Conclusion-Final Thoughts
Conclusion-Final Thoughts
“Being transgender, like being gay, tall, short, white, black, male, or female, is another part of the human condition that makes each individual unique and something over which we have no control. We are who we are in the deepest recesses of our minds, hearts, and identities” (Thompson as cited in Sojatia, 2020).
Thank you for taking this journey with us. We hope that this blog has and will continue to serve as a vehicle for change. While we have stepped outside of our comfort zone, we recognize that this is just the first step, and there is still much more to do and learn in these areas. Encouraging others to use the acclaimed film Girl, scholarly readings, and additional research as a guide, we are confident that our collective knowledge will continue to grow and flourish as we proactively confront current issues surrounding gender identity, especially the challenges faced by individuals, such as Lara, who do not conform to their assigned sex and society's view of heteronormativity. It remains important to remember that "no group is homogenous because every individual is unique and [a] combination of many identities" (Appiah, 2006, p. 15).
Through our personal engagement in this blog development process, we have become more aware of how complex intersecting elements of embedded power and privilege can be. Our minds and hearts have been further opened to the immense struggle and oppression transgender youth potentially face through societal microaggressions, and are increasingly empowered to become more critically conscious educators and guard against subtle microaggression such as assuming that all members of a social identity group undergo the exact same experience (Pulice-Farrow et al., 2017).
Lastly, we recognize that our role and responsibility as social agents of change is to advocate for more inclusive systemic changes within our classrooms and our education system because, as Carter (TEDx Talks, 2014) pointed out, it is "inherently unequal” (9:03). Thus, we as educators must commit to helping our social location societies embrace progressive gender movements, as “schools play a key role in teaching and reinforcing the dominant values of the culture and this holds especially true in areas of gender and sexuality” (Meyer, 2010, Why Teach About Gender and Sexual Diversity section, para. 2).