Second Wave Lesbian

In Susan Stryker’s (De)Subjugated Knowledges, she culminates a history of academic attention to transgender studies; tracking the field’s movement from abnormal psychology to its contemporary form of self-analysis and discourse (by which I mean that rather than being discussed by those outside of the trans community, transgender voices are now leading their own academic discussions). At a basic level, Stryker defines transgender studies as that which:

Anne Tagonist’s zine, Unapologetic #3, goes over the trans-misogyny that is prevalent in the feminist and transgender rights movements. The author visited feminist and transgender scenes around the country that have been gaining momentum in recent years. When Anne visited each scene she witnessed rampant trans-misogyny, where trans-women were not accepted because of their inability to pass as female, and unproven theories that trans-women may be violent. These same meetings and organizers were much more accepting of the trans-men who came to the events. Female to male transgendered individuals were accepted because if the did not pass as a man they were still seen as a “dyke”. The example that Anne gives about an organizer banning a trans-woman,

Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.

One’s gender identity represents who they are, whether they were born with male or female genitalia. Back in the 1900’s, “for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) folks in America, the efflorescence of sexual expression did not begin until the waning months of that decade in the heart of the nation’s then-largest bohemian enclave and gay ghetto, New York’s Greenwich Village” (Wolf). In the 60’s, being able to express who you were freely was pushed aside much too often. But because of the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village, their fight has helped people today be who they want to be without any discrimination. Over “four decades after the Stonewall riots, political leaders are now beginning to recognize the influence of the LGBT community, knocking down barriers to gay and lesbian participation in the military and nominating at least two transgender officials, for the first time in history, to senior posts in the federal government under the Obama administration” (Teal). Whether someone identifies as a man, woman, or neither, they are able to participate in any group regardless. Due to the Stonewall riots, no matter what no one can turn you down based off of your gender identity, which is causing political leaders to now think differently because of this monumental time in history where everyone can be accepted for who they want to

Kidd and Witten define the term transgender vaguely, stating it “describe[s] people who transcend the conventional boundaries of gender, irrespective of physical status or sexual orientation” (Kidd & Witten, 2007, p. 36). This term is a reference for the ‘other gender’ that is not particularly male or female. Currently, within the American society, there is a growing awareness of individuals who are transgender. Much of this awareness comes from LGBT movements and

If spaces don’t register such movement it risks becoming encased in a temporal amber, frozen in stubborn philosophy and therefore stuck in outdated policies. It is important to note that while Faderman notes in her conclusion that the lesbian culture/social movement has been evolving (noting its different iterations throughout the 20th Century) she cannot imagine this metamorphosis encapsulating transsexual lesbians. It seems that, much like those lesbian/cultural feminists she critiques, she too has fallen victim inside an essentialist version of the

While this visibility does afford transvestites formal recognition, the presence of satire in their representation undermines their plight for recognition as a definition of gender expression and sexual identity (Hennessy, 2000). This, therefore, acts to police and regulate the social and cultural bodies of transvestite individuals within the neoliberal state. Therefore, men and women who show characteristics inconsistent with the neoliberal state's prescribed gender roles are often regulated and policed through the labelling of marginalized and different groups (Keyes, 2014). An autonomous, feminist and individualised woman often is subjected to ‘lesbian' labelling and this form of ‘othering' contributes to the regulation and individualised policing marginalized groups experience under the heteronormative, neoliberal state and its subsequent restrictions on gender and sexual identity (Keyes, 2014). However, the sex-gender matrix that operates under heterosexuality can often be understood in terms of the social struggle of queer visibility in the consumerist culture, to recognise not the form but the function of families in the homosexual sphere (Dnes,

My Biological sex is female, my gender identity is female, but is my gender expression what I am starting to question. It was after I read Janet Mock’s book and I listened to an interview with Joy Ladin that I became aware of the similarities transgender women undertake in their process to come out, and my own process of redefining the expression of the woman that I am. I feel that the coming out of transgender people is encouraging us, especially women, to deeply question our woman expression. Trans-women like Joy Ladin and Janet Mock are raising a new conversation about gender identity and gender expression…..

Viviane Namaste is a Canadian transsexual woman, an activist, sociologist, and a women’s studies professor. In her book, “Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity and Institutions”, Namaste reveals the limitations that only focusing on and questioning identity may create. In addition, Viviane Namaste provides an alternative ‘framework’ that would allow transsexual individuals to converse about the circumstance they encounter on a daily basis. Although Namaste agrees that questions concerning identity, gender, and sex are important, these questions seem to denounce the issues that transsexuals endure on a regular day-to-day basis. This is because the questions concerning identity fail to concentrate on the restrictions imposed onto

The documentary explored the community of transgender and gays and really connected with the matrix of domination. Matrix of domination analyzes race, class, and gender as different but interrelated axes of social structure. In the documentary, society perpetuates marked and unmarked categories of sexual orientation. Marked and unmarked categories connect to power as it is distributed off of various reasons, some identified and some unidentified. The drag queens, gays, and transgender suffer because of these often unspoken social norms. As these sexual orientations are not normal in society, society might call these people “queer.” In the article “Queer” from Keywords for American Cultural Studies, the term queer is used “interchangeably with the terms “gay” and “lesbian” or occasionally “transgender” and “bisexual.” (Somerville 2007) This shows that society uses a term that refers to a range of sexual identities that are not straight and not normal. Also, from the writing “Critically Queer” by Judith Butler, he said that the word "queering" “persists as a defining moment of performativity.” (Butler 1993) The word performativity means the enactment of the spoken word historically of force and consolidation, so this emphasizes how the term “queer” is a performative that has one domain in which power acts as

In Trans Politics and Theory, we have had an ongoing conversation about the constructs of gender. Specifically, we have talked about Riki Wilchin’s ideas of gender as both a system of meanings and a system of regulation. This essay will attempt to define those phrases and describe their implications, as well as connecting them to what we have read for class, to current events, and to my own experiences. Wilchins speaks about the construction of gender in her book Genderqueer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary. Our class read and discussed the second chapter, entitled “It’s Your Gender, Stupid!”

The gay community and women’s liberation movement were both formed through collective identities and political/oppositional consciousness. Moreover, both groups were discriminated against by external social structures and yet, succeeded due to internal factors. Whittier and Taylor describe collective identity as “the shared definition of a group that derives from member’s common interests, experiences, and solidarity” (Whittier 105). The gay community was being oppressed for their sexuality while women were being suppressed based on their gender. Although both communities formed collective identities, they experienced numerous obstacles in unifying their movements, the most notable being race and ethnicity. Since both groups were being discriminated against due to factors out of their control, they formed collective identities and created communities, which propelled their movements forward.

Gender, Judith Butler explains, is “an identity tenuously constituted in time” she also states, it is “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts.” (Butler, 519) Heterosexual norms implemented upon society are reinforced by numerous social limitations. The ways in which individuals are burdened by the social construct of gender ultimately creates a homogenized society following a heterosexual script, which allows these individuals to be perceived as ‘normal’ and anyone not following this script may be perceived as deviant. Although there are individuals and theories that resist heterosexual gender norms, the normalization of heterosexual normative masculinity and femininity are still very evident and apparent in the past and contemporary

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

Queer theory emerged from the fields of women’s studies and queer studies. It is the readings and theorizations of queer texts and the idea of queerness itself. Queer theory attempts to demonstrate how sexuality is culturally appropriated