Throughout her article, Halberstam implicitly presents “butch” women as sharing a very specific characteristic: they are all cisgender women. In writing that butch women may harbour gender dysphoria, including a desire to be male (150), Halberstam ignores the reality that some butch women—namely, transgender butch women—are extremely dissociated with the desire to be male. It is highly likely that Halberstam did not even consider the existence of transgender butch women. If she had, it seems unlikely that she would have used the term “transgender butch” for anyone other than transgender butch women; the terminology is confusing. By erasing the experiences of transgender butch women (that is, butch lesbians who are transgender women), Halberstam …show more content…
The most obvious example is the differentiation of “transsexual” and “transgender.” In the article, “transsexual” is used to refer to someone who has specifically had treatment to physically change their body to match their gender identity; “transgender” is someone whose gender identity does not match the gender they were assigned at birth, regardless of whether they have made physical gender-related changes to their body (155). Today, the term “transsexual” is almost obsolete. Interestingly, however, Halberstam briefly presents conflict between “transsexuals” and “transgenders” that is mirrored somewhat today in informal conflicts between “truscum” and “transtrenders/tucutes” (154-155). In today’s transgender communities, people called “truscum” (generally by other people) feel that people they call “transtrenders” or “tucutes” are not truly transgender; they feel these people are merely pretending to be transgender for the sake of attention. On the other hand, those called “transtrenders” or “tucutes” (generally by other people) feel attacked and policed by “truscum” and insist that they are transgender regardless of whether they meet the standards set by truscum. Halberstam cites some identity politics (154-155) that are reminiscent of this, which suggests that even as terms change, identity policing remains a consistent issue in transgender
Elizabeth Blevins quoted Neil Carpathios in an article saying “’ [Stacey Waite] dares to explore and write about the often complicated terrain of gender, sexuality and societal perceptions of the self, the body and desire.’” Waite is slowly helping everyone break away from the idea that gender is a solid tangible concept. In “The Kind of Man I am at the DMV” written by Stacey Waite, traditional gender roles are being challenged by explaining that transgender people are the same as everyone else and pointing out the ignorance that some have towards less commonly recognized genders.
With the establishment of these gender identity clinics, and the financial backing of philanthropist Reed Erickson, a transsexual man, the health care needs of transsexual people gained increased attention and support. Despite this new attention, the clinics used Benjamin’s model of “true” transsexuals. This differentiation between “true” transsexuals and other gender variants became a serious and highly important diagnostic decision as gender affirming surgeries were irreversible. This resulted in many transsexual individuals to be denied access to hormones and surgery. Specifically, transsexual men encountered difficulties, as transsexuality was primarily seen as a male-to-female only transition. In fact, during the late 1960s the United States leading UCLA Gender Identity Research Clinic debated whether trans men should be considered transsexuals. Many trans men themselves did not label themselves as transsexuals as they only knew about other transsexual women (Meyerowitz, 2002; Beemyn, 2014).
In “Intro-How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States,” Joanne Meyerowitz writes about the beginnings of transsexuality. She beings the article by defining cross-gender identification, as “the sense of being the other sex, and the desire to live as the other sex” (Meyerowitz 432), while transsexuality, “being the quest to transform the bodily characteristics of sex via hormones and surgery” (Meyerowitz 432). According to Meyerowitz, transsexuality began in the early 20th century. Experiments on changing sex, began in europe on animals. Then in 1920, on humans. Joanne Meyerowitz writes that “the debate on the visibility and mutability of sex” began after Christine Jorgensen, an american who went to Denmark to get a sex change in 1950, became a media sensation in America. While professionals were figuring this out, people “who identified as transsexuals, transvestites, lesbians, and gay men” (Meyerowitz 433) were having the conversation and creating the language within themselves. This conversation on sex change, occurred alongside the sexual revolution in the 60’s, opening “the movement of the organizing of programs, clinics, conferences, and associations to promote study of and treatment for transsexuals” (Meyerowitz 434).
In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.
In the article “America’s Transition” Steinmetz reports that George traveled to Denmark to begin his transition to a woman named Christine Jorgensen (40). In the 1950s the transition from male-to-female was very rare. The subject of transition from an assigned sex at birth to the opposite was taboo. After Christine’s story was published in the New York Daily News and Time, American society began to question the definition of gender and why George was now Christine. Deceptively like today, as Time magazine mentions, “history is filled with people who did not fit society’s definition or gender (40).” Media talks about transgender, and it seems new, but it is not. Transgender is not something that just occurred today and had never been heard of before. This subject is just now coming out into the open more often than usual. In parallel to the “coming out” from transition, society is not far from the 1950’s because there is still stereotypes and discrimination against the transgender
Leslie Feinberg’s “Stone Butch Blues,” narrates protagonist, Jess Goldberg, through hirs bodily transformation as a transgender. Jess, born as a woman, went from identifying as a “he/she” to passing as a man, until ultimately identifying as neither male nor female. Jess’s journey as a trans was far from easy, due to the violence, from the police and peers, ze often fell victim to. Moreover, when growing up Jess never felt as if there was a place for hir in society. When Jess was around 16 years old, ze finally begins to search immensely for hirs “type of people.” Through the referral of a co-worker Jess was able to find a bar, Tifka’s, which possibly contained hirs “type of people.” Once inside the bar Jess describes it as “everything [ze]
He had achieved the shock value not only with myself as the reader, but ultimately who he was addressing. Jamison had been an educator of trans people, speaking out to audiences of college students of all ages. His goal of educating the public stemmed from his own experiences with choosing to change genders as well as a broad overview of the ideas that surrounded transsexualism as a whole. He communicates well that his experiences do not encompass all transgendered people’s experiences and that transformation from male to female (MTF) is quite different from female to male (FTM) transformation. The societal complications from FTM are well examined from Jamison’s view. Many people believed that females that wanted to become males could
One of the most well-known autobiographies is by Christine Jorgensen, Charles Brown’s inspiration for wanting to undergo sex change surgery, Jorgensen’s autobiography, “Christine: A Personal Autobiography,” was revolutionary in that challenged pejorative tabloid stories as well as encouraged other transgender women to write and publish their own stories. The 1970s and 1980s were filled with these personal narratives. The publication of such works highlighted the absence of autobiographies from transgender men. The 1980s and 1990s gave rise to queer theory. Scholars such as Judith Butler and Teresa de Lauretis took interest in questioning gender and exploring gender as a performance. Scholarship on queer theory received backlash from transgender people who argued that their lived experiences continued to be ignored. However, this body of literature has led to numerous works exploring the many facets of transgender experiences and lifestyles. While scholars continue to investigate this field, discussions of race gradually enter into these narratives, however, within the following works, discussions of black transgender individuals are
Thus, this law restricted male-to-female transsexuals from receiving vaginoplasty, making it impossible for these individuals to legally change the sex documented on their papers. As a result, finding employment or access to health care became a constant struggle. This theme of oppressing marginalized people is what ultimately leads to institutionalize discrimination as bylaws are created to target those who do not fit into social norms. As a result Namaste states, “transgendered discourse is utopic, and one profoundly informed by privilege” as political programs only benefit a select few such as those who already have jobs, homes, and access to health care (22). Thus, Namaste implores that those involved in transsexual politics and theory, as well as feminists, to focus on “making broader links among the structures that regulate marginalized people”. It is for this reason that Namaste cannot condone the actions of those that reside within Transgendered Officers to Protect and Serve (TOPS) as it entails transsexuals the ability to arrest prostitutes, drive homeless people away from a bench, send someone to jail, or “ticket the street kids trying to make a few bucks at the traffic lights” (29). Thus, Namaste concludes by stating that in order for change to begin, it is crucial for transsexuals and feminists to intervene in the criminalization that occurs within the lives of those who are
Butch, masculine, lesbians have frequently been compared with femme, feminine, lesbians through multiple research surveys and studies (L. Zheng and Y. Zheng 186-193, Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, and Levy-Warren 34-49). In L. Zheng and Y. Zheng's study, most butch lesbians report more gender nonconformity throughout their childhood and adulthood; a great number of them experienced uncertainty about their gender identity (186-193). Similarly, research on trans men explains how the majority of them struggle through gender nonconformity mostly before their transition: oftentimes, they are labeled as
Halberstam poses questions like: How can these individuals conceive children? Who becomes pregnant? What constitutes a family? Halberstam uses the story of “first pregnant man and a similar case”, to explore the discourse that surrounds transgendered women who had children after beginning their process on switching to the opposing male gender. She argued the notion of “pregnant men” and how it disrupted traditional social ideas associated with reproducing and with it redefining the family model of normality. Halberstam used this line and responded to show the way in which “Gaga Feminism” redefines and accepts the concept of family by including single-parent households, blended families, same-sex parents, and bi-racial
In Chapter 8 Johnson discusses the many different ways that individuals avoid discussing issues of opression. One of the strategies utilized by transphobes is to minimize the issue, specifically in relation to using the proper bathrooms and pronouns. When transgender people speak about their experiences with oppression, transphobes may label them as “whiny” or seeking preferential treatment. Much like the sexist jokes that permeate pop culture, transphobic jokes are equally abundant. How many sitcoms have had one of the main protagonists sleep with a trans-woman and have the punch-line be that she is actually a “man”? Another strategy that Johnson discussed in chapter 8 is titled “Calling It a Different Name.” Transphobes will claim that transgender people are mentally ill in some capacity. This is a popular argument due to the DSM listing gender dysphoria. Transphobic people might utilize this argument defensively, and insist that they’re just trying to help, or offensively like the student discussed in Green’s video who yelled at the trans guest
This article by Rupert Read concerns a debate in which the acceptability of trans-females demanding their acceptance as women is questioned. Although trans-females believe that they deserve the right to label their gender for themselves, it is problematic because someone with male genitals simply stating that they are female hardly makes them so. Read makes the argument that it is irrational for those who wish to belong to a certain group that they aren’t already a part of to instantly belong to it just by stating they are or wanting to be. This raises concern within feminism as to whether or not trans-females should be truly considered females due to the fact that they don’t have experiences that other women do such as periods or menopause.
Underneath this seemingly “All-American Girl” exterior is an autistic woman who grew up poor and was mercilessly bullied as a child. Underneath this seemingly-straight exterior beats the heart of a queer femme who adores female masculinity and transgender men.
If you want to live within the definition of your own truth, you have to choose to go through the initially painful and ultimately comforting process of finding it” (Levithan 253). Due to being in Vic's body, A is reminded of its own gender problems. Where Vic was conceived as a girl when she should have been a boy, A has struggled with not having a fixed. As well as gender fluidity and transgender topics, Every Day also looks at sexuality. A has been in the bodies of straight males and females, but also in the bodies of homosexual males and females, and has not had a problem.