Gender stereotype and self among transgenders: Underlying elements

Abstract

In an article published earlier in The International Journal of Transgenderism (Winter and Udomsak, 2002) showed that while Thai MtF transgenders displayed actual self-concepts that were strongly female-stereotyped (that is, consistent with their own beliefs about femaleness) their ideal self concepts, and aspirations for change were distinctly less female-stereotyped. This finding raised the following question: what underlying considerations, if not the simple pursuit of stereotyped femaleness, governed their ideal self and aspirations for personal growth? To answer this question, the Adjective Checklist (ACL) data from the original study (Winter and Udomsak, 2002) were further analysed in a three-step procedure. Firstly, an attempt was made to identify the underlying essence of the traits we employed in the ACL. Using findings from earlier ACL research by Williams and co-workers (Williams and Best, 1990; Williams et al., 1998, 1999), we ascribed to each ACL trait-item a set of 14 scores, each of which reflected the degree to which that trait reflected an important psychological feature. These features represented (a) affective meaning (three scores: favourability, strength and activity), (b) ego-state (five scores: critical parent, nurturing parent, adult, free child and adapted child), (c) higher-order personality factors (five scores: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness), and (d) psychological importance (one score: indicating the degree to which the trait is a 'core' element of personality). Secondly, in order to reduce the data somewhat, these scores were factor analysed. The 14 scores were loaded onto four factors. On the basis of the loadings, these factors were labelled: 'resourceful / dependable' (factor I), 'intrusive / controlling' (factor II), 'risk-taking / stimulation-seeking' (factor III), and 'caring / harmonious' (factor IV). Thirdly, multiple regression analyses were employed to identify which if any of these factors appeared to underlie participants' (i) gender-trait stereotypes, (ii) actual-self, (iii) ideal-self, (iv) aspirations to acquire traits (traits desired but not possessed) and (v) aspirations to lose traits (traits possessed but not desired). The analysis revealed that gender-trait stereotypes were predicted by factors I, II and III (all underlying male-stereotyped traits) as well as by IV (underlying those that were female-stereotyped). Factors I, II and III could therefore be considered 'male' factors, while factor IV was 'female'. As one might expect, factor IV (the 'female' factor) predicted those traits endorsed for actual self, while factor II (a 'male' factor) acted in a counter-predictive way. Our main interest focused on finding factors that might shed light on our earlier findings on ideal self and aspirations for change. We found that ideal self was predicted by a gender-inconsistent mix of factor IV (the 'female' factor) and factor I (a 'male' factor). Factor I was also important in predicting those traits which participants aspired to acquire, and in counter-predicting those (unwanted) traits, which they aspired to lose. Beyond this, factor IV (the 'female' factor?) somewhat paradoxically predicted aspirations to lose traits. In short, participants' ideals for self seemed to embody qualities of care and harmony ('female' qualities), but also resourcefulness and dependability ('male' qualities). Indeed, participants wished not only to retain whatever 'male' qualities of resourcefulness and dependability they had, but also to acquire more of these qualities. Furthermore, while they valued many 'female' qualities like care and harmony, they also aspired to lose some of these qualities. These findings, which are, at face value, gender-anomalous, attest to personal growth goals that transcend (or indeed run counter to) gender stereotype; instead they conform to notions of maturity and personal efficacy.