User:Juliapickar/article evaluation

Article Evaluation "Gender Identity" link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity

All of the content in which the author has provided gives compelling evidence and logical information describing the concept of gender identity. From the concepts history, how this seems to have originated from, the sociolgical and biological factors which shape this concept, and different forms of gender identity is highlighted within the subtitles of this article. A fact which stood out to me as almost repulsive was the idea in the late 50s and 60s that the concept of being homosexual is considered equivalent to a form of mental illness. I feel as if gender and sexual orientation should not be defined by others rather it should be decided and controlled by oneself. From reading this article, I can determine the author created this article to bring the concept of gender identity to the surface. They seem to support and defend the reasoning as to why a person may have difficulties coping with gender identity. Also they bring in historical, psychological, and sociological evidence to provide understanding of how gender identity is a constructed concept. To determine whether the article was biased or neutral, I feel as if it would fall under the neutral category. This would be due to the lacking of opinion based information which could take a certain side to the subject, this article provided academic information. From this article I feel as if there is an underrepresentation of appreciation for other types of gender identity. Yes, they are mentioned in the article but there is no clear explanation of how each is structured. There is only links you can click on to go to another page but I feel as if they should have been more included within the article since the topic was about gender identity. When observing the citations throughout the article, they were all highlighted and easily accessible. Clicking on each brought me to the page which the author obtained their information from. There were a variety of links which defined some terms related to the concept of gender identity, also some who were influential to the concept/movement, and many links which provided logical evidence for all the sub fields within the article. Also within the citation area of the article there was information provided for the books, papers, websites and scholarly articles which were also used to provide support. From glancing over the citation section and scrolling through the article, it seems as if the author has correctly cited and provided a sense of reliable information. As it seems nearly as impossible for me to look at each source individually and conclude whether they are credible or not, I will provide a sample of one which I have researched to find if it was credible or not. Within the sub category of "Parental Establishment of Gender Roles", the quote used within the paragraph was stated by Joan Z Spade from her publication "The Kaleidoscope of Gender". I conducted some research on this author to find if they were credible or not and I stumbled upon her having her PHD and is a professor of sociology at The College of Brockport. From this information it makes it clear that she is reliable and the information she provides is useful to academic research. In the citations section, I began to observe the dates of the references and a majority of them seem to be from the 1990's. But there is an amount which are closer to this year. I can understand that some information regarding sex and gender can be located in older books, but if it would be more beneficial to have more updated information since technologies and ideologies have shifted. Information which could be added to this is maybe getting a personal account of someone who has experienced problems with gender identity, gender dysphoria or non-binary gender. Also adding information that is more relevant to whats happening in the world today regarding this topic, even though it was just recently updated days ago. Looking at the talk page I noticed many people commenting on the deletion of information from the article. This is due to non-cited information and information that does not relate to the subject. There was another person who needed clarification on a question they had regarding transgendered individuals within this subject. Also there were suggestions that there is a bias to the article, focusing on how biology is not related to the social construct of gender. People had conversations debating on whether or not that statement is true; majority of them said "we are biological beings" so it must be related in a way. While searching the article, I could not find if this article had a rating or if it related to WikiProjects. Well in this case, this article provided more factual information regarding the definitions and the history of gender identity. As included it also discussed the different forms of gender identities, which are not commonly seen. In class we normally discuss from an opinionated level, from either personal experiences or social experiences. As of now we have not discussed this sort of topic, we have only discussed gender related roles and labels within the society.