*

 

Group members:

• Lea B.
• Naja P.
• Sabina A.
• Špela M.
• Tinkara R.

 

Distribution of roles

• Leader: Sabina
• Secretary: Naja
• Reporter: Lea
• Time-keeper: Tinkara
• Reserve person: Špela

 

 

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Title

 

Gender identity construction: A case of transsexuals

 

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Definition :

 

In our modern world there are people who do not reach “normal” standards of social gender. Transsexuals and transgendered people meet many barriers in their lives regarding their display of gender. They are called names, people are afraid of them just because they don’t fit into their conservative “normal” world. Some attempts have been made to except them by different groups. Let us make a step towards excepting them ourselves.

 

Research question:

 

How could we improve status of transsexuals? In what way people could learn to be more tolerant towards transsexuals?

 

Working questions:

 

1.  What is the difference between sex and gender? (Sabina)

2. How are masculinity and femininity defined? (Tinkara)

3. Who are transgendered people? (Tinkara)

4. What kind of attitude the society have towards transsexuals and how the society accept them? (Špela)

5. How the transsexuals control their stigma and stigmatization? Do they admit it or do they hide it?(Špela)

6. Who coined the word transgender and when it came into general use? (Lea)

7. How are transsexuals treated through the history from Ancient time to 20th century? (Lea)

8. What kind of trouble do transsexuals have in everyday interaction? (Case study of Agnes) (Naja)

9. Transsexuals in Slovenia? (Example of Salome) (Naja)

10. How can status of transsexuals be improved? (Sabina)

 

 

List of literature:

 

1. Abramc, Dominic, Michael A. Hogg in Jose M. Marques. 2005. The social Psychology of inclusion and exclusion. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.

2. Benjamin; Harry. 1966. The transsexual phenomenon. Australia: Warner Books. Accessed by: http://www.mut23.de/text/Harry%20Benjamin%20-%20The%20Transsexual%20Phenomenon.pdf (Accessed on 19.03. 2010)

3. Ekins, Richard in King, Dave. 2006. The transgender phenomenon. London: Sage Publications.

4. Garfinkel, Harold. 1987. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall (p.118-185).

5. Goffman, Erving. 2008. Stigma. Maribor: Aristej.

6. Jackson and Jones. 1998. Contemporary feminist Theories. New York: New York University press.

7. Kimmel S. Michael. 2004. The Gendered Society. New York: Oxford.

8. Leff, Julian in Richard Warner. 2006. Social inclusion of people with mental illness. United Kingdom: University press Cambridge.

9. McKenna, Wendy and Kessler, Suzanne. 2006. Transgendering: Blurring the boundaries of gender in Handbook of gender and women’s studies, Editor Davis, Kathy, 342-353. London: Sage Publications

10. Mihelič, Tomaž. 2009. Novo rojstvo: iskrena izpoved o trpljenju, ljubezni in preobrazbi transseksualke Salome Ćuća Žentil. Tržič: Učila International. 

11. West, Candince and Zimmermen, Don H. 2002. Doing gender In Gender: A sociological reader, Editors Jackson, Stevi and Scott, Sue, p. 42-47. London, New York: Rautledge

 

 

Glossary:

 

Gender-družbeni spol 

Femininity- ženskost, mehkužnost

Masculinity- moškost, možatost

Musculature-mišičevje

Facial expression- izraz obraza

Tomboy-  "fantovsko" dekle

Sissified- pomehkužen, "babji" fant

To come out of the closet- javno razkriti

Negative hint- negativni pridih

Tension- živčna napetost

To cope with- biti kos nečemu

To deceive- slepiti se

Lament- objokovati

To display- prikazovati se

Essential- bistveno, osnovno

 

 

 

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Minutes

 

 

Minutes of the 1st meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

 

The e-meeting was held via e-mail from Wednesday (10th March) to Saturday (13th March) 

 

 

Present: Sabina, Naja, Lea, Špela, Tinkara

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Selecting topic and the title
2. Defining the problem
3. Any other business

 

 

Item 1:

 

Discussion: We were told that we should select the topic which is somehow connected with identities. So Špela suggested that we could write about a profession identity. Then Tinkara said that she thinks sexual identity could be more interesting. Naja agreed with this and also said that we could use the literature that we already read in the first year of our study at Sociology of gender and emotions. Lea also agreed with this and proposed that within this topic, we could include an example of a transsexual person which can be found in literature and in the case of Slovenian, Salome. Sabina also did not contradict us and she told that she would centralize within sexual identity to the social construction of gender.  

Decision: Everyone agreed with this, so we accepted the topic about sexual identity.  Then we choose the title for our page on wiki. All together we decided for the following title: Gender identity construction: A case of transsexuals.

 

 

Item 2:

 

Discussion: About the definition of our problem Naja told us that we could focus mainly on the fact that the sexual identity is socially constructed and this is very difficult to change. Tinkara also said that sexual identity could be imposed on us and there could be a big difference between sex and gender.

Decision: Every other member of the group agreed with this suggestion, so we decided that this will be our main problem.

 

 

Item 3:

 

Decision: We decided that we will have the next meeting on Monday the 15th of March at 12:00 in the school library. We all agreed to study our topic at home more thoroughly and discuss it in detail on the next meeting. There we will look for literature and also decided what exactly each member of our group will read and prepare till the next week.

 

 

The minutes taker: Tinkara

Chair: Sabina

 

 

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Minutes of the 2nd meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

 

The meeting was held on 15^th March at FDV in school library at 12:00 to 12:30 o`clock and via email from Thursday (18^th March) to Saturday (20^th March)

 

Present: Sabina, Naja, Lea, Špela, Tinkara

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Distributing the chapters of our project
2. Research questions
3. List of literature
4. Any other business

 

 

Item 1:

 

Discussion: We discussed about the chapters of our seminar and about that anyone of us will write.

Decision: We all agreed that Tinkara, Špela, Lea and Naja will read literature about their own theme. Collectively we decided that Sabina will check what everyone of us will write. This role belongs to her because she is our leader. She will also write the introduction and the conclusion of our research report. So all members decided that our project will be composed of five chapters. Those chapters are: 1. Introduction, 2. Gender, 3. Acceptance of the transsexuals, 3.1. History of transsexual theory, 4. Real cases of transsexuals, 5.The conclusion.

 

Item 2:

 

Discussion: We were talking about our working questions.

Decision: In school library Buzzy Bees  agreed that we should read something, before we precisely arrange about our working questions. Till Saturday morning (20^th March) every member will read at least a part of literature for our selected chapters we distributed among us.

Via e-mail we will put together all our ten working questions. Tinkara, Špela, Lea and Naja will each have two questions that are related to their own topic. And Sabina has two questions that are more general, on which she will answer in introduction and in conclusion of our report.

 

Item 3:

 

Discussion: We talked about a list of literature of our project.

Decision: Our group will write about transsexuals and also about real examples and that is why we all agreed that it is good to include a book written by a transsexual person in Slovenia, named Salome. For two articles we already decided previous week. We will also include a book by Erving Goffman. In this book he wrote about different types of stigmatization. Each member will also look for another suitable book for our project till Saturday (20^th March). If it will be necessary we will complete our list of literature later on the wiki.

 

Item 4:

 

Decision: We decided that all our group will still collaborate via e-mail next few days and if it is going to be necessary we will meet again at FDV library. We have to do our tasks as soon as possible and then send them to Sabina that she could check and correct them and also write the introduction and the conclusion.

 

 

The minutes taker: Tinkara

Chair: Sabina

 

 

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Minutes of the 3rd meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

 

The e-meeting was held via e-mail from Wednesday (24th March) to Friday (26th March)

 

 

Present: Sabina, Naja, Lea, Špela, Tinkara

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

 

1. Rewriting definition

2. Task distribution

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

 

Discussion and Decision: The definition has to be corrected, since we have to focus on the problem. So Sabina rewrote the definition. 

 

Item 2:

 

Discussion and Decision: Our roles were distributed on the second meeting, and Buzzy Bees agreed that every member will answer two questions. Sabina also suggested that every member has to write their part of the assignment till 3^rd April, so she could write her part and correct mistakes other members of the group made, since she is the best in grammar.

 

Item 3:

 

Discussion: Discussions were made regarding the fourth meeting and also about other tasks regarding to this project. We will be also talking about the structure of the report and its content.

Decision: The group’s decision was that our next meeting will be held at FDV library on 29^th of March, where we will discuss our methodology and doing an interview with dr. Tanja Rener, a professor on FDV for Sociology of everyday life.

 

 

The minutes taker: Lea

Chair: Sabina

 

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Sources:

* Peter Hiland (online) Buzzy Bees

http://peterhiland.com/images/buzzybee_left_logo.gif

(accessed on 3rd March, 2010)

 

** António Martins (online) Qq-tsf

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/q/qq-tsf.gif

(accessed on 13th March, 2010)