was little. It was until then that we started to understand his struggle and suffering for being an third gender person and admire his courage to live out his true self. The incidence has a profound and impressive influence on my perception toward this world. I hope that one day everyone can lead the life they wish freely without minding the prejudiced opinion of others.

Works Cited Cheng 8

“prejudice.” Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. Sell, Ingrid M.. “Third Gender:A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Individuals Who Identify as Being Neither Man nor Woman.” The Psychotherapy Patient Vol.13, No. 1/2, 2004:131-145 EBSCOhost Web. 17 Nov. 2009. ThirdGender666.com. ThirdGender666.com, n.d. Web. 3. Nov. 2009. “Gay Rights: Facts about Homosexuality.” Faith Facts. Faith Facts, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. Human Rights Campaign. The Human Rights Campaign, Web 22 Nov. 2009. Kell, Kaitlin. “A Global Look at Women’s Rights.” The Brooklyn Rail. n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. Korb, Lawrence J.., Duggan, Sean., Conley, Laura. “Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress., 24. Jun. 2009. Web. 17. Nov. 2009. Korb, Lawrence J.. “The Costs of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress., 2. Mar. 2009. Web. 17. Nov. 2009. “non-.” Compact Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. “hetero-.” Compact Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. “normative.” Compact Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. “heteronormative.” glbtq :an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture. glbtq, Inc., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. “Homophobia.” Anti-Defamation League, n.d. Web. 3. Nov. 2009. Cheng 9

Helen,

You could add some personal experiences to this paper. In your conclusion you suggest people should put themselves into the shoes of others. Could you share an experience when you tried to do so?

After re-reading your paper, I feel that you never really focus on illuminating the idea of prejudice. Instead, the paper focuses more on gender. You use two key terms that are unfamiliar to me: third gender and hetero-normative discrimination. Why not choose one of these terms and focus your paper on defining it since they are key ideas in your paper, which are not explained clearly, leaving a gap in your paper. You could spend a lot of time filling that gap, and then go on to write about prejudice, or you could just focus on third gender or hetero-normative discrimination as the main point of your paper.