So just what is the "hidden agenda" behind Hidden: A Gender? More than just a voice for a somewhat invisible population of transgendered individuals, Hidden: A Gender exposes just how everyone is dependent and trapped in the world of gender. The more vocal transgendered folk, sometimes called transgenderists, are merely the ones who feel compelled to speak about gender injustice and inequality. Most non-transgendered folk don't even realize how limited their lives are due to perceived expectations of gender roles and identity. We observe that there are physical differences between male and female, and we assume that there are corresponding personality, behavioral, emotional, and mental differences as well. Simply by making this assumption, we limit the full potential of the human being. Once we believe these assumptions and brainwash our children that they are natural, we cultivate a society of half-humans.
The real difficulty with such bi-polarity is that we can never quite agree on where the dividing line is. When does an activity stop being "female" and start being "male"? What is the essence of "maleness" and "femaleness"? Why is it so important that we divide and classify and categorize? And if we must do so, why must it always be bi-polarly? Male or female? Can everything be reduced to male or female? Hair color? Skin color? Height? Weight? IQ? Love? Hate? Compassion? Aggression? The way we walk? Our range of voice? Our intellectual pursuits? Even hormone levels which are affected by the "magic" XX/XY chromosomes have no clear distinction inextricably dividing males and females. All human beings produce testosterone and estrogen to varying degrees, and there is a large amount of overlap between the extremes. But, if we see a female with too much body hair, even if it is completely natural for her chemical makeup, we call it abnormal. This is exactly what the transgendered individual has to deal with. "I have this body that I was born with, and I have an identity; unfortunately, the rest of the world has also chosen an identity for me based upon the body which I had no choice in. Do I express my identity through the body I was born with, or do I express the identity everyone else expects me to show?" In the case of many transsexuals, the identity and the body are for the most part reversed based upon the unspoken arbitrary cultural relationships of gender/sex, so the choice becomes to stop trying to change the identity, and instead, change the body.
Transsexual, transgender, transvestite, drag queen, stone butch, gender identity, sexual identity, sexual preference, gender preference, cross dressing, transgenderism...all words loaded with connotations and misconceptions and confusion. So loaded with misconceptions, that some feel the need to condemn, to condemn without recourse, to condemn and ostracize such deviant behavior. What is so repulsive about confusing gender roles anyway? Fear. Fear that "being fooled" by a male in a dress will infringe upon my sexuality. Fear that if I stray from the "norms" of bi-polar gendered behavior, I will be ridiculed. Fear that I might have to change everything that I was taught as a child and that I still blindly believe to this day. We must know what our sex is and we must know what the sex of everyone else is or we simply cannot comfortably interact with them. "I need to know whether you are male or female so I know whether I can allow myself to be attracted to you." Can't we transcend this silly hangup so many of us seem to have with sex and sexual relations? I guess that is key to transcendence: living a life in such a way as to be free of the burdens imposed upon us by others.