[4/4] The Lives of Transgender People by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin (Chapter 5, Appendixes & a few closing thoughts)

The Lives of Transgender People

Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin

Columbia University Press, 2011

Chapter 5 "Transgender Youth and Implications for Higher Education"

I poached a bit of quoteage already in an earlier chapter about college and university issues. But this chapter is sort of about two things at once. One section is on 'identity formation among transgender youth' and includes this;

"Because they had known about and met others like themselves from an early age, most of the younger people we interviewed reported that they began to identify as transgender while still teenagers. (…) Yet few of the older participants indicated that they had acknowledged being transgender during adolescence, which suggests that these results reflect a shift in transgender identity formation and no merely survey bias"(161).

On the university theme, the authors note that "more than 90 percent of two- and four-year institutions in the United States have not taken any of these steps and remain completely inaccessible and inhospitable to transgender students"(163). The 'steps' they refer to are any of those things one imagines would be required to make transgender students welcome.

This chapter ends with this;

"By identifying themselves in multigendered ways, transgender and other gender-nonconforming youth are radically changing the definition of gender and how gender identity will be viewed in the future. Long gone are the days when gender could be limited to the categories of men and women. But so, too, is the time when transgender can be considered a catchall third option, creating a gender 'trinary.' We live in a world where gender is more complex and more fluid. It is not enough to dispense with the notion of a gender binary; we must embrace and celebrate the idea that gender is bound only by the limits of people's spirits."(166)

& ya know, I do respond to the hint of utopia at the end of that passage, I really do. I wish that we had the volunteeristic control of our gender which this might be read as implying. But I guess I've soaked up too much psychoanalysis or something, but it seems to me that while so much of that last paragraph is spot on, that if Beemyn & Rankin are implying that we can devise the gender that we desire to inhabit (which they may well not being saying at all), then I'd have to be skeptical. 

Any "identity" would be a montage of Symbolic and Imaginary components, would be better denoted (from my POV) not as an identity at all, but as an identification. Perhaps the primary identification or at the very least one of the most primary identifications, but still, nonetheless, an identification, not a guarantee of language having captured being.

The Appendixes, of which there are 3, which give us the survey itself, the interview protocols and a review of the stats. I got nothing much to say about any of that stuff. 

For a book with only 230 pages, this packs quite a punch. I was quite sparing above in my use of the stories and voices of the respondents, in part to make me focus a bit more on the stats and so that I don't give too many spoilers.  You should read it - this is my claim. 

I lack the experience to respond to the Milestones model but I'd be most interested to see any reviews of the book by trans people. There are probably a bunch of them out there already, but I've yet to search.

There have been many in recent months to either express an unparticularized curiosity about my interest in trans issues, or a blunt question along the lines of "what's with all this trans stuff you're writing about?"  I find myself listening to these questions and now and then trying, a bit at least, to answer. But, I cannot help but to suspect that there are other questions unspoken. That is, I am more than willing usually to try and speak to how thinking about trans issues is meaningfully linkable to my interests in psychoanalysis, queer theory, the body, voice, and much else. & if much that I am reading is not expressly theoretical, this is because I am leery about theorizing in this area without knowing a lot more than I know at present.

But having answered as above, I notice in many instances that there is a hint of my having failed to answer something. I do not know that anyone might be wondering if I am about to transition to woman, but the answer there is Yes, absolutely - I started hormones last month! The preceding claims are not true. I was hoping that you might have thought so for a second. Nor am I, by focusing on this literature, attempting to stake any sort of new or modified identity claim with regard to myself - though I suspect that realignments of my identifications are surely possible, and may in fact be on-going though at a snail's pace much of the time. Beyond that, I think I will remain silent, though acknowledging that the old chestnut from psychology programs does hold true here; "research is me-search" … though it remains to say exactly how that is the case for me. 

[3/4] The Lives of Transgender People by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin (Chapters 3 & 4 & various digressions)

The Lives of Transgender People

Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin

Columbia University Press, 2011

Chapter 3 "The Climate for Transgender People"

"Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating." ~ Gwendolyn Ann Smith (quoted at 90)

That quote doesn't appear until later in the chapter, but seems to deserve foregrounding. I've read that a dozen times now but it continues to disturb me, perhaps more rather than less as I think more about it. How about this one: Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to C.E.O.-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. Were this case it doesn't seem far-fetched to imagine martial law and curfews here in the U. S. of A.

Turning to the book…

I think most folks have an immediate idea of what is meant the "climate" here. Beemyn & Rankin of course have had to parse that and quantify and so forth. They've also both been interested in how these issues play out on college and university campuses, which suits me too. Quotes mostly…

"Among the 1,669 self-identified LGBT students, faculty, and administrators surveyed nationwide, 36 percent of the undergraduates and 29 percent of all respondents had experienced harassment over the past year. Ninety-two percent (68) of the transgender respondents reported that they were the targets of harassment because of their gender identity" (85).

Unsurprisingly campuses that care and think about these issues, drafting guidelines and so forth, do better (as research dutifully demonstrates, though it would seem a no-brainer at another level).

"Despite the beneficial outcomes of having LGBT-inclusive policies and programs, relatively few institutions have implemented these changes. Currently, 595 colleges and universities offer protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, with 392 of these school enjoining discrimination also on the basis of gender identity. More than 400 institutions provide health care benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. These numbers seem large, but the LGBT-inclusive campuses account for only a small percentage of accredited colleges and universities in the United States. As a result, many LGBT students, staff, and faculty continue to experience the campus climate as hostile and isolating and frequently victims of discrimination and harassment. In fact, physical and verbal harassment of LGBT individuals has been reported on every campus where research has been conducted" (86).

"Students are coming out as transgender on college campuses across the country. Although these students have unique needs related to programming, housing, bathrooms and locker rooms, physical and mental health care, and records and documents, most colleges and universities offer little or no support for this growing population" (87).

Beemyn & Rankin adopt the terms Genderism (which was mentioned earlier), Transphobia and Gender bashing defining them as follows;

GENDERISM "is the ideology that there as, and should be, only two genders and that all or most aspects of one's gender are inevitably tied to the gender assigned at birth. Genderism reinforces negative attitudes toward gender nonconformity, or the incongruence between assigned gender and gender identity/expression. Much like heterosexism, genderism is a source of both social oppression and psychological shame; in can be imposed on a person, and a person may internalize that ideology" (89).

TRANSPHOBIA "or gender prejudice is the irrational fear, hatred, and/or discriminatory treatment of people whose actual or perceived gender identity/expression does not conform to society's expectations" (89).

GENDER BASHING "refers to the assault and/or harassment of individuals who are transgender" and this it is "the violent manifestation" of Transphobia / Genderism" (89).

"Genderism and gender prejudice may also present transgender victims of hate crimes with special psychological challenges, such as intensified self-hatred, higher levels of depression and anxiety, a loss of confidence, and a heightened sense of vulnerability" (89).

"From verbal harassment to threats of violence, from acts of discrimination to the destruction of property, from assaults to even murder - people who are (or are perceived as) transgender often face a hostile social climate. Violent behavior and hostility is an estimated four times higher for transgender individuals when compared with the national average. Transgender people are more likely to experience hostile or aggressive familial interaction, more likely to be kicked out of their homes by parents, more likely to become homeless or live below the poverty line, and less likely to be employed" (90).

"Only twelve states and the District of Columbia currently include crimes based on gender identity/expression in hate crime laws, and only fifteen states and the District of Columbia have laws to protect people from discrimination based on their gender identity/expression" (90).

There is clear evidence that if a crime is classes as a hate crime that it is more likely to be solved, so the finding that "Almost three-quarters of the attacks against transgender individuals were not classified as hate crimes, often despite clear evidence to the contrary" (92) one is forced to wonder what it would take to make law enforcement feel this discrepancy. Of course with one person dying a month already, perhaps it would have to involve terrorists? 

The authors consider claims that such hate crimes can be explained as reactions to the breaking of gender rules, and the common "explanatory" scenarios that are offered in accounts of violence against transgender people, where perpetrators are predatory mad dog types and the victims, like rape victims generally, were 'asking for it' somehow ("what was she wearing?") - and they conclude that these explanations are inadequate and "simply extensions of the traditional discourse" (they are quoting others here, 93). Further considerations convince the authors that many factors are involved in anti-trans hate crimes, but they note specifically that "the intersection of racism and genderism may increase bias crimes against transgender people of color" is particularly marked & that is not surprising as "almost all of the transgender participants of color had been physically assaulted" (99).

The rest of this chapter looks the respondent's responses to the climate they find themselves in and how they experience this, sometimes hiding themselves, other times being fearful. It also considers the negative impacts that being trans has on these people's work lives, being passed over for promotion, losing their jobs, being harassed at work, etc. The authors look at these sorts of factors with other factors like age, race, and 'outness.' All in all it makes it sort of embarrassing to be human when you really think about it… "more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate."

Chapter 4 "Developmental Milestones of Different Transgender Groups"

This is the longest chapter of the book and may be the most interesting. Beemyn & Rankin begin the chapter with a quick review of earlier developmental models, those proposed by Anne Bolin, Frank Lewins and Henry Rubin assessing the strong points and weakness of each (110-114). Next the authors begin to explain their 'Milestone Schema";

"Unlike many theories of transgender identity development, our milestone schema is not a stage or step model - even though there // is a seemingly 'natural' progression through the milestones from confusion, guilt, and shame to self-acceptance and a sense of wholeness. Moreover, not all milestones are relevant to all individuals within a transgender group, and even people who experience the same milestone will likely do so in different ways" (114-115). Some of these 'milestones' will be skipped by some respondents, they are not experienced in any one rigid sequence, and these 'milestones' are themselves derived from the survey responses.

They also note differences in life trajectories between those who grew up without access to information about transgender versus those who did, with the former group tending to pass through a number of 'identities' along the way before finding the one that suited them best and younger respondents have less conflict and less time devoted to finding the identity term which helped them to live as they wished to live. 

In many ways this is the richest chapter in this book, but that richness also poses challenges for my task here. The authors provide a chart on page 116 "Table 4.1 Milestones for each gender group" that would be very handy right now as it condenses the 'milestones' for the four groups described (FTM, MTF, CD & GQ) into a single page, sadly though when I search for it by name, I get only the googlebooks page for this book and that crucial page 116 is "not a part of this preview."  

As such, I decided to use a randomizing method of sorts to select which of the four groups' milestones I would talk about here. [Insert chunk chunk sound of an old IBM here to stand in for the randomizing procedure, then it makes a BING noise, and ta-da!]

Female to Male Transsexual Milestones

Feeling and often expressing a male gender identity from a young age

[Rickey] "I would deny it [that he was a girl] until I couldn't breathe, but it never made any difference to anyone else."

[Robert] "I alternated doubting my sanity or their honesty or whether something weird happened (…) The world was this gigantic fraud and everyone in it, even the most loving people around me in childhood, didn't love me - they loved something they made up." (117)

…I had reread this section of the book yesterday and then last night was having dinner with my dear sister and her family and noting to myself the steep increase in recent weeks of their child Shithead (Not his real name, I am protecting his identity) refusing things. Breeders and child cultists will be unable to hear much of what I am about to write given that in their heads they are all instructing me on how I should think abut this stuff, but if that is not you,. then perhaps you will hear me. What I am seeing Shithead doing a great deal lately happens like this. Someone says dinner is ready. He asks what it is. Someone tells him. He picks out the name of some ingredient or component of the meal (regardless of whether he knows what it is) and objects strenuously to any meal containing the offending substance (currants, and mango in recent exemplary moments of this dynamic). & it occurred to me that parents, already struggling to keep on keeping on in spite of the diminished cognitive capacities that their life choices have imposed upon them (sis gave me the finger at this point, though I note that she was laughing), are probably now and then in a pretty tough spot. The resolute rejection of currants and hence of one's dinner can at least be dealt with by going to bed hungry or some other method for those parents who have ceded control to the child (i.e., cake and ice cream). But while this is very trivial example, how would a parent be able to tell whether a refusal of some seemingly obvious trait (like being male or female in the eyes of most parents who are not grad students tuned in to gender issues and whatnot) is part of a general strategy of refusal that is taking place (in which foods, weather, that is it is a school day, etc can all be refused with great gusto) and when it relates to something more significant. I got no solution for this, just appreciating the challenge this must be for the parents of a child who feels mis-sorted into the M or F box. So, big props to those parents who somehow figure it out and still love and support their kids.  

[& note to self: think of but do not actually send a Thank You card to that asshole doctor that gave me the vasectomy… during the procedure he and I got into an argument prompted by my reading de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life - weird, huh?] 

Repressing or hiding one's male gender identity in the face of hostility and/or isolation

…elsewhere in my notes and poachings from this book I made mention of a difference that young girls, but not young boys, who are gender-nonconforming can at times access as a means of 'being themselves' - that is, the role of tomboy. The survey brings out the stat that only about 1/3rd of FtM transsexuals found this option available (117) and even where given, it seems to have an expiration date - puberty (118). What caught my eye here is the 1/3rd - I'd have expected that it was somewhat higher than that. Stupid me. 

Thinking of oneself as lesbian, but realizing over time it was not a good fit

"Some of the transsexual men whom we surveyed initially felt that a lesbian identity was the best way to characterize their lives. Not only did it explain their interest in women, but it also gave them the freedom to present in more traditionally masculine ways." (119)

This strategy, while affording some relief also highlighted why 'lesbian' was not an adequate identification as well. As one respondent, Nathan states it, he was unable to "pass as a woman emotionally." (119)

Realizing that there are FTM individuals and that transitioning is possible

[Kyle] "it never occurred to me that I could actually live as a guy."(121)

Learning about and meeting other transsexual men

"Two-thirds of the FTM interviewees discussed the importance of other transsexual men in their identity process, and nearly 60 percent indicated that the Internet, books, and/or the news media played a critical role. These findings are in line with other studies."(121)

Overcoming denial and internalized genderism to accept oneself as male

[Rej] "to admit to myself I was [a transsexual] was a long and difficult stage."(122)

Taking hormones and having top surgery to look more like self-image

The survey reveals that top surgery is very common and much desired by trans men… 62% had it already, 19% planning to, and 5% saying that they didn't need to bc of small breasts, the remaining 9% including some of are not sure yet, have only begun to transition or are not interested in top surgery(123).

"In contrast, genital or bottom surgery was not important to most of the transsexual male respondents."(123)

Only a few of the survey respondents had had a metoidioplasty and only one a phalloplasty.(124) 

"Most had rejected bottom surgery because of the inauthenticity and unattactiveness of the results, the risks and complications, and the lack of phallic functionality. Given that many transsexual men do not have genital surgery, Rachlin concludes that 'restricting the definition of an FTM to someone who requests a risky, costly, [and] often technologically inadequate surgery is unrealistic'."(124)

Whether and when to tell others, and developing new relationships after disclosure

"After transitioning, most of the transsexual men surveyed were readily seen by others as men and could choose whether or not to tell new friends and acquaintances about their female-assigned pasts. Some of the respondents were open about their transsexual histories, considering it a part of their identity and often wanting to educate cisgender people about transgender issues. Others sought // to leave their previous lives behind them. Now that they could finally be themselves and be recognized as men, they did not want to provide an opportunity for people to think of them as less than other men."(124-125)

Having a sense of wholeness as a different kind of man

"…respondents developed a sense of themselves as a different kind of man - a man who had been born and raised female and who still had elements of a 'female' body. They did not feel that these distinctions made them 'incomplete' or less 'real' than other men."(125)

The authors are underscore the psychic & emotional relief that transitioning brings to so many of these people(126). That factor strikes me as one of the most important ones to make as well as to keep in the forefront of one's mind when trying to understand, or more modestly, to appreciate transgender experiences.

This chapter of course gave a great deal more information about FTM folks that I have poached or glossed here and it does so for MTFs, CDs and Genderqueer folks too. I underlined and annotated a great deal throughout this chapter could I suppose extend my survey of this chapter my many thousands of words, but I'll leave that aside for now in hopes that anyone who has read this much of what I have posted will perhaps just buy the book themselves.

One thing about all of this which makes me quite happy is this: Information is a threat after all! That's right Jerry Falwell and co. & all the "Gender Defenders" too - one aspect of your otherwise paranoid, creepy and evil Weltanschauung, the fear that if people learn about X, Y or Z that they might want to do it or be it or become it… is true! Information is not neutral! Regardless of how ineffectual one might feel as a GTA with social and political beliefs, somewhere, maybe even right next door, people are fundamentally changing their lives because of stuff they learn. Of course there are many teachers teaching some variety of utter bullshit, so there is no need to do the group hug just yet, but still. 

[to be continued]

[2/4] The Lives of Transgender People, by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin (Chapter 2 and a bunch of my wandering thoughts)

The Lives of Transgender People

Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin

Columbia University Press, 2011

Chapter 2 "Experiences of Transgender Identity"

…though both the introduction and chapter one were sprinkled with capsule details about various peoples' lives as a means of illustrating this or that point derived from the details, both also read a whole bunch of data being given as a narrative of sorts. While that dynamic characterizes much of this text, in the 2nd chapter and after, I at least began to find the reading more engrossing and the quotes and short narratives of people became more interesting as well. This chapter begins with a quote from one of the respondents Jeri, who writes;

"Since I was a child, I realized I could not express my feelings, and forced myself to present myself as a man. It is one of the loneliest decisions a child could ever make. No one can know you." (39, my emphasis). 

…[Autobiographical Alert] this quote threw me back into memories, not memories of making this precise lonely decision, but after getting in trouble a couple of times, once ending in a huge blow-up of rage from my father because I was both "talking like" and "acting like" a fag - he said, and worse yet - I did this in front of his tennis buddies. The first of the two times that this behavior took place (which I honestly do not recall as such, only remembering the attitude that it provoked and that I was playing backgammon with my a neighbor while my dad waited to play the winner) I must admit that I didn't quite know what it was I had done though it had to do with my speech and that sitting quietly through a grueling period of looking contrite was probably in order (look at all that internalization! I was a master at that age already.). But the second time, I do recall the scenario a bit more. I was in a good mood, I'd been inside the house of the guy who owned the tennis court and I'd spoken with his wife who I thought was as beautiful as a movie star and thus I always felt very quiet and still when I saw her and probably I stared a lot, but she was always very kind to me and actually asked me questions and then heard my answers. I'd been talking with her in the kitchen I think and I went outside feeling a bit giddy and happy somehow - I'd made her laugh a lot, and I liked making people laugh - and I recall racing from the house to the tennis courts where the game had ended or a break was being taken or something and the four men who had been playing doubles, all sat drinking in lawn chairs under a big umbrella. One asked me what I had been doing and I launched into an account of whatever I had been talking about inside with one of them's wife. I do not recall what I said, but that I had a sense that I was performing and that all were watching me and that maybe I was being funny again, who knows, maybe I was on a role. I was asked something and I answered and everyone laughed but my father who stood up a moment later and grabbing his stuff and my arm, dragged me out of there. In the car he started shouting at me. It is probably true that I was not a very self-reflective child at times, certainly I learned a strategy with my volatile father, of always just assuming guilt when in trouble and acting contrite and just oh so damned sorry until his anger and then his post-angry lecturing phase was over. & I remember many times when in that space, seated silently while he lecture ranted at me, that I often was not at all sure what I had done or if I knew, often why it was bad was a mystery to me. & so while none of this compares that well to the quote I typed in above, I did make a lonely decision of my own which had to do with how I'd comport myself when addressing adults, especially men, and particularly if my father was present. As I do not think I fully understood why whatever I had said was faggy or embarrassing to my father, I sort of thought of the problem as my showing too much cheer or playfulness and sure enough, when I spoke to adults and listened and answered them in a very serious and considered manner (minus large hand gestures and such), this led to positive attributions being made about me to my father, which usually was a good thing for the vibe between he and I. 

. . . returning to the text now, this chapter considers the responses to questions like When did you first begin to sense that there was something different about yourself? and then How did you experience and understand this difference? through to questions about uncertainty and confusion, various strategies used to respond to these feelings, such as being a tomboy, a relatively common social ascription for behaviors that allowed many female assigned-at-birth subjects a good deal more wiggle room during childhood and adolescence that male assigned-at-birth children didn't have as an option (is there a way to understand this other than as simply supporting the gender norm's presumption that being more masculine is understandable - go patriarchy, go team! - and so not pathological? I can't think of any other.) Of course even for those to some degree comfortable through these years, as tomboys with non-evil parental units let's say, puberty can come still as an unpleasant shock and is also a time when tomboyishness is expected to dim and traditional feminine modes to come to the fore. Here is a detail that I found interesting;

"For the most part, the cross-dressing (CD) individuals we surveyed did not want to change their bodies permanently to look more female; however, a few of the CD interviewees still experienced a profound sense of loss when their bodies began to virilize" (49, my emphasis).

Vin Diesel vs The Rock
...it took me a long time not to just
want to be something else entirely...

…the CD respondents to this survey tended to be older, just as those identifying outside the gender binary, as genderqueer, etc, tended to be younger. That creates some odd results here and there if one does not keep the age difference in mind, as the authors are careful to point out each time such a finding appears. Cross-dressing is perhaps phasing out somewhat as an identity term as well, given that it is said to be rare amongst younger trans people (maybe, if this survey is a gauge of that, seems like there are still a lot of cross-dressers around). What I found interesting above though is that "a few" cross-dressers recalled a sense of loss at puberty, when their pre-adolescent bodies began to change in ways that hurt.  Presumably by not evolving toward womanly characteristics. But the word chosen is loss. My immediate thought is that the preadolescent body felt more able to embody those characteristics in play and so forth and acted more stably as an anchor for those identifications. But thinking of the dynamics of mirroring, Imaginary identification with the external image, taken as gestalt, etc… Just as, with Lacan's mirror stage, there does not have to be a mirror per se for the sudden psychic (cognitive?) step that this concept refers to to take place - the child can identify with the image of the sibling or an adult, etc. and still accomplish the same task: initiating the first fix of one's body Imaginary in that ah-ha gestalt-like "moment" (I scare quote moment because, as I have discussed somewhere else I think, that I think we risk deforming the structural significance of the mirror stage of we see the truth of it as a chronological moment & yeah, that may be at odds with what Lacan has to say in that text - but his thinking changes over time too). But leaving that hazy and somewhat 'logical' rather that 'chronological' moment for the many subsequent moments in one's identificatory history. Don't kids identify with all manner of Imaginarized "identities" or even just images, all the time? I did, but I also recall feeling at times like roles in play that I'd liked in some ways to have played simply didn't fit - didn't accord with me somehow, with "what I had to work with" (to quote Hedwig). I'm not speaking so much of female parts in childhood game scenarios as certain male roles which were too much for me somehow - I'm having a hard time thinking back to what those were exactly - but to give a contemporary reference, if kids did and still do 'play Star Wars' and so forth, well, think of any Vin Diesel movie, Pitch Black or whatever. There was a period in my preadolescence when imagining myself into the starring role in such a form of play would have somehow just not worked for me, but then as elementary school progressed and I was then associating much more with other boys than with girls, and whatever and there was my father to contend with, etc. so of course I learned how to invest in the hypermasculine as fantasy space. 

But again… where was the thread here? 

I feel like I'm on the trail of something and having a hard time getting a hold of it.

excrete excrete excrete qwerty expulsion sequence activated!

Maybe I could say this, 

If to a degree (note the qualification), the available terms for the designating of one's identity act to delimit the possibilities for understanding and living it (certainly Meyerowitz's How Sex Changed gives the impression again and again that for trans people, learning about others and about the terms and designations was crucial for many in coming to some self-understanding) - and 

If (bear with me) the body, especially the Real of the body (the body of the drives, of jouissance, etc), is always going to frustrate perfect or non-discrepant capture by the Imaginary or Symbolic - and

If post "mirror stage" all subsequent identifications would seem - even such things as "knowing what one looks like" or "knowing one's position on [some issue]" to always potentially be in some degree of flux (think of the quote above about the changes in sexual orientation over a lifetime) even as they are being 're-tied' again and again (many button-ties, quilting points, points de capiton - pick your term) by being performed, imposed/imputed, articulated, cathected, differently than before to some degree - and

If the failure of relations between language and body inherent to being a sexed being at all is constitutive of any and every symbolic identity available or constructible for an embodied being, rather than the effect of poorly chosen terms or that there is not enough knowledge or whatever - and

If, without contradicting the preceding point, we can also observe that there are better and worse 'fits' at the level of the Imaginary and the Symbolic, and by better I mean that they accord with other identifications that may be in large part unconscious and with the drives and desires of that subject, and which are important in allowing the subject to feel that this or that set of identifications (read: "identity") is adequate and livable (and how different is this ultimately from the observation that different explanations are available for any sequence of events and that we navigate multiple explanatory 'fields' often when considering a problem before settling on one which seems best to fit) - then...

If all of that stuff, 

Perhaps the sense of loss that the CDs above refer to is the palpable loss of all those identifications and thus the problematizing of remaining identifications which had been variously cathected with these which are now 'lost' (for those with no comparable cross gender identifications to ponder here, think of the impact that other sorts of loss have upon people - the death of a child, the end of a love, revoking of one's medical or legal credentials, betrayals, etc)

Then, if this was palpable and saddening for these young cross-dressers, how much harder would it be if virtually all of one's most persistent and undeniable identifications were as the other sex? - and

If, as is so common to read, trans people who are denied HRT and surgeries and put through one embarrassment after another, thwarted in their every attempt to live differently, are at high risk for suicide… why would that be surprising? If all one's most profound subjective identifications are denied or refused by one's social surround, if the body is used as evidence against the feelings of the person whose body it is such that identifications are continually challenged or undermined or redescribed as mental illness? If relatively stable sets of relating and reinforcing identifications are what allow any person to be who they are for themselves and to position who they are for themselves within a social world in a way that is meaningfully connected to social and cultural values and practices - then denying all that or explaining it away at every turn would look like the plan were one actually attempting to provoke suicide in someone. 

So, when the next chapter includes this statistic; "The proportion of transgender youth who attempted suicide in 2006 was 20 percent higher than LGB youth and almost five times higher than the U.S. average for all youth" (90)… might we be justified in observing that the lack of social space for identifications is dangerous?

Maybe, and very "maybe" too, if it is the case that the number of people who are identifying as trans in some way is increasing, due to the availability of better terms and a greater variety of instantiations of what it might be to live this or that set of identifications, we could read those instances when cross-dressers (an older population in the survey) refer to a sense of loss attendant upon puberty, these feelings could be read as tremors in the Symbolic, foreshadowings of the quakes to come [Even if it were true that in terms of percentages of the world population, trans people comprise a relatively consistent number, the option not to hide or deny those identifications has emerged and become generative for so many people is all that is needed to account for the perception that the number is rising… I do not know the number and have no clue, just speculating - plus without stats for the past, how could one compare?]

hm. 

but this is sort of about that book still right?  The Lives of Transgender People by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin. That was the plan at least. So, a few more quotes from this chapter that caught my eye & I'll close. 

Some of the other commonalities that the authors discovered in trans life histories included strategies of denial that there was anything wrong or different, for instance diving into hypermasculine activities to establish or ground oneself as male (which probably had the effect of causing others to read these people as men doing men stuff, but seemingly never acted very compellingly to anchor identifications of oneself as sexed being) (50-51). …Or having trouble settling on an identity that would proven sustainable "many of the respondents, especially those who grew up in the 1940s through 1980s, initially did not understand their experiences or have the appropriate language to describe them, leading many to remain confused or to mischaracterize their identities" (51).

From here the text looks at the moment of acceptance of a transgender identity, the importance of support groups and the internet, of socializing with other trans people, as well as coming out to family, friends and acquaintances, at work, etc. 

[to be continued]

[1/4] The Lives of Transgender People, by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin (Introduction & Chapter 1)

The Lives of Transgender People

Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin

Columbia University Press, 2011

This small and densely packed book is the result of a relatively massive nationwide survey with something like 3,500 participants, all of whom went through an online survey, a smaller but still significant group are then interviewed in person or by phone. Then come the stats. At which my eyes always water after a time. Beemyn & Rankin's original survey, amongst all its Likert scales solicits the respondents to say more, telling them that "Quotes will also be used throughout the report to give 'voice' to the quantitative data" (168), which is what makes this a much more readable report than it would have been otherwise. This is now a very theoretical review of this book, I am mostly just pulling quotes, glossing the chapters, going on rare tangents through autobiography or a bit of Lacan… but what I got from this book was a lot of data and a greater appreciation for the complexity that I knew already was complex but wow, really, this stuff is complex. Not, the book or the concepts and definitions in play so much - but the realities of the people who are the living breathing subjects of this study. I am trying as well to be more attentive to definitional issues in this text - not because I am arguing that these are the terms to use or the best tools or whatever (how would I know) but because they do seem flexible and feel to me at least to be derived from analysis of concrete situations rather than being looked for and therefore found. Flexible terms which do not erase the specificity of any of those designated and are useful in furthering the discussion and understanding of the lives of these people is surely in need.

In her forward to the book, Shannon Minter, draws attention to a number of things, other than the size, which distinguish this study from others; the flexible and somewhat novel classificatory schema; that survey respondents are given many opportunities to elaborate and are enjoined to share their own preferred terms and concepts of identity, pronoun preferences and the like. 

"Past studies of transgender people have generally failed to include people with nonbinary identities, perhaps in part because the task of definition is so daunting. [The authors] recognized that attempting to define who counts as transgender would hinder, rather than advance, their ability to study a community in which new identities are rapidly emerging" (viii). 

The text is laid out with an introduction, then five chapters, then a few appendixes. What these are up to is something like this;

The Introduction 

… talks about the development of transgender studies, noting how early work in this area did not solicit terms of self-description from those being studied (i.e., it imposed its terms) and with notable exceptions was written by non-trans people. There is discussion of transvestite clubs and associations and the degree to which some explicitly excluded anyone male who wanted to be a woman, as well as any self-professed homosexuals or bisexuals, accepting only heterosexual men who desired to appear as women while retaining a heterosexual orientation (2-3). But the period of the cross-dresser seems to be on the wane and the research will show that most of those who identify as such are significantly older and that younger folks opt for different terms, including those outside the M/F duo. 

… it turns then to questions of definition and description, observing that "For much of the twentieth century, the literature on cross-dressers, transsexual people, and other gender-diverse individuals was reductive and pathologizing" [psychoanalysis alert: "psychoanalysts such as William Steckel (1930) subsequently characterized 'transvestities' as men who were 'latent homosexuals' or in denial about their homosexuality] (5). But after touring quickly through the DSM's terms and also dispensing with the idea of "primary" and "secondary" transsexuals forwarded by someone as hierarchical "unnecessarily judgmental and of little value" the authors write;

"Our approach in undertaking this research was that cross-dressing, transsexuality, and other transgender identities are no less 'natural' or 'legitimate' than the dominant gender categories of women and men" (5-6).

"Our research also differs from many previous studies in that we did not seek to define who qualified to be counted as transgender. All people living in the United States who currently identify as transgender or gender nonconforming in some way or who have identified as transgender in the past (i.e., FTM and MTF individuals who have transitioned and no longer consider themselves transgender) were encouraged to participate. (…) we will be using the word 'transgender' as a general term for all individuals whose gender histories cannot be described as simply female or male, even if they now identify and express themselves as strictly female or male" (6).

… then there is a bunch of stuff about methodology, and if you want that, buy the book. Theoretically pertinent too though is that the authors have constructed a model of trans identity formation (to be mentioned below someplace) from the research findings.

Chapter 1

…continues the definitional labor to orient readers to the framing assumptions of the survey and as well to clarify the terms used within the survey itself. I'll quote poach for a bit.

Writing of the sexing of the newborn, "If the infant has a penis, then it is a boy; if the infant does not, then it is a girl. Gender assignment is thus medicalized, phallocentric, and dichotomous" (15) that would be phallic reasoning, but not because the penis is the phallus. Though I wonder if the authors would agree.

Next they consider the powerful effects of language, of the very terms chosen to describe anyone and observe that "There are no neutral terms related to transgender people and there are no neutral systems of classification, treatment, or strategies of empowerment. The basic point of contention pits biology against social construction; as a practical reality for transgender individuals, this means a choice between having surgery or finding acceptance and empowerment without surgery" (16-17).

"Our language's emphasis on polarity (good-bad, wrong-right, male-female) also makes it difficult to think of sex, gender, gender identity, and gender expression as existing within a more dynamic framework that is inclusive of transgender people" (17).

…so then, SEX

"Sex or biological gender is typically defined as one's biophysiological makeup. Although often reduced to genitalia, sex is established through the complex interplay between genetic, hormonal, gonadal, biochemical, and anatomical determinants that affect the physiology of the body and sexual differentiation in the brain. Approximately 1.7 percent of the world's population does not fit the biological categories - once presumed to be immutable - of female and male" and though they don't fit, "they are made to fit into a gender binary" (18). 

[1.7% of the world pop & btw, 1.7% of 6,840,507,003 = 116,288,619… that's people. More people than there are in Mexico, almost as many as Japan. According to wikipedia (the friendly superego!) the pop of the Atlanta metro area is 5,268,860… so 22 times as many folks as we got here in the greater ATL]

"…the prevalence of individuals with disorders of sex development (DSD) and their negative responses to unnecessary surgical interventions challenge the fundamental assumption that physical characteristics unequivocally define male and female" …recognize through here that gigantic number above is about DSD cases so called, and isn't an estimate about the number transgender people world wide (in the sense of the term they are using) though I'd be curious to see such an estimate (it would probably be a very fuzzy estimate).

…next up, GENDER

"Similar to biological sex, gender has traditionally been considered a dichotomous social construction: one is either a man or a woman" (…) quoting Gayle Rubin, gender is the "socially imposed division of the sexes that transforms males and females into 'men' and 'women'" (…) …then referring to many other authors they gloss a general position about gender which "suggests that physical differences between women and men are used to rationalize distinctions in expectations and opportunities based on gender and changing notions about what is considered to be gender-appropriate behavior, a binary model or women and men - of femaleness and maleness - remains intact (…) identities that do not align are pathologized as undesirable but treatable mental disorders" (19).

"Society does not offer an social or biological territory for individuals who exist between sexes and genders" (20).

…but gender is not just the term boy or girl given at birth (gender or sex assignment) but a bunch of other sociocultural stuff. Here is how Beemyn & Rankin parse this stuff, beginning with GENDER ATTRIBUTION

"how others perceive one's gender"

…which can have to do with GENDER ROLES

"the behaviors that are culturally coded as masculine or feminine"

…whereas GENDER IDENTITY

"refers to an individual's sense of hir own gender, which may be different from one's birth gender or how others perceive one's gender. The centering of gender on an individual's self-concept, instead of on the person's biological sex, creates a discursive space that allows for a more nuanced understanding of gender" (20)

…& GENDER EXPRESSION

"refers to how one chooses to indicate one's gender identity or others through behavior and appearance, which includes clothing, hairstyle, makeup, voice and body characteristics' and, importantly it "can very over time" (21)

…but GENDERISM is more ideological, and

"refers to the beliefs and practices that privilege stable, binary gender identities/expressions and that subordinate and disparage transgender people and other individuals who do not adhere to dominant gender expectations. The term encompasses individual acts of discrimination as well as systemic and institutionalized inequalities (…) Genderism is also evident in the binary basis of much of the language involving gender - from the ays in which women and men are conceptualized, to the lack of acceptance for gender-neutral pronouns, to the common use of gendered forms of address such as 'sir' and 'ma'am'" (21).

With these terms in place they turn to a considerations (with many tables) of the survey respondents wrt many of these terms' referents, noting though that "even people who use a common terminology can have a very different understanding of what those words mean. It was in this section that I found the information mentioned in a previous posting about the 479 unique responses to the question of the respondent's gender identity. Also in this chapter we get the classificatory system that Beemyn & Rankin will use. This appears to me to be smartly chosen as well, the authors use four broad boxes or frames MTF/T (male to female/ transgender), FTM/T (female to male/transgender) where these two categorizations capture both those who identify simply in accord with their gender identity as well as those who describe themselves as transsexual or transgender, etc - and then MTDG and FTDG (male or female, to "different gender") which is the author's convenient catch-all for any and all subjects whose terms of self-identification are not M, F but but something else. 

…in considering the race of the survey respondents I note the detail that "the largest group was American Indians (152 people)" and that this finding is congruent with another study which also found the highest number of trans people amongst American Indians where it comprised 6% of the people in their study. I note it just because it seemed notable (snick)… i.e., I thought it interesting and would be curious to know a bit more about its prevalence within Native American communities versus other communities - is it more or less common there? etc.

…the sexual orientation of respondents had quite a few details of some interest to me. After noting Kinsey's research the authors concur that sexual orientation varies with many degrees of difference, but that it is "usually discussed more narrowly in terms of three distinct, immutable categories: heterosexual, gay/lesbian, and bisexual" (31).

"Theorists in these areas suggest that sexual orientation is inherently flexible and that it develops continuously over the life span out of an individual's sexual and emotional experiences, social interactions, and cultural influences. From this standpoint, individuals may experience transitions in sexual orientation throughout their lives" (32). 

…with ref. to the straight-bi-gay tripartite divisions generally assumed they ask "How does a female-presenting cross-dresser who is attracted to men while cross-dressed, but to women when not in 'women's' clothing, identify hirself?" (32).

"Almost one-third of the study respondents (1,120 people) reported that their sexual orientation was bisexual" (33).

…considering issues of 'physical, emotional and cognitive challenges' amongst the respondents, the research findings show that the "prevalence of these conditions in the transgender population appears to be no greater than in the cisgender population" (35). 

[to be continued]