Further Exploration Study - Essay Example

The story of Michelle Dumaresq in Karen Duthie’s 100 Percent Woman puts forward a counterattack to the ‘concept of level’ between a man and a woman. Not only is the documentary a portrayal of prejudice against the ‘third sex’ but also against women; the worse idea presented, being the fact that women themselves stoke the incessant issue on women empowerment. 100 Percent Woman Canadian mountain bike racer, Michelle Dumaresq is a post-operative transgender who only started racing with women six years after undergoing sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in 1996 when the International Cycling Union and the Canadian Cycling Association granted her request to race as a female.

Her first professional race placed her third on the first week and first, on the second week, winning her a trip for the European Championships where she only finished 24th of 39 women (Byers). Growing up, Dumaresq has always been into riding and racing. However, instead of her hard work as a biker, it was her transition from being male at birth to a female who competes against women in sports that contributed greatly to her ‘popularity’ locally and internationally. . Dumaresq had been undergoing hormonal therapy to increase her estrogen levels and decrease testosterone levels.

According to a study conducted by De Cuypere et al., “transgendered MTF who have been treated with estrogen continuously had total testosterone levels within the normal female range” (679). Besides having a heart of a woman, scientifically speaking, Dumaresq is a woman through technological means; but a woman nonetheless. On the other hand, it is only reasonable for Dumaresq’s competitors to protest since growing up and living in a preconditioned society makes it hard to be non-conformist and different; and that these factors are not easy to ignore.

However, the bottom line is that people need to be liberated of transgender cases. Another point that can be drawn from this is that there are no technical measures to delineate the standard differences between a man and a woman. All these are social constructions of concepts. In so saying, there are no irrefutable truths to such end. While there are indeed some biological differences (York), there are women who run faster or more muscular than some men and/or women who cannot conceive an offspring (Boylan).

Should there be standard measures, then this unfair competitive edge that Dumaresq should be possessing could have been translated into constant wins in different competitions. Dumaresq was 18 years old when she decided to undergo surgery but only five years old when she concluded she is not one of the boys (Byers). Homosexuality is how people define this “disorder.” Some scientists (most of them are homosexuals themselves) argue that it is genetic. However, there is surmounting