The Current Wave - Susan Stryker

Transgender History Chapter 5, The Current Wave, by Susan Stryker

In chapter 5 of her novel, The Current Wave, Susan Stryker demonstrates the emergence of transgender communities from the very beginning. The transgender communities and the public attention given to them, according to Stryker, began as early as 1960s. Despite its gradual growth in recognition by the public and their solid place in society, the trans community emerges as an important part of the larger society in the 1990s due to various contributing factors such as the spread of AIDS and the rise of feminism.

Starting in the 1960s, small organizations started to spring in order to promote and protect their identity as a transgender. Although the growth of these organizations seemed to be staggering, this didn’t stop them from carrying out their jobs through the bleakest times for transgender activism in the 1970s and 1980s. For instance, a transgender community based in Boston brought forth the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) in 1987. Its major focus was on the needs and interests on MTF cross-dressers, but it also aimed at increasing the general transgender constituency. In addition, small scale, self-financed, homegrown resources such as the J2PC foundation (established by Jude Patton and Joanna Clark in California) awoke as a result of various historical factors such as the end of the Cold War, rise of feminism and development of internet. These organizations, more than anything else, worked on enhancing social justice for trans people and communities.

Among the prominent activists were female writers who would redefine and reshape the public perspective toward trans people such as Leslie Feinberg and Sandy Stone. Leslie Feinberg, who had been transitioning from female to male in the 1980s, attempted to define and occupy the space between the two conventional genders. By doing so, and using other kinds of means, she also instigated the social and political gender-specific oppressions. Another influential female activist promoting transgender communities was Sandy Stone who through her popular novel, The Empire Strikes Back, gave the nascent transgender movement intellectual and political dimensions and agenda.

In the midst of the active participation of various organizations and trans community activists, feminism was on the rise. The discussion regarding feminism and power of women also opened rooms for the expansion of transgender feminism in the 1990s through which (although discussions on trans communities were limited) the idea and philosophy behind trans-gender communities grew dramatically along with others. For instance, Judith Butler suggests the idea of ‘gender performativity’ through her book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. This feminist assertion can be related to the rather radical idea of gender identity which states that gender should not be defined by two distinct groups but based on the different kinds of acts that people ‘perform’. Since no two people act identically, expressing identity gender-related characteristics, every individual is different in terms of his/her gender identity and therefore, trans people are as natural as heterosexual and cissexual individual. This iconoclastic idea of indistinct and undefinable gender roles that sprang from feminism had an unexpected influential impact on the growth of trans-related ideas and communities as well.

Feminism was not the only factor that grabbed the public’s attention in the 1990s. The wide spread of AIDS epidemic also played a crucial role in sparkling  major discussions about trans people and their communities that were vulnerable to the disease. If not acted upon, these people would act as carriers of the disease to the entire population. First of all and most importantly, trans people, compared to the rest of the population, specially lacked access to healthcare system and suffered social stigma, survival prostitution and were given fewer educational resources due to discrimination. Recognizing the devastating effects that these factors would bring to the larger, more ‘normal’ world, AIDS funding entities directed money and various forms of financial resources to the trans communities as a prevention and harm-reduction strategy. This attention and resources given to the trans communities aided them in creating new kinds of alliance politics which disregarded the discriminations against ‘race and gender, class and nationality and citizenship and sexual orientation. ‘

It is tremendously intriguing and rather impressive to see different social uprisings and ideas are inter-connected and further aid each other in amassing attention and expanding each group’s interests hand in hand. Despite such a struggle that trans communities have been through and the paramount efforts of innumerable activists, I personally feel, based on my present life, that they have not justly been recognized and caught the public’s attention. The idea that each and every individual is different, regardless of what their socially labeled gender is, in their fundamental gender identity is something that everyone should realize by reflecting deeply on themselves.

Overcoming Obstacles As an African-American Transgender Woman – Anonymous

This article written by an African American woman reveals the story of her painful journey as a transgender. Her life before transition, she says, was a very unhappy one. She would always be in pursuit of her real identity, what her subconscious told her she was. She was perceived to be gay (because everyone thought she was a boy and she liked guys) and on the inside, she felt extremely uncomfortable and out of her natural place/body therefore, miserable. She indicates that she felt as if she was living a lie and that she wanted to find out who she really was.

She claims that deciding to be a transgender was something more fearful than coming out as gay or lesbian because society has rarely seen a transgender come out. It seems that her race, skin-color, economic status and family’s religious beliefs complicated, if not prevented, her decision to transition.  According to the author, in an African American Christian community which she was born and brought up in, changing one’s gender (being a transgender) was something completely illogical and defying what God had naturally provided. This fact, as the author speculates with definite certainty, would have resulted in vehement disapproval from her entire family. As a result, the author has no one to turn to and no one to understand her situation. The author proves to be a strong female individual even though she has ‘no hiding place’ and eventually does go through the transition despite all the disadvantages and ruinous consequences that it would bring. In the end, she admits that the transition, against all down-sides, was worth it and that she was finally happy.

I think that this piece of writing gives a perfect insight into life of transsexuals and how difficult it is to live as one, especially an African American transgender. I learned that one does not suffer just because he/she is a transgender, but also because of other aspects of his/her identity such as being an African American and a Christian in this case. I think that the last heart-felt statement of the author is very true – ‘Transgender people, live free and be true to yourselves, and always remember that education is the key, because knowledge is power.’ I believe that she means that through learning, people are empowered and they grow strong enough to take confident steps in life and do what’s right.

The strength that the author exhibits is admirable and the candid personal account and the advice of the author, invaluable. 

Whipping Girl by Julia Serano

Whipping Girl, Introduction & Chapter 5

The novel Whipping Girl, is an extremely personal account of the author’s (Julia Serano) views on how the transsexuals are viewed by the general public mixed with the initiatives and pondering that she suggests that the ‘cissexuals’ take in order to understand transsexuals in a more positive and accepting light.

In the introduction, she tells us that her novel is not going to be a reaffirmation of the current general ideas of sexuality and gender or like any other novels on trans-sexualism by non-transsexual authors, but something that takes a new path. Furthermore, she proposes to fill in the ‘gaps’ created by our lack of knowledge on gender issues related to transsexuals by coming up with new terms and suggesting more intimate ideas that we are not yet familiar with or never heard of. She goes on to elaborate that under the title ‘transsexuals’ that we have made and accepted so far, there are a variety of different forms of gender. It seems as though she tries to completely break away from the binary gender system that we adopt now and encourage the readers to think of each individual a special and different case. By doing this, she demonstrates how she will be able to eradicate the pre-conceived notions and prejudices that ultimately result in discrimination against transsexual people.

Serano gives us a glimpse of the general prejudices of the public that she plans to attack and rectify such as the idea and importance of disparity between femininity and masculinity in our society which plays a huge role in people’s minds and decisions. She asserts that the general notion that females who are ‘feminine’ are inferior to men who are ‘masculine’ inhibits people’s understanding of transsexuals and their lifestyles and life decisions. Her candid confessions and real-life examples of meeting numerous people and asking them about their views on feministic qualities and transsexuals make this novel an exciting and novel one.

In Chapter 5 of her book titled ‘Blind Spots: On Subconscious Sex and Gender Entitlements’, her main objective seems to be to encourage people to understand their own sexuality before they try to understand transsexuals. And when they do, it becomes easier and an obvious thing to understand them. The Chapter begins with her early years when she realized that she was trapped in the wrong body (in a conventional sense) of a boy while her brain told her to be more feminine than most boys. She introduces the idea of the conscious sex and subconscious sex which differ in a way that conscious sex is what we recognize us to be and subconscious sex is what our brain and the subconscious tells us what we are. For most people, these two criteria match (bodily and psychological gender). However, a lot of transsexuals find themselves at crossroads when the view their conscious and subconscious sex. For instance, Julia Serano herself was physically a male but her brain told her, from her early ages, that she had more feminine qualities. She defines the mismatch of these two characteristics to be a ‘gender dissonance’ which, if plagued by it for years, could result in depression and extreme mental and psychological stress which, in turn, arise from insecurity from the society’s dictating eyes.

She asserts that if we all understood the meaning of subconscious sex and come in terms with our ‘blind spots’ (refers to the ideas and notions regarding our sexual orientation that we take for granted), we will be looking at transsexuals and any other queer gender-oriented people as equal and same human beings. The idea that ‘normal’ people should identify themselves as not ‘normal’, but heterosexuals, a member of a large group of gender orientations (according to Serano), is literally convention-shattering and extremely novel. Getting rid of our blind spot and recognizing that each person’s sexuality and gender identity are different when it comes to the fundamentals, according to Serano, will improve our understanding of the transsexual community.

Stranger Intimacy Ch 1 & 2

Text: Stranger Intimacy by Nayan Shah

Chapters: 1, 2

The rather incomprehensible and intriguingly enigmatic title, at first glance, proves to be the crux of the book, Stranger Intimacy, written by Nayan Shah.  In the text, Shah portrays the real and vivid picture of the consequences of having South Asian and Chinese immigrants in the Western North America (Vancouver, California, Seattle, etc) during the late nineteenth and in the early twentieth century. In order to enforce the validity of his observations and analyses, he presents a plenty of anecdotal evidence and interesting arguments.

According to Shah, the immigrants mainly from India and China – the so called “transient people”, mostly men, moved to Western North America to find temporary jobs and worked in ranches, lumber yards, etc. The coming of the immigrants proved to be rather intrusive to the “homosocial” communities of the predominantly white population who had already settled in these parts. The assimilation of the immigrants into the societies was made extremely difficult, if not impossible by the hatred and disgust that the white individuals and families had due to their physical and cultural differences (racial differences).  Overwhelmed by the increased population of foreign immigrants and their sense of responsibility for their own people, adult white men started to grow overprotective and accused innumerable foreigners of acts of indecency. Moreover, the increased competition for jobs further fueled this white hatred of foreign immigrants. For instance, in Fair Oaks, California in 1911, “three young white men” instigated a raid on Hindu immigrants working as lumberjacks for sexually harassing and assaulting white men in the community.  Even though “South Asian men”, Indians, escaped any kind of torture and physical assault, they were warned that they would be “killed” if they came back to the place again.

As the immigrants failed to assimilate into the existing white societies, as their number grew, they formed their own communities, hanging out in bars and sharing their experiences together. Despite of this positive atmosphere created, these communities also had their dark sides. Perhaps out of despair and loneliness (immigrants were mostly men who lived alone with their families back in their homes), much public drunkenness, violence and prostitution were rampant. Two of the quintessential examples of these communities that were geographically separated from the middle class white families and were formed by the immigrants were Chinatown and Gastown in Canada, the so-called Borderlands. Due to the proliferation of these acts of indecency, policing in these communities were tightened and a large number of foreigners were incarcerated or had to pay fines. As these immigrants or ‘strangers’ went through hardships and lived together in confined spaces, although they came from completely different backgrounds, they grew more and more intimate, understanding each other’s positions and circumstances. This fact attributes to the title of the text, Stranger Intimacy.

Personally, it is painful to see these “strangers”, who are literally strangers in the region, are discriminated and treated as inferiors in white dominant societies just because their different color and race. Although they indulge in things that are considered disgusting and indecent, I believe that their circumstances required them or almost forced them to engage in such acts.

Sexing the Body, page 1 - 16

Article: Sexing the Body

In this particular part of the text, ‘Sexing the Body’, the author, Anne Fausto-Sterling, discusses the ambiguous and indecisive line between male and female and the past attempts to separate human beings into the two conventional gender groups. By introducing to us the case of Maria Patino, a female Spanish athlete who was disqualified for being tested a male.  Sterling asserts that our social idea of gender (male or female) is crucial because it shapes the ‘politics of science’ concerning gender-related issues. In other words, the distinctions that we make as social beings affect the scientists’ research regarding the issue.

When further discussing whether gender is socially constructed or inherent to humans, Sterling suggests views from three different groups of people all of which she is a part of. Firstly, explaining the phenomenon from the perspective of the biologists using the scientific method and looking at the cells. Secondly, as a member of a group of diverse people sharing the common interest in gender identity, she re-enforces the biological explanations. Lastly, she views the issue from the feminist perspective who, by and large, believe that the atmosphere and the environment play a significant role in shaping their gender roles. They believe that “culture molds and effectively creates the body”. On the issue of the gender being a societal construction or an inborn quality, I agree with the view of Boswell who is quoted in the text and asserts that sexuality is “real” meaning an inborn biological characteristic. Sterling states “Boswell implies we are quite possibly born with particular sexual inclinations wired into our bodies. Growth, development, and the acquisition of culture show us how to express our inborn desires, he argues, but do not wholly create them.” I believe that no matter what the societal norms or more extremely speaking, taboos are, individuals are bound to express their inborn sexuality. Relating this to the earlier articles about how parents should react to their child’s gender, I believe that the right way for parents to help their child develop his or her is to be open-minded and provide a liberal environment in which he/she can exercise his/her innate gender identity freely. 

Just a little side note for my own clarification: 

According to Anne Fausto-Sterling, the author of ‘Sexing the Body’:

Sex: Sex refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined.

Gender: Gender is a physiological transformation of the self – the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction.

Gender Diversity in Native Indian Cultures

Articles:
1. Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques
2. Gender Diversity - Cross-cultural Variations

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that even in Native Indian communities, which I have never thought of (probably due to lack of awareness), there were various "non-normatively" gender-ed people. It is a pity that with the onset of the European domination of Indian tribes in the New World, Native Indians were forced to restrict their gender roles into a binary system – male or female.

In the first chapter of her text ‘Gender Diversity Cross-cultural Variations’, Serena Nanda portrays peaceful Indian communities which accepted and allowed the expression of various gender characteristics no matter what the Indians’ inborn biological sex was. It was as if it didn’t matter to them at all. For instance, men with female characteristics would wear women’s clothes in daily lives and when they were to fight in wars, they would change their clothes into those of men. Even in the professions/occupations of the gender-variant Indians, they were able to pursue a chore of their choice under the absolute flexibility of the society. Female gender variants would hunt along with men and male gender variants would take care of the household successfully. This positively leads to the fact that gender variant Indians formed the central part of the gender-discussion instead of playing a marginal role as they do in today’s world.

However, as the Europeans invaded their land as well as culture ever since the contact, Native Indians asserts that they have been under their ‘colonization’. As one of the means for ‘decolonization’ of the Native tribes that still exist in North America, they are raising issues such as abnormal gender roles present in Indian communities and conflicts that they face due to their race, class and gender. In the writing ‘Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques’, a Cherokee author Qwo-Li Driskill shows how the Europeans’ colonization of the Native Indian tribes constricted the gender variation into just two roles – male and female, with the addition of an unofficial and still disputed title, ‘two-spirited’ people (which the Europeans decided to call people with queer gender identities). The Native Indians are not just expressing their discontent about the general European rule laid upon them regarding gender roles. This seems to mean something more significant to them. In fact, through protesting against and exterminating the European cultural remnants, they intend to overthrow the still existent European control over them.

Another thing I found interesting was how the issue of gender roles is further complicated by the race, class and gender identity. The expression used, ‘doubleweaving’ which was a technique taken from the traditional way of making baskets of a Native Indian tribe, the Cherokees, denotes how sophisticated and complex the problem of solving gender roles is.

It seems to be a general contention that the present binary gender system should be abolished in order to eliminate the discrimination of the minority. I believe that the present two gender roles can be dissolved and we can eventually come up with terms that would each signify each and every gender present. Furthermore, in order to succeed in dissolving the binary gender system, I think that getting rid of our prejudices and pre-conceptions and social norms toward specific genders is an essential step. It is my firm belief that greater gender diversity will bring out a more enriched and interactive society. 

Dismantling The Existing Inequality Based On Race, Class and Gender

Article: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection by Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins’ article, ‘Race, Class and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection’, takes off by conceptualizing the idea of the race, class and gender categories and their analyses. She does this by stating that we must avoid and move our discourse away from additive analysis and the two key premises that we are so habituated to making when faced with issues in our daily lives. First premise, according to Collins, is dichotomous thinking – classifying things/people that we see into two distinct opposite groups. The second premise is the ranking of these dichotomous differences. A good example would be ‘women are inferior to men.’ Through these suggestions, Collins argues that these characteristics, in real life, interlock with each other, producing a complex set of identities that cannot be taken independently in each and every person.

Following the ‘ re-conceptualization’ of the categories and analyses, Collins delves deeply into the cases of race, class and gender discrimination in three different ways or the so-called ‘dimensions’. The first idea, ‘Institutional Dimension of Oppression’, refers to the structures of domination and subordination exacted by the social institutions such as schools, hospitals and government facilities. Secondly, the author presents the idea of the ‘Symbolic Dimension of Oppression’ by which human beings are differentiated and categorized according to the prejudices and stereotypes against them. Lastly presented is the ‘Individual Dimension of Oppression’ which arises due to the influence of the other two ‘dimensions’ in each individual in the formation of his or her preconceived notions toward certain social and ethnic groups.

Collins then proposes three methods to ‘transcend these barriers’ and ‘build the types of coalitions essential for social change’. After all, it has been observed by him that even though we passionately talk about equal opportunities and equal rights, there exist in abundance, marginalized people who are unjustly discriminated due to their gender, race, color and other inborn characteristics.  The author begins by claiming that the different circumstances that people are born under shape their privileges differently and therefore, view the world from different and often contrasting perspectives. These power and privileges are easy to go unnoticed and unappreciated. This links to the third solution that the author talks about – the power of empathy. Empathy is, according to Collins, having interest in other people’s lives. In my personal interpretation, empathy, in today’s small world in which people mix easily, does not seem to be a choice, but a necessity to resolve any issues regarding unequal treatment of people based on their ethnicity, gender and color of the skin. Lastly, the author suggests that a common enemy would encourage these different peoples and groups to bond and interact harmoniously. However, she stresses that this seems to happen based on the necessity and therefore, asserts that “we must support each other’s efforts, realizing that they are all part of the larger enterprise of bringing about social change".

Thank you! :)

Some Thoughts On 'Claiming An Education' by Adrienne Rich

This speech by Adrienne Rich which I read in the form of an article has been a great inspiration and motivation for me. Even though she was addressing the female students at that time, her assertion that students need to claim and not receive education touched me the most. Additionally, I concur with her idea that students must take responsibility for their education which means formulating their own original thoughts and actively taking up hard work and facing challenges.

Taking an idea from the other article, ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack’, by Peggy McIntosh, I tried to put myself in the shoes of women back in the old days when they were not permitted to receive or rather, ‘claim’ education.  As a student with insatiable curiosity and desire for knowledge, I believe that I would not have endured the restricting conditions that were put onto me just because of my gender. I probably would have ended up reading and solving math problems secretly hiding under my blankets or in a deserted clandestine location. As a result of this self-exercise, I learned to appreciate the opportunities that I was provided with and to not take anything for granted.

Another point that I thought critical was that the world around us (“great issues” and “major texts”), the Western civilization, is all built up by white male. This seems only natural since education was a luxury that only white men could afford to receive. As a result, all prominent positions in government and important businesses are owned by white men in the absence of women. History proves to us that most of the foundational works in philosophy, math and the sciences were developed almost exclusively by privileged white men. There is wonder that the present world view is recorded and perceived from the perspective of these white men.

In light of this fact, I believe and agree with the author’s view that students (not only female students) should challenge the pre-existing views and attempt to look at the world from their own distinct personal perspective, producing diversity of thoughts and ideas. In order for this is happen, it is, as a matter of fact, crucial to give equal opportunities to everyone and put a stop to baseless discriminations. However, the equality of gender seems to be a difficult goal to be achieved considering the fact that men hesitate and sometimes, do not acknowledge the fact that they are advantaged. According to the other article, ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack’, men are portrayed as hypocrites because they acknowledge the disadvantage the women have in numerous ways and yet, deny their advantage over them. Moreover, in most cases, they do not take any actions against this inequality.

To put my broad and lengthy view of education in a nutshell, I believe that education is the basic right that every human being has the right to claim no matter what the person’s gender identity or sexual orientation might be. It is a right that cannot be denied and the right that is extremely crucial to the development of the human society and the preservation of peace and agreements. It is through education that people become more intelligent, inquisitive and social. As Adrienne Rich asserts, female students as well as male students should strive to claim knowledge, erasing the barriers that make the play unfair to certain groups. 

I appreciate you bearing with me!