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Originally Posted by Mythos
Interesting, thank you Mogwai. If you can, will you explain your first few answers a bit more so I can get a better understanding of how your take on gender based identity is developed? Also... it is interesting to me that you're equating sexuality to gender.
Una: I'm not sure if the removal of her breast tissue is an alteration of her gender, though, but rather a traumatic alteration in her body. Certainly women who go through breast cancer treatment which requires the removal of such tissue go through similar anguish, but is that altering their gender identities? If I would believe it would seem to drive these individuals to confirm themselves as being a part of that group. Take a transgendered individual... a male sexed person who associates their personal identity as being of the female gender is in similar anguish but (once out of the closet) identifies as female.
I suppose my focus was more on personal gender identity rather than the social gender identity and how one views that they should appear to society in order to confirm their gender role, but it is equally interesting a topic.
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Loosing a breast, is not the same as loosing a leg. Breasts are feminine, women get them surgically enlarged, or wear padded bras, chicken fillets, socks, tissue to make them look bigger. Wearing low cut tops, and clothes to create a feminine silhouette that emphasizes the boobies is a gendered thing and considered socially attractive. Women who have breast surgery often have negative psychological side effects because they feel that there operation has altered their feminine form. There is a tremendous amount of research on women who have had breast surgery and the psychological impact it has had on their feminine identity, for example
X.
Gender is a social construct, so your transsexual will claim that he feels like a woman because he identifies with characteristics, behavior, and appearances which is classified by society as feminine. Sometimes engaging in this behavior is not enough and they will have plastic surgery to alter their bodies to resemble a woman's body to complete the feeling of femininity.
Personal gender identity and social gender identity, is just a tautology. Gender identity is an arena where society and the individual meet. Your personal conceptualization of identity is shaped by the social construction of your gender by society. How you choose to conform or deviate will effect you as an individual and a social being.