Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Morgan Litrenta
COMM 3328
Institutions are very influential. They are frequently used to both instigate violence and
discrimination against transgendered people. Institutions help create, manage, and reinforce
which state that, “[the institution] must be social, persist across time and space, have distinct
social practices that are repeated, constrain and facilitate behavior, designate social positions
people’s identities, have legitimate ideology, are contradictory, continually change, are organized
and permeated by power, and are not separable into micro and macro phenomena (p. 131-132).
These are just general characteristics that all institutions have. DeFrancisco (2014) emphasizes
that institutions are much bigger than just organizations, an important part in society, depend on
one another, make a universal truth, and to believe in contradictory norms and values (p. 132).
The major social institutions are family, work, media, religion, and education. In this paper,
institutional discrimination and violence, a specific instance of the violence and discrimination
from Saffin (2011), and how institutional discrimination and violence is communicated in
Beginning with defining exactly what institutional violence and discriminations is,
institutional violence takes it a little further and becomes a physical act. DeFrancisco (2014)
that interact with structure, and influence individual beliefs and prejudices” (p. 133) and are “the
most powerful engines that drive and sustain racism, sexism, and hetero-ism are embedded in a
society’s institutions” (p. 133). It is important to remember that prejudice and institutionalized
discrimination and violence are interconnected, but very different; prejudices are simply a cause
violence occurs when overt and subtle forms of violence become normalized as a result of
Next, a closer look upon Saffin’s (2011) article, Identities Under Siege in which she talks
specifically about intersectionality surrounding trans individual of color. Trans individuals not
only have their identity of being trans, many of them identify with other disadvantages in life,
such as low-income individuals, people of color, and many more identities that play into
privilege and power. A specific instance in which trans individuals are more discriminated
against are when a transgendered persons meet at the intersectionality of education. Saffin (2011)
writes about many numerous instances in which trans individuals are discriminated or have had
extreme violence committed against them. Taking a more focused look on transgendered people
who are discriminated against, because of their education. Saffin (2011) writes a whole category
of writing named “Economic Inequality;” in this section, Saffin (2011) talks all about the way
education and work mixes with being transgendered. According to Saffin (2011):
Similarly, harassment and violence against transpersons is rampant in schools, and many
drop out or are kicked out before finishing. This leads to less opportunity in a job market
that already severely discriminates against transpersons.45 Many transgender persons are
fearful of applying to jobs because paperwork or other documents might reveal their old
name or birth sex. They also might be fired for transitioning on the job or when a
This quote is one of the most significant ones, and each part conveys an important message.
Transgendered persons are not only choosing to quit their education; they are being forced to
leave by the school. Intersectionality argues that everything is interconnected and related in
terms of power. Therefore, due to the lack of education, transgendered persons are left to no
VIOLENCE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST TRANS 4
other choice, but to result to sex work. This is just one of the few instances in which Saffin
(2011) writes about all of the ways transgendered people are discriminated against.
A major institution that is used to discriminate and perpetuate violence against trans-
verbally, physically, or sexually harassed” (p. 136). This shows how transgendered people are
harassed in a school setting; a place of education should be a safe place for anyone, no matter
what reason. There is also a high dropout rate, most likely resulting from the statistics stated
before. In fact, James (2016) reports that, “Of those who experienced some form of harassment,
transgender women (21%) were more likely to have left college or vocational school for this
reason than transgender men (16%) and non-binary people (12%)” (p. 136). This is an example
of intersectionality, because trans women are more likely to drop-out than trans men. Overall,
there are many instances in which education as an institution discriminates against transgendered
individuals.
against trans people is a problem in society, Saffin’s (2011) writing Identities Under Seige:
Violence Against Transpersons of Color is examined, and statistics for discrimination against
REFERENCES
critical introduction (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
James, S. E., Herman, J. L., Rankin S., Keisling, M., Mottet, L., & Anafi, M. (2016). The Report
of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender
Equality.
Saffin, L. A. (2011). Identities under siege: Violence against transpersons of color. In Stanley, E.
A., Smith N. (Eds.), Captive genders: trans embodiment and the prison industrial