Yes, yes, and just fucking YES.
I can't believe I haven't read this before (or I'd forgotten it). That's going into the side bar. That's compulsory reading for anyone who wants to write something about me from now on.
Speaking of sidebars - check out the awesome Questioning Transphobia. It's an amazingly frequently updated blog of goodness.
Friday, November 16, 2007
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17 comments:
Thank you for the link to that article. I'd forgotten it even existed.
isn't it fantastic? the book reveiw i'm currently working oncould pretty much take that article as structure and provide examples of 'what not to do' on almost every point.
i want to make a snarky comment about how if you type "writing about transsexuals" into google you get bombarded with links to it, so there's no excuse . . . but then again, i had forgotten about it, too.
that's great!
and i love Naomi Scheman's Queering the Center by Centering the Queer.
Okay, so burn down the comments here and then pretend that you never forgot!
Which book are you reviewing? I can think of more than a few that are perfect examples of what not to do. Also, you can still make that snarky comment because the author was writing about transsexuals. :)
Lisa just now introduced me to that article. I thanked her, and she reminded me that I need to thank you. So thank you.
I know there are tons of people in this world who really don't get it and really don't want to, but some of us non-trans people genuinely do want to do the right thing, so I'm glad there's a resource out there to help us.
that's a good one (and well cited around the place so bonus points for the thesis).
Jacob Hale's "Leatherbois and their Daddies: How To Have Sex Without Gender" article is totally worth tracking down if you haven't read that too..
shehasathree - i haven't had a chance to look right through it, so i should check it out.
l.h. - i am reviewing (still) transgender on screen by john phillips. erk!
crackerlilo - absolutely no worries! may i point out that there are some transpeople, too, who would do well to have a look at it and apply it to their own writings, especially:
6. Don't totalize us, don't represent us or our discourses as monolithic or univocal; look carefully at each use of 'the', and at plurals.
and
14. Don't imagine that there is only one trope of transsexuality, only one figure of "the" transsexual, or only one transsexual discourse at any one temporal and cultural location.
queen emily - hi! :) that's a great article, which i haven't read for ages. i think i might conduct an archaeological dig of my references and revisit it.
heya :)
>>>6. Don't totalize us, don't represent us or our discourses as monolithic or univocal; look carefully at each use of 'the', and at plurals.
and
14. Don't imagine that there is only one trope of transsexuality, only one figure of "the" transsexual, or only one transsexual discourse at any one temporal and cultural location.
That *is* a really good point. I think it's really easy to universalise from your own experience. When there's such a diversity of trans experiences that that's just stupid..
FtM? MtF? Both ways? Transgender? Transsexual? Genderqueer? Third gender? Gender essentialist? Post-human? Gay? Straight? Queer? Post-queer? etc etc
I really try not to do that on QT, but I'm sure I've made one or both of those mistakes. It really is easy to fall into that mindset. Like a lot of discourse about trans people is about trans women, and trans men tend to be forgotten, or addressed as afterthoughts - or sometimes tokens.
It's an easy step from writing about how trans experiences are erased to writing about my experiences are what all trans people go through. I hope I haven't, though.
l.h., the same can go in the reverse, too. i don't know that there is the same imbalance in ftm and mtf (those labels are the easiest shorthand) representation in academic discourses at least. it is true that these writings tend to group in different places, though, so it's easy to not be able to see that there's a lot more ftm stuff out there.
it is true, however, that a lot of non-trans (again, a big generalisation) writers make the mistake of talking about "transsexuals" as if all trans* and gender variant people were born male and identify as female. especially anti-trans writers - maybe because their stupid theories can't account for 'both' sides? or indeed, as queen emily point out, the vast range of experiences other than ftm and mtf.
it is true, however, that a lot of non-trans (again, a big generalisation) writers make the mistake of talking about "transsexuals" as if all trans* and gender variant people were born male and identify as female. especially anti-trans writers - maybe because their stupid theories can't account for 'both' sides? or indeed, as queen emily point out, the vast range of experiences other than ftm and mtf.
This is what I'm talking about.
I also see "mtf" and "ftm" as adjectives, and don't mind typing out trans men and trans women, or just men and women, depending on context. I have a subversive political goal in doing so, in that I think saying "trans men are men and trans women are women" emphasizes that going either way doesn't automatically thirdgender trans people or trap us in our birth state.
Of course, there's people on the transmasculine and transfeminine spectrum, people who go as far as surgery without really clearly identifying themselves as men or women, etc, genderqueer, two-spirits, and so on. I haven't done a lot of reading past the gender binary, although I'm not a stranger to it.
I hope that all made sense.
there's people on the transmasculine and transfeminine spectrum, people who go as far as surgery without really clearly identifying themselves as men or women
this will be me! i use the label transboy/trannyboy as a conscious rejection of the idea of 'man' being an ultimate destination. i don't feel i am a man. i definitely don't feel like i am a woman. i don't actually know how i could feel either of those things.
instead, i strategically affiliate with the category of 'man' (and more so with the somewhat softer 'guy' or 'boy') as a way of identifying how i want others to behave towards me. i want them to call me jonathan and use masculine pronouns (more than i want them to use their feminine equivalents, but not always more than i want them to use gender neutral options), so i make that easier for them by indicating to them that i am a man/boy/guy. currently, however (and this is always changing!) i feel more like a gender-neutral trans-male.
of course, this doesn't stop me from agreeing with the need to emphasise that those who identify as men ought to be understood and respected as men, and those who identify as women ought to be understood and respected as women.
It was a few years after I transitioned before I actually identified as a woman, but I think it was a combination of a lack of self-esteem plus a sense of growing into it. It's hard for me to explain, but my intention was always to reach womanhood.
And also, I tried and failed to explain what it means to feel that way, to claim that identity. But, I think that "man" and "woman" and sometimes even "male" and "female" are pretty arbitary and in many ways falsely dichotomous. I mean, I can't deny the reality of men, women, male, and female, but the lines drawn around them are meaningless because they tend to be proscriptive and cut into people's flesh.
I'm pretty much in favor of people identifying themselves as they feel necessary, rather than forcing boxes on anyone. :)
sense of growing into it
i totally understand that. it took me a long time to be comfortable claiming transness, and a feeling of being male (which, if we're going to go for random binaries, i associate male with sex, man with gender . . . and i don't think my gender has changed, because to me gender is just a bit of my personality). and the more i pass, the more i have my masculinity affirmed and reflected back to me, the easier it is to inhabit that (mind)space.
gender is so strange. it's such a habit.
I wasn't so much trying to go for those binaries as to point out they're arbitrary. :)
I totally hate when someone starts going off about how trans is about "changing gender" and telling me I can't change mine...which I agree with, my gender hasn't ever changed and isn't going to changed.
Also,
and the more i pass, the more i have my masculinity affirmed and reflected back to me, the easier it is to inhabit that (mind)space.
gender is so strange. it's such a habit.
This is a great way to say it. I've heard people going both ways say similar, and it reflects the gender socialization everyone goes through.
oh no! i wasn't meaning that you were saying they were good!
yes, "changing gender" sounds so strange. it's not ME changing gender, it's YOU (world) having to change your ideas about gender!
Yeah, when people ask me when my gender issues/confusion/problems started, I like to say "I've never had any, but people tend to develop gender issues of their own when they learn I'm a trans woman."
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