Week 6

Coping With Disfigurement:

I thought it was interesting to read about the effects of having a disfigurement. Especially when the article talked about how people can associate myths of evil with disfigurements. This I can kind of relate to because I had instances where family would joke around saying that it's bad luck for someone to be born with a birthmark. My cousin who had the birthmark came with us somewhere, and when we arrived, they were closed. So everyone pretty much blamed it on her. I mean, I thought it was just a cultural myth type of thing but I guess there are other groups of people that view disfigurements as a negative thing. I thought it was sad seeing that people with disfigurements are more likely to be depressed or to have negative psychological effects from it. I understand how they would be more likely, it's just very unfortunate. I definitely disagree with that myth that you have to be physically attractive in order to be successful. Personally, I've dealt with self confidence issues, however, for people to think that you have to look good in order to have a good life- that's really dumb in my opinion. It shouldn't be determined by the way you look, success is found through actions and confidence.

Adolescents Perspective with TCS:

I never heard of TCS before reading this article so it was a little difficult for me to understand what these teens were diagnosed with. However, I learned from this article that it could affect physical appearance and things like breathing. It's nice to know that these teens believe that although they may look a little different, they don't deserve to be treated any different from someone that didn't have TCS. The article had many topics that were touched including how teens dealt with social acceptance, self acceptance, and just how they managed the negativity. The reading said that they say that they are able to make regular close friendships and relationships with people just the same as anyone else their age. It was also kind of sad to hear that they aren't able to do certain things because of it- this could lead to feeling left out or deprived of the teenage life, like pool parties or something. Some teens say they stand out and they're not ashamed of it- they're proud of themselves for being different. Teens in this reading also say that over time, although it's difficult to accept that they are different, they are managing. I feel like all teens go through acceptance issues anyway, so having TCS shouldn't prevent a growing young adult to feel any different. We are all different anyway.

Androgen Sensitivity Syndrome:

This article was a bit of a touchy subject for me. I never really understood that there was a syndrome where an individual could be categorized as either gender. I feel like it is up to the person to decide who they want to be entirely. I also just googled that there are actually models that are diagnosed with AIS, which I thought was interesting. It was a little weird for me to see the actually genitalia of a person who was diagnosed with it, but it did help me understand what it meant to have the syndrome. The article mentioned the issue of being categorized as a specific gender. Peggy Cadet who is the author of this article is the cousin of the patient mentioned in previous articles. The author talked about how he originally was told when he was younger that it was confirmed medically that he was to be identified as a male. It wasn't until later on that he realized he had AIS and that it would be ideal for him to continue life living as a female. He believed that people be who they want to be, to forget about the "ideal" and just to live life with the gender you target to be. I liked how he mentioned that if people didn't become the gender they wanted, there wouldn't be transgendered individuals. The author also mentioned that the way children act can influence the way they see themselves and what gender they want to be percieved as. I agree because you can somewhat tell how they want to be seen by the way their personality is, whether it's more feminine or masculine.

Revealing of the diagnosis:

This article talks about the issue of telling a woman that she actually has the genotypes of a male. I think that revealing that the patient had this genotype at such a late time in her life would complicate things. I feel that it's best to tell that individual that they are diagnosed with this syndrome around teen years. This is the time that their body is changing and they begin to deal with image issues anyway. I feel like it would make more sense to do it then so they'd have time to figure out themselves, who they want to be and what they want to do about their situation early on as opposed to later in adulthood.It might make matters worse later in adulthood especially when they get involved with person relationships. Like what if a girl who was supposed to be a male was with a man she did love and later in life she learns that she was supposed to be a male as well, will her partner love her the same way? I would hope to think so, but that might not be the case.