Transwoman: Stage One

Researching the topic, "Trans Woman (Transwoman), history" I discovered the amazing courage of trans women who fought against societal prejudice at a tune when the culture was unable to hypothesize or picture anything beyond the physical embodiment of binary sexuality. As the artist producing this artwork my attitude and understanding of trans women is important in the conceptualization of the mixed media distressed painting. It is my belief that we are closest to God at birth and death, before our cultural identity is formed and at the moment we leave our culture and return to God. The modern medical/psychological term used to describe the condition of mental anguish Trans women and men experience is "gender dysphoria."* I see gender dysphoria as a cultural phenomenon, not an individual personality issue. In other words it is the culture that puts the onus on the condition, and trans women  as individuals absorb the disconnect. Trans women are simply born in the wrong body and they have no choice other than to fix the culturally induced gender dysphoria. Fortunately, modern medicine is able to help though the process is terribly expensive and so prohibits many from achieving the goal of being content in their own body.

In the first layer of “Transwoman” I chose two women. First, Lucy Hicks Anderson (Tobias Lawson), a black Transwoman living at a time (1886-1954) when she was doubly cursed by her culture as, one, a black, two, trans woman. She was jailed two times because she insisted on living as a woman. Second, Renee’ Richards, who fought the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in order to participate on the national stage as a female player after her transition, male to female.

This layer will be buried beneath many more as part of the process of building history into the painting. It may become completely hidden or not as the process is accidental and I (the artist) have only partial control. That is why I am documenting the creation of these artworks. I am hoping that the book about the “LGBTQ Pictionary” will be published in order to clarify and elevate knowledge about the strength of these many LGBTQ people and their effort to achieve equality against so Brobdingnagian a cultural blockade.

Notes

*Gender dysphoria involves a conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify. People with gender dysphoria may be very uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned, sometimes described as being uncomfortable with their body (particularly developments during puberty) or being uncomfortable with the expected roles of their assigned gender.

People with gender dysphoria may often experience significant distress and/or problems functioning associated with this conflict between the way they feel and think of themselves (referred to as experienced or expressed gender) and their physical or assigned gender.*

"What is Gender Dysphoria," The American Psychological Association, https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria. Ranna Parekh, M.D., M.P.H.February 2016, viewed11:17 AM EST Friday, November 17, 2017.