Introduction
On a first date or meeting with someone the general first question asked is, “Where are you from? Or “What do you do?”. These questions are often asked so an individual can try and form their own perception of you. Often when you don’t fit in a certain stereotype where one has placed you, they can react towards you with anger or confusion.
Transgender people face this dilemma everywhere they go. Being conscious of the way they appear towards the public, and hoping that the public will perceive them for the gender they want to be without repercussions. A modern example of this was in an episode of Nip/Tuck. Matt Mcnamara went to a bar exploring the option of whether he was a transsexual. He meets a girl named Cherry and they start to become intimate. Once Matt realizes that Cherry is a pre-op transsexual he becomes filled with anger, and violently assaults Cherry. Although this is just an example from a TV show, it illustrates the emotions one can have when they find out that an individual is transgendered.
Those who lie outside the gender binary can face a lot of discrimination from the general public because they don’t fit in one of the two categories: male or female. Transgendered people face a lot of challenges individually with trying to fit in with the gender binary. However, they also face challenges with the public's reaction of who they are and these reactions can turn into violence.