Response to "Transgender Rhetorics..."

            In his article “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body”, Jonathan Alexander tries to inform readers  about transgender theories. He argues that transgender theories can “inspire pedagogical methods that compliment feminist compositionist” (195) methods  of understanding gender as a social construct,
            This article can be related to Smitherman’s article because they both seem to be discussing some sort of struggle within minority groups in relation to literacies. I think this also could be related to Wardle’s article, more specifically: identity. The identity in Alexander’s article would be transgendered individuals.
            I found this article very long and tedious. It was interesting, but not enough to completely hold my attention and ‘pedagogy’ or variations of that word were used often and confused me even after looking the word up. Overall I think the article was decent and I am very thankful for the subsections or else I would have been extremely lost.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

3.)

            “Normally” gendered students can gain insight into transgendered lives. This would promote better understanding and probably less conflict due to the understanding. I would say this would hold true for every minority discourse we have read in class.

4.)

            When Alexander describes gender as a “construct” I think he means that it is defined incorrectly for most. When he says that gender is personal and political I think he means that for people their gender is very close to them. An individual can completely feel one way (masculine or feminine) and look/act another due to “political” reasons. A man may not want to act very feminine at his place of work (I’m thinking construction worker) due to fear of being looked down upon because he does not match the ‘role’ of construction worker or just because his coworkers think badly of him for it.