HELP AND ADVICE NEEDED from people involved in trans communities/trans activism
Okay, so, here's the deal.
I'm in a class this semester that is, in essence, made of epic fail. I don't think I've mentioned how much this class fails in LJ before, so let me take a few moments to explain it to y'all.
The class is called "Undoing Gender." And in theory, it's a really great class. It's supposed to be a survey of texts-- both theory and novels-- that explore the limits of mainstream assumptions about gender and sex (i.e., that there are only two sexes, that there are only two genders, that people's gender always "matches" their sex, and so on). And it tries to ask the question of what it means to pose a challenge to this kind of binary thinking-- how the lives of people who challenge these assumptions are affected by them. While we do some general queer theory stuff, there's an obvious emphasis on trans identities, intersexed people, and so on.
In practice, the class does not live up to its promises. I know this is kind of a hilarious assertion to make about a class that prides itself on challenging binaries, but there are two kinds of people in the class. There are people who know trans folks-- people for whom trans people are our friends, our current and former lovers, our family members-- people, in short, for whom these identities have a face, and who believe the questions we ask in this class actually have an impact on real people's lives. Then there are the people who have never met a trans person, for whom they are spectacles on a screen if they have faces at all, for whom "trans" represents a shiny new gender paradigm rather than actual people. ("Trans people" is not one of those categories-- if there are any trans or intersexed people in my class, they have not outed themselves.) Which makes the class particularly awful to sit through: the people in the second group keep flubbing pronouns and generally saying ignorant things, while those of us in the first group are sick of having to teach Trans 101. Again.
One of the things that bugs me personally about this class is that, to the extent that we talk about trans people at all, we talk about them as either a) recipients of medical discourse or b) victims of violence (or, more abstractly, victims of gender paradigms). I'm not saying that these are topics to avoid. Yes, the pathologization of trans identities is a real problem; yes, so is anti-trans violence. But one thing that keeps missing from this discussion is trans people as activists. Trans people as people with agency, as people with voices. And that's what I want to bring to this class.
Thus far throughout the class, I have, at varying points, let slip various things I know about the current wave of trans activism, in small and trickling ways. I have also been using the terminology I have learned through my relationships with trans people and the places where my queer women's communities overlap with trans communities, and have only really begun to realize that my terminology is not that of my classmates'. (Ask me about the offensive glossary one of my classmates gave the class last week. Go on. Ask me.)
Well, I have to give a presentation in class on Thursday, and I've decided to try and present what I know about the current wave of trans activism in a more systematic, thorough way. So I'm trying to think through what I want to tell my classmates-- the new terms I want to define for them, and the activists and issues I want to highlight. And in order to do the best job I can, I need some help with a few questions. So if you can, please look beyond the cut and help me out.
Definitions:
Other Issues
Thanks so much in advance to anyone who chimes in with answers, corrections, confirmations, and so on. I'm really struggling to put together a good presentation and address the gaps in my colleagues' knowledge in a sensitive but pointed way, and I'm grateful for any help you give.
I'm in a class this semester that is, in essence, made of epic fail. I don't think I've mentioned how much this class fails in LJ before, so let me take a few moments to explain it to y'all.
The class is called "Undoing Gender." And in theory, it's a really great class. It's supposed to be a survey of texts-- both theory and novels-- that explore the limits of mainstream assumptions about gender and sex (i.e., that there are only two sexes, that there are only two genders, that people's gender always "matches" their sex, and so on). And it tries to ask the question of what it means to pose a challenge to this kind of binary thinking-- how the lives of people who challenge these assumptions are affected by them. While we do some general queer theory stuff, there's an obvious emphasis on trans identities, intersexed people, and so on.
In practice, the class does not live up to its promises. I know this is kind of a hilarious assertion to make about a class that prides itself on challenging binaries, but there are two kinds of people in the class. There are people who know trans folks-- people for whom trans people are our friends, our current and former lovers, our family members-- people, in short, for whom these identities have a face, and who believe the questions we ask in this class actually have an impact on real people's lives. Then there are the people who have never met a trans person, for whom they are spectacles on a screen if they have faces at all, for whom "trans" represents a shiny new gender paradigm rather than actual people. ("Trans people" is not one of those categories-- if there are any trans or intersexed people in my class, they have not outed themselves.) Which makes the class particularly awful to sit through: the people in the second group keep flubbing pronouns and generally saying ignorant things, while those of us in the first group are sick of having to teach Trans 101. Again.
One of the things that bugs me personally about this class is that, to the extent that we talk about trans people at all, we talk about them as either a) recipients of medical discourse or b) victims of violence (or, more abstractly, victims of gender paradigms). I'm not saying that these are topics to avoid. Yes, the pathologization of trans identities is a real problem; yes, so is anti-trans violence. But one thing that keeps missing from this discussion is trans people as activists. Trans people as people with agency, as people with voices. And that's what I want to bring to this class.
Thus far throughout the class, I have, at varying points, let slip various things I know about the current wave of trans activism, in small and trickling ways. I have also been using the terminology I have learned through my relationships with trans people and the places where my queer women's communities overlap with trans communities, and have only really begun to realize that my terminology is not that of my classmates'. (Ask me about the offensive glossary one of my classmates gave the class last week. Go on. Ask me.)
Well, I have to give a presentation in class on Thursday, and I've decided to try and present what I know about the current wave of trans activism in a more systematic, thorough way. So I'm trying to think through what I want to tell my classmates-- the new terms I want to define for them, and the activists and issues I want to highlight. And in order to do the best job I can, I need some help with a few questions. So if you can, please look beyond the cut and help me out.
Definitions:
- I'm going to start with the term "trans," which (I have the impression, anyway) is much more common these days than "transgender" or "transsexual." I'm tentatively planning to argue that "trans" is the preferred term these days because a) it bypasses all those old debates about the differences between "transgender" and "transsexual," and who is more authentic and/or subversive, and b) "trans" allows people to talk about their gender experiences while avoiding discussions of their hormone status, genital status, etc. (The presentation will include a pretty pointed discussion of trans etiquette, which is overdue and much needed.) Am I correct in assuming that "trans" is the preferred term, and that these are the reasons why?
- I'm also planning to argue that the terms "transman," "transwoman," "transperson," etc. are currently preferred to terms such as FTM or MTF, because such terms emphasize a common experience of identifying with a gender other than the one assigned at birth, but emphasize the person's current gender identity over the assigned identity. A term like "FTM" is not necessarily accurate, given that a transman may never have identified as a woman despite being called a girl at birth; also, "FTM" implies that a transman is still, in some way, a woman. Hence, those terms, while still in use, are falling out of favor. Am I on the right track with this definition?
- When was the first time you saw "trans" used? About when did it start to become the preferred term in trans activist circles?
- When was the first time you saw "cisgendered" used? About when did it start to become a preferred term?
- I'm trying to build, not a comprehensive list of trans terms, but a glossary of the words that indicate how trans identity and gender as a whole have been rethought in queer circles in the past decade and a half or so. As such, the terms I have on the list right now are trans, transmasculine/transfeminine (which I will note are often viewed as spectrums rather than discrete identity positions), cisgendered, genderqueer, gender-neutral pronouns (with a discussion of what those are, why they are not universally agreed upon, and whether they are actually gender-neutral-- plus, the increased popularity of the "what pronouns do you prefer?" question in queer circles), gender identity and expression, butch/femme (here I'll have a discussion of the challenges trans activists have posed to stereotypes of transwomen as hyperfeminine and transmen as hypermasculine, and talk about how the increased visibility of trans people in queer circles has precipitated a critical approach to almost all queer genders), and queer (which will imply a discussion about the ways in which an increasingly visible trans community has posed challenges to discrete lesbian/gay and bi identities). Am I missing anything here? Are there definitions or discussions I need to add or change? Bear in mind that I'm trying to write a glossary of present-day trans activist terms, not of trans identities in general.
Other Issues
- Obviously, I want to include a list here of prominent trans intellectuals and activists. So far, my list consists of: Kate Bornstein, Leslie Feinberg, Riki Wilchins, Julia Serano, Max Wolf Valerio (I know, I know; but he was in a video we watched, and I want to talk about why he's a controversial figure in trans circles, rather than let my colleagues get away with thinking that all transmen are that essentialist and misogynistic), and Jameson Green. Are there other people I should have on this list? (I recognize that this is an overwhelmingly white list. And I do plan to talk a little about Sylvia Rivera, and how trans people have always been part of queer activist struggles.)
- Issues and debates in trans activism I should bring up? Obviously, MWMF. The recent controversy about trans inclusion in ENDA. We've already talked a little (well, Judith Butler wrote a pretty good essay on) whether Gender Identity Disorder should remain in the DSM. Those are the major ones I can think of. Are there any important ones I'm missing?
Thanks so much in advance to anyone who chimes in with answers, corrections, confirmations, and so on. I'm really struggling to put together a good presentation and address the gaps in my colleagues' knowledge in a sensitive but pointed way, and I'm grateful for any help you give.