Crafting Language: Transmasculine

One thing that fascinates me (and gives me endless headaches) is the proliferation of gender terms in the queer realm. A search on Wikipedia for one of these outside-the-gender-binary terms will lead you to several others, and there continues to be more are popping up here and there as people try to come up with words that comfortably convey how, or who, they understand themselves to be. New terms are often used by only a small group of people, and even many of the older terms are not known in mainstream America.

How such terms arise and are negotiated in lgbtq communities is worthy of investigation. I am already in the middle of a project that examines social negotiation of the transgender category in an lgbtq community, but I feel prompted to examine new language that arises in queer communities in general as well. I plan on doing some research into this phenomenon in the coming weeks, drawing largely on linguistic studies of language and sexuality and language and gender. I want to examine the functionality of newly crafted terms like transgender and transmasculine among people who use those terms, as the terms are intimately connected to the formation of identity.

Here are some terms I have encountered, in no particular order, boi, grrl, transman, transwoman, womyn, drag king, drag queen, flaming queen, queer, genderqueer, androgyne, third gender, polygender, cisgendered, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual, multisexual, butch, femme, dyke, diesal dyke, fairy, boy-chick, no-ho tranny boy, faggot-identified dyke, andro, tryke, bio-femme (these last six courtesy of Riki Wilchins's book Queer Theory, Gender Theory), and of course, lesbian, gay and straight, man or woman. What does it all mean? I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to google any terms that leap off the page for whatever reason, captivating your curiosity.

The term that set me off on this post was "transmasculine." I first encountered this term on the Sugarbutch Chronicles and it enticed me with its apparent newness and possible meanings. Sinclair Sexsmith, Sugarbutch's author, is using a definition pulled from TransMasculine Community Network*:

Transmasculine refers to any person who was assigned female at birth but feels this is an incomplete or incorrect description of their gender.

This, of course, is a rather wide-open definition, similar to many I have seen for transgender (here, here, and here, for example). I am inclined to believe that new words are not crafted on a whim, that the people who invent them are usually trying to address a perceived inadequacy in the existing language. What precisely were transmasculine and transgender meant to cover when they were coined? Were they intended to be so inclusive, or has that characteristic arisen in a struggle for meaning that occurred as people began using them?

Ferdinand Saussure notes that language, once used by those other than its creator, is no longer under the control of that creator, and indeed, Susan Stryker, in Transgender History, states that the meaning of transgender “is still under construction.”

For example, under a broad definition, tom boys and sissies can be transgender right alongside postoperative transexuals. However, actual usage of transgender, in my own experience, is not always so generous, tending to invoke someone who exists close to the realm of transexuals or who may take up that label at a later date. Descriptions of transgender I have heard use words like "opposite gender," implying transpeople simply have a body opposite to their gender - the same notion historically used to describe transexuals. Transgender, then, simply expands outward from transexual to include those who have not yet or will never adjust their genitalia and/or hormones to coincide with their gender, but who are nevertheless somehow in the "wrong body."

I find this all rather upsetting. Why would transgender, so open to the "spectrum of gender" definitionally, ever be locked into binary conceptions in application? Why must one be living (or feeling) "opposite" to assigned gender? Could one be "half way" or less to being that "opposite?" And what is that opposite? Whose definition of man or woman is being used when we measure whether or not someone qualifies as trans? The thinkers behind official definitions may have had all this in mind when they decided to be so incredibly inclusive, however, on the street, old conceptions of what gender is to begin with still seem to hold powerful sway. The struggle over meaning continues for transgender. Is that the case for other terms like transmasculine? If not, how is a consensus ever reached? Why was such a term needed in the first place? These questions will be driving my upcoming research. Stay tuned to see if these mysteries can be solved!



*I keep seeing links to this organization that take me to a tech site. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the correct site on the web. For a post about S. Leigh Thompson, who founded TransMasculine Community Network, click here.

Language Disability

Discussing "non-normative" gender is about as easy as writing good poetry in a language you haven't mastered: you know just what you want to say, but you just don't have the linguistic ability to say it! Lately I have been frustrated in my writing attempts by the feeling that I need to qualify every sentence with a one-page footnote explaining why my word choice is actually problematic. You simply cannot write an academic paper that way, no matter who your professor is! But trying to define concepts whose definitions are all problematized in your field of study, or discuss categories whose boundaries are sites of never-ending, politicized and publicized border wars is like groping for solid ground in a murky, mucky swamp. I have written and re-written sentence after sentence, and constantly aware of how each version is so loaded with preconceived notions that I couldn't possibly submit it for the thoughtful consideration of another human being, I've had to keep scrapping every attempt to say something clear and meaningful.

The only way to say something clear and meaningful is to turn the discussion to how these terms and their concepts are problematic. That discussion has been going on for some time, and some people have become quite good at telling us just how problematic all the words are. My favorite voice in this discussion is Riki Anne Wilchins, who mixes biting commentary with incredible insight and jaw-dropping humor. Riki has her own blog, several books and published articles, and her own organization that focuses on gender activism. She referrences French philosopher Michel Foucault and feminist/queer theorist Judith Butler often enough that I feel like I know their work even though I've yet to make it through a complete book by either of them (they require their own special academic decoder ring, and mine hasn't arrived yet).

As much as I love Riki Wilchins' work, I want to say something else, to take the conversation in a different direction. The problem is that I can no longer discuss gender in conventional ways, nor can I expect that my readers - be they blog readers, professors grading my papers, or friends reading my MySpace or Facebook posts - will know anything about what Wilchins, Foucault, or Butler have said. Worse, they may know just enough to catch me up if I'm not careful enough with each and every word, if I don't explain in a footnote a concept they haven't yet encountered. Am I to rehash all that has gone before every time I open my mouth? Do I, out of convenience, revert to less complex, more widely understood conceptions of sex, gender, sexuality, and gendered behavior? If I simply continue the conversation from the point where I am at, ignoring the possible ignorance of my audience, will I need to start handing out my own specialized decoder rings, or gender-theorist-to-English dictionaries?

Butler and Foucault have a different audience than I do. Their writing is meant for those already well into the field and well-versed in the discussion. My audience is almost never those people. Wilchins has done a great job of translating and expanding the academic discourse on gender for the general populace. Perhaps I should just attach copies of her work to everything I do! Add a warning label: Warning! Do not attempt comprehension of enclosed material without first reading the following books by Riki Anne Wilchins! Somehow, I don't think that will go over well with my professors.

Plan for a future project: creat a short, distilled synopsis of everything I have learned about gender. Make copies. Use it like a literature review, to contextualize whatever it is I have to say.

Blogorama

Notice: the following post is a reworking of three earlier posts for a class assignment. I'm really not on drugs, thinking you won't notice if I re-post old material with a new shine...

What's it all about?

If Anthropology gave me wings, Gender Studies knocked me silly. Coming back to school after a ten-year trip to some place far, far away, I was planning on going into Interior Design. Right. My first Anthropology class reclaimed me for its pursuits in a matter of weeks, considerably less than the six weeks the class lasted, actually. I had quite forgotten my passions of yesteryear for just about anything anthropologically oriented and my relationship with science and academic thought in general had withered from neglect. Anthropology woke me up, nourished me, and had me flying through realms of theory, perception, and really cool cross-cultural data in no time. It was grand, and I was on my way to discover, ponder, and publish. Then I took a Gender Studies course in my third year. The ground did not fall out from under me, so much as collide with me rather unexpectedly.

Gender Studies was just as fascinating as Anthropology, and the two informed each other constantly for me, right into complete confusion. Gender (and lots of other stuff) may seem a clear-cut matter to some, perhaps most, people, but feminist theory and Queer Theory can destroy that illusion quite easily, unless you have barricaded your mind so tightly nothing new will ever get in. I am not one of those people.

Nothing in our conception of reality is quite what it seems; one must always question what is seen, heard, thought, perceived. That is the lesson taught in both Gender Studies and Anthropology, and that is the mind-set I bring to this space, this exploration of the gender terrain beyond the little corner most people have been locked into most of their lives. There is a whole universe out there, and we're going to explore it!

Adventure in Gender is an attempt at autoethnography as I continue with my undergraduate explorations of gender utilizing both anthropological and feminist thought and methods. It is impossible to tell what may be uncovered along this journey through the gender landscape. I am hoping to recover my senses, which I expect will be more finely tuned when I get them back, as well as my wings. Flying always gives such an interesting view of the landscape!

I will be examining concepts of gender, sex, and sexuality, with a special focus on transgender and transgender issues. There will be discussions of academic work, including the indespensible Judith Butler, the writing and activist work of Riki Wilchins and others, trans memoirs, other blogs that cover these issues, and my own random musings on these topics. Ideally, this blog will be a place for discussion of relevant issues and concepts, not just me sitting here typing away into the void. Comments, suggestions, criticisms and large donations (just kidding, save it for the activists) are all welcome, so long as the content is thoughtful and not hurtful.

This blog is not meant to be a voice of authority, at least not entirely so. I may be convinced I know exactly what I’m talking about from time to time. However, when speaking about the experiences of others, experiences I have not gone through, I can never be more than an informed observer, at best. If you are one of those people and think I’ve got it all wrong, or wonder who I think I am, talking about other people’s experiences, I welcome a dialog with you. I ponder everyone’s existence as my fellow human beings. Please don’t take offense.

I do hope to point like-minded people who are also interested in exploring gender in a helpful direction as they navigate the gender terrain. I believe any study of this field necessitates a good hard look at oneself and how these issues are at play in one’s own life. I hope my readers will find the posts thought provoking, if nothing else.

A Trans Blog Profile

I was surveying the blogging terrain, looking for blogs that would be relevant to Xploragen's interests, when I came across a blog entitled Trans Political. Written by Vanessa Edwards Foster, whose "About Me" blurb indicates that she has been heavily involved with transgender and other gender issues for some time, this blog looks at, well, politics, what else? National, local and trans-specific politics are covered from an insider's perspective- how much more relevant can you get without being Judith Butler, gender philosophizer extraordinaire? This seemed like a gem of a blog for me to profile for the benefit of my readers (please read the disclaimer below*).

Activism is huge right now for the trans community, and has been since the early 1990s, when trans activism suddenly mushroomed across the country. Vanessa Edwards Foster knows all the key players and issues well: she's an insider in the political in-fighting of the national trans community and is quite knowledgeable about Federal level politics directly impacting trans people - laws, rulings, political maneuvering, lobbying, etc. regarding trans issues. Though her writing is directed at an already interested population of other trans people, it is easy enough for a newbie to get the flow of things, learn who is who and who's doing what to whom. Part of this ease comes from Foster's personal and familiar tone, part of it from that substantial knowledge she has of the topic at hand.

Trans Political was linked to 173 times in a recent 180 day period by 18 different blogs according to Technorati. Most of the linking was by other trans or gender centered blogs, it seems. En/Gender, in comparison, was linked to by 80 other blogs in the same time period. It, however, is written by Helen Boyd, the author of a few popular books about her husband-turned-woman, Betty. The selections on en/Gender are not necessarily as trans focused as Trans Political, either: cats, NYC, books and writing, and music are some of the top (non-trans) tags for en/Gender listed by Technorati.

Beyond Boyd's popularity as an author, I strongly suspect the difference in numbers between Boyd's and Foster's blogs has something to do with the difference in focus. Politics has never been quite as appealing to the masses as daily life, especially daily life with a twist, i.e. a trans partner. Television shows have demonstrated that quite well; I can’t imagine the popularity of C-span’s coverage of daily congressional proceedings ever approached that of shows like Montel, Oprah, or Jerry Springer. Not without a scandal going on anyhow. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Thougha few trans blogs like en/Gender may have considerably higher numbers on Technorati, Trans Political is doing well for a blog so heavily political and focused on trans issues.

One thing that Foster does that appeals to a wider audience is peppering her posts with pop culture references familiar to wide segments of the populace. A post entitled "Back to Business as Usual", for example, frequently quotes Michael Douglas’s character in the Hollywood hit Wall Street:

“‘It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.’”

This particular post is a critical discussion of Human Rights Campaign** tactics, a frequent topic of Trans Political posts (81 tags so far). In other places, Foster quotes the likes of the oh-so-dark Nine Inch Nails. Such references serve to frame the issues being discussed in easy to understand ways. HRC is equated with ruthless, greedy Wall Street executives; trans activists are as wounded and angry as Trent Reznor.

Overall, Vanessa Edwards Fosters’ blog is an insightful look at the the political landscape from a trans perspective. The reader may not agree with everything she says, but will still walk away well informed about what’s going on, who's who, and what all of it may mean for trans people in America.

*Straight up, this blog is required for a class, though not all the posts will be assignments. If it seems like some of the ideas behind my posts come from out of the wild blue yonder, it's because they kind of did. In so far as they did not originate within my own thought processes, that is. If a post reads like it is fulfilling the requirements of an assignment, it probably is. If you can't tell the difference, I hope it means I'm a better writer than I thought.

**Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, is a lobbying organization, historically working on gay and lesbian issues. They have added "bisexual" and "transgender" to their roster of beneficiaries, but Trans Political tells us the addition is in name only. Furthermore, Foster claims HRC exploits trans people for a gay and lesbian agenda.

"Now they’ve convinced yet another organization to allow them to worm their way in so that they may undermine the trans political leadership once again, with a particular eye toward what opportunity they may reap for themselves and their own on the backs of ours, and availing themselves of the tragedies of the trans community! I have two words to describe them: selfish greed!"

Personally, I'll have to read more before I make any declaration on this issue. I'm just not well enough informed yet.

Difference Blog by Dan4th

Difference Blog: A Daily Feature on the Study of Sex and Gender Differences, by Dan4th, is an interesting little blog. I say “little” because most of the posts are on the short side; the blog itself stretches back into 2006 and is updated daily Monday through Friday. You would not know this blog was written by a theater major from all the gender-based, scientific studies being referenced and discussed. “Dan4th” is a 32 year old male (“ex-female”) pursuing a Masters in Psych while doing something called “research administration” in the financial division of the education field. ?? I have no idea what he does! Other than read and blog about scientific studies of possible gender difference, that is.

Dan4th covers a wide range of topics, from Seasonal Affective Disorder to Groundhog Day (two recent posts), first giving readers a brief overview of one or more studies on the day's particular topic, then writing a short blurb on said issue based on his personal experience. The two sections of each post are separated by a long, unbroken line, which has the effect of dividing them not only physically, but in tone and style as well.

Study overviews are matter-of-fact synopses, formal in tone, largely devoid of personal opinion, as in the following from An untrustworthy face:

Female raters assessed the women's faces for masculinity, while male raters assessed them for trustworthiness and desirability as a long-term mate. Sexual histories were taken by self-report.

This snippet is from a description of a study on women's masculinity, desirability, and sexual history. It states nothing more than how the study was conducted; there are no opinions, projections, or even questions. The blurb that follows (appropriately segregated from the study) is much more subjective.

This study pokes at one of the areas that bothers me about a lot of the women's testosterone studies: there's a lot of jumps in the reasoning. The size of a woman's chin = her testosterone levels = her sexual behavior?

The author, "me," is suddenly present; his feelings are invoked, he is bothered. The study is criticized and questions raised, none of which we see in the first part of the post. This formatting is typical of all Dan4th's posts and the reader has no problem distinguishing "objective science" from "subjective experience" and opinion. Don't forget, the big fat line is there to remind you just where one stops and the other starts!

Difference Blog dutifully cites studies by author and year, linking the review back to the source from whence the information came. Dan4th also links back to his own, previous posts on topics when relevant, often by date, in a systematic way, much like the science he is examining. This sets an academic tone, but it is undermined by the informality of the author's subjective commentary on "science." Phrases such as

Or maybe I'm just cranky and need a nap. That's possible too.

in a post about the latest science on biological differences between the sexes, or

My lack of honk-expression frustrated the hell out of an ex of mine

while discussing a study on gender differences in driver aggression serve to detract from, or perhaps more accurately, deflate, the scientific feel created in the first part of every post through the use of feeling (cranky, frustrated), informality (need a nap, hell) and creative word choice (don't tell me you ever heard of "honk-expression" before). These elements are rigidly kept out of scientific discourse, banned in the name of "objectivity" (whether objectivity really exists is a whole other post in itself). Using them in one's professional writing would mean not getting published in any respected journal.

Dan4th is not playing to the scientific establishment, far from it. He brings science down from its prim and proper pedestal to the level of the everyday, where uncertainty is the rule. Are women and men equally aggressive on the road, or not? Are biological differences between the sexes so clear, natural, or even important? What, if anything, does gender or sex have to do with any of it? What is the relevance of these studies, of accepted science, to how we live our daily lives? These are the questions Dan4th brings to the table for the reader to chew on. If you question the gender regime, you'll find a nice, tasty meal at Difference Blog; if you subscribe to the prevailing binaristic status quo, you may find Dan4th's posts a bit hard to digest sometimes.

This blog hinges on the fact that Dan4th has experienced being male, female, and in between (transitioning). Ever careful to remind readers that you cannot generalize from a sample of one (or from anecdotal evidence, I might add), he nevertheless offers his own opinions of each issue for the reader to consider. Difference Blog is there to get people thinking, questioning, and examining gender and (biological) sex in their own lives. Grab a fork and dig in!

Mmmmm.....brainfood.....

For those of you into social bookmarking, the best service I have found for a less traditional gender-explorative mind set would be del.icio.us, hands down. Tags like gender, transgender, feminism, and queer pull 58,473; 7,438; 44,493; and 21,378 results each (respectively). The numbers here are much higher than CiteULike, Diigo, or Furl, and the results are more accurate than Digg.

I would not recommend Digg to anyone interested in queer, trans, or any gender topic, actually. The results I got were so incredibly all over the map that it would have taken hours of frustrating work to find a substantial amount of useful material. If that means I did something wrong, well then Digg is not as user-friendly as it could be!

Del.icio.us, despite having a name that is too involved to type out regularly (what's with all the dots?), is very easy to use. All you do is type in search terms, and viola! you have more fun stuff than you can shake a stick at! I found the following under "transgender":

Amazon.com: Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category: David Valentine: Books (one of my personal favorites)

Tales from the Green Island - the perfect number - a fairytale (what appears to be trans fiction)

Medical Therapy and Health Maintenance for Transgender Men (medical guide for health care providers)

eTransgender (a forum site for trans topics, where I just found out Jude Law is playing a transgender supermodel - wow! yum!)

Del.icio.us allows the user to search multiple tags and also will suggest related tags on the right side of the page. Some unexpected tags that popped up while I was looking at the transgender results were law, children, and libraries. Adding this tag to my search produced 146 results on legal projects, resources, cases, immigration issues, etc. At this point, I noticed targeted ads where the related tags had previously been. They were for trans law books on Amazon, a couple for breast options, trans dating, and an employment law specialist advertising to help with wrongful termination. Well targeted ad placement - from what I have learned about the trans community, these links address common concerns (some quite problematic) for many trans people.

Back to the related tags for a moment: I fully expected trans, gender, equality, and sexuality to be among them, and they were. However, one that I did not see, and I can't understand quite why, is queer. "Queer" is a frequent companion of "transgender," and not just because of the recent inclusion of transgender into gay and lesbian organizations. Queer has historically been applied to many groups who now are frequently placed under the transgender umbrella (drag kings and queens, cross-dressers, fairies, butch lesbians, androgynous people, the list goes on quite a ways, and is hotly debated). Beyond the historical associations and categorizations, there is also Queer Theory, which I can best summarize in a few words as post-modernism applied to gender, sexuality, and even biological sex. Yes, you can deconstruct sex. No, I'm not going to try it right now. Maybe later.

So why, when "queer" regularly pops up all over the trans terrain, is it not among del.ico.us's related links for transgender? This will require more exploration. It baffles me, truly.

I went on to remove the transgender tag, leaving "law," and added feminism. 828 results, with many of the recent bookmarks on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. "Feminism" and "queer" turned up 1147 results, with Judith Butler turning up as two of the most recent three, not at all surprising: Butler is a huge star in Queer Theory and feminism.

Del.icio.us is a resource that can be mined endlessly on gender/trans/queer issues, for the number of relevant bookmarks increases daily. The greatest difficulty would be maintaining enough self-discipline to not get lost following all those links, drinking up endless amounts of nectarian information.... Okay, maybe not everyone would love to consume a library's worth of knowledge like me, but still, you could get lost in this corner of the net, for sure!

Difference Blog by Dan4th

Difference Blog: A Daily Feature on the Study of Sex and Gender Differences, by Dan4th, is an interesting little blog. I say “little” because most of the posts are on the short side; the blog itself stretches back into 2006 and averages several posts a week, though not quite daily. You would not know this blog was written by a theater major from all the gender-based, scientific studies being referenced and discussed. “Dan4th” is a 32 year old male (“ex-female”) pursuing a Masters in Psych while doing something called “research administration” in the financial division of the education field. ?? I have no idea what he does! Other than read and blog about scientific studies of possible gender difference, that is.

Dan4th gives his readers a short blurb about the latest study or studies he has gone over in connection with a wide range of topics, from Seasonal Affective Disorder to Groundhog Day (two recent posts). He considers their findings and then gives another short blurb on said issue based on his personal experience. The two sections of each post are separated by a long, unbroken line, which has the effect of dividing them not only physically, but in tone and style as well.

Study overviews are matter-of-fact synopses, formal in tone, largely devoid of personal opinion, as in the following from An untrustworthy face:

Female raters assessed the women's faces for masculinity, while male raters assessed them for trustworthiness and desirability as a long-term mate. Sexual histories were taken by self-report.

This snippet is from a description of a study on women's masculinity, desirability, and sexual history. It states nothing more than how the study was conducted; there are no opinions, projections, or even questions. The blurb that follows (appropriately segregated from the study) is much more subjective.

This study pokes at one of the areas that bothers me about a lot of the women's testosterone studies: there's a lot of jumps in the reasoning. The size of a woman's chin = her testosterone levels = her sexual behavior?

The author, "me," is suddenly present; his feelings are invoked, he is bothered. The study is criticized and questions raised, none of which we see in the first part of the post. This formatting is typical of all Dan4th's posts and the reader has no problem distinguishing "objective science" from "subjective experience" and opinion. Don't forget, the big fat line is there to remind you just where one stops and the other starts!

Difference Blog dutifully cites studies by author and year, linking the review back to the source from whence the information came. Dan4th also links back to his own, previous posts on topics when relevant, often by date, in a systematic way, much like the science he is examining. This sets an academic tone, but it is undermined by the informality of the author's subjective commentary on "science." Phrases such as

Or maybe I'm just cranky and need a nap. That's possible too.

in a post about the latest science on biological differences between the sexes, or

My lack of honk-expression frustrated the hell out of an ex of mine

while discussing a study on gender differences in driver aggression serve to detract from, or perhaps more accurately, deflate, the scientific feel created in the first part of every post. Dan4th brings science down from its prim and proper pedestal to the level of the everyday, where uncertainty is the rule. Are women and men equally aggressive on the road, or not? Are biological differences between the sexes so clear, natural, or even important? What, if anything, does gender or sex have to do with any of it? What is the relevance to how we live our daily lives? These are the questions Dan4th brings to the table to dine with science.

The blog hinges on the fact that Dan4th has experienced being male, female, and in between (transitioning). Ever careful to remind readers that you cannot generalize from a sample of one (or from anecdotal evidence, I might add), he nevertheless offers his own opinions of each issue for the reader to consider. Difference Blog is there to get people thinking, questioning, and examining gender and (biological) sex in their own lives.