Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, NYU
Spring 2002
Instructor: David Valentine Monday, 6:20-9:00pm
January 28-May 6, 2002 office hours by arrangement
Phone: 914/395-2363 email: [email protected]
Course Description:
In the past decade, the term "transgender" has rapidly come to be used to describe a range of social identities, a political movement, and a community that had no name until the early 1990s. Although transexual, transvestite, drag queen, and many other identities (now grouped under transgender) have a long history in the West, and while non-normative genders have been recorded in many societies, "transgender" is a term with a very short history. Despite this, it has come to be ubiquitous in the early twenty first century in a wide range of contexts: from grassroots activism and social service provision, to academic settings (such as courses like this one), the U.S. Congress, and even in psychiatry and the medical community more broadly.
This course will critically investigate the category transgender -- not to cast doubt on the identities, movements, and communities that have arisen around this term, but rather, to investigate the historical, political, social, and cultural conditions and contexts which have enabled it. At the heart of this course is a series of critical questions: where did "transgender" come from? What does it enable as a category? What does it obscure? How can it be seen as a term located in the terms of U.S.American understandings of personhood? What are the problems and possibilities of using "transgender" to describe non-normative genders cross-culturally? What are the contexts within which "transgender" can be used to make claims of the state in a representative democracy? What possibilities and problems are presented by using the term to describe people who refuse it as descriptive of their experiences? What issues arise when non-transgender identified people investigate, and ask questions about, those who take this category to be meaningful about their lives? And what does "transgender" tell us about the organization of gender and sexuality in the contemporary United States?
We will take a wide view of "transgender," starting with medical and sexological texts of the early- to mid-twentieth century, early feminist critiques of transexual identities and technologies, anthropological, historical, and sociological studies, as well as other literature -- academic, activist, and autobiographical -- which is increasingly grouped into the category of "transgender studies." Consequently, a further and important question that will animate this class will be: how is it that all these texts have been grouped together in a class about "transgender?" What does this syllabus itself tell us about the category, and about emerging notions of gender and sexuality in the United States in the early twenty first century?
Course Requirements:
The primary task for this class will be a research paper (max. 20 double-spaced pages), to be handed in on the last day of class. Research topics will be decided upon early in the semester in consultation with the instructor, and students are encouraged to do primary research (ethnography, oral histories etc.) Secondly, two literature reviews of the weekly readings are required. Third, two short class projects will be given during the course of the semester. Finally, each student will be required to make an in-class presentation. The breakdown of your grade is as follows:
1. Research paper: 40%
2. Literature reviews: 30%
3. Class exercises 20%
3. Presentation and class participation: 10%
Required Texts:
The following texts are required for this course. Copies of each book will be available at Bobst, as will copies of each of the non-book class readings. A packet of class readings will be available for purchase at New University Copy, 11 Waverly Place.
Feinberg, Leslie
1996 Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon.
Newton, Esther
1979 [1972] Mother camp: female impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilchins, Riki Anne
1997 Read my lips: sexual subversion and the end of gender. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.
Supplementary reading list and resource list:
As the contention of this course is that "transgender" is a mobile discourse and set of practices, it will make sense for class members to subscribe to and follow a range of on-line discussions and web pages. The internet has been a central site for the development of transgender communities and discourses about transgender-related issues. Students are encouraged to subscribe to the following lists, and utilize the following webpages for their research, as well as keeping the class informed about new on-line resources they discover:
Lists to subscribe to:
http://www.tgender.net/mailman/listinfo (GAINS News)
http://www.tgender.net/mailman/listinfo/ita-announce (It's Time America! listserv)
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/trans-theory.html (Trans theory list)
soc.support.transgender (usenet group)
alt.transgender (usenet group)
Organizations:
http://www.amboyz.org (American Boyz)
http://www.ftm-intl.org (FTM international)
http://www.nyagra.org (New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy)
http://www.gpac.org (GenderPAC)
http://www.tgender.net/ita/ (It's Time America!)
http://www.isna.org/ (Intersex Society of North America)
http://www.ifge.org/ (International Foundation for Gender Equality)
http://trans.yeswoman.com/
Bibliographic Resources:
http://www.sexuality.org/transgen.html
http://www.tgfmall.com/info/Biblio.html
Course Outline
Week 1: Introduction to the course (1/28/02)
Week 2: Medicine and Gender Variance I (2/4/02)
Readings:
Weeks, Jeffrey,
1985 Sexuality and its discontents: meanings, myths and modern sexualities. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (chapter 4)
Hirschfeld, Magnus
1991[____] Transvestites: the erotic drive to cross dress. Translated by Michael A. Lombardi-Nash. Intro by Vern Bullough. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. (pp.17-32, 124-154, 417-424)
Ellis, Havelock
1936 Studies in the psychology of sex (seven volumes, published from 1896-1928). New York: Random House. (selections)
Benjamin, Harry
1966 The transsexual phenomenon. New York: The Julian Press, Inc. (Introduction, chapter 4)
Socarides, Charles
1969 The desire for sexual transformation: a psychiatric evaluation of transsexualism. American Journal of Psychiatry 125(10):1419-1425.
Week 3: Medicine and Gender Variance II (2/11/02)
Readings:
Meyerowitz, Joanne
1998 Sex change and the popular press: historical notes on transsexuality in the United States. GLQ 4(2): 159-187.
Pauly, Ira B. and Milton T. Edgerton
1986 The gender identity movement: a growing surgical-psychiatric liaison. Archives of Sexual Behavior 15(4):315-329.
Docter, R. F.; Fleming, J. S.
2001 Measures of Transgender Behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior (30)3:255-272.
Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA)
1985 Standards of Care: the hormonal and surgical sex reassignment of gender dysphoric persons. Archives of Sexual Behavior 14(1):79-90
Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA)
1998 The standards of care for gender identity disorders. Fifth Edition. Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. (http://www.tc.umn.edu/~colem001/hbigda/hstndrd.htm)
February 18 -- no class (President's Day Holiday)
Week 4:The Transexual Umpire: Feminist Accounts of Transgender (2/25/02)
Readings:
Raymond, Janice
1996 The Politics of Transgenderism. In Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex-Changing. Richard Ekins and Dave King (eds). New York: Routledge.
Jeffreys, Sheila
1996 Heterosexuality and the desire for gender. In Theorizing heterosexuality: telling it straight. Diane Richardson (ed.) Pp.75-90. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stone, Sandy
1991 The empire strikes back: a posttranssexual manifesto. in Body guards: the cultural politics of gender ambiguity. Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub (eds). pp280-304. New York: Routledge.
Rubin, Gayle
1992 Of catamites and kings: reflections on butch, gender, and boundaries. in The persistent desire: a femme-butch reader. Joan Nestle (ed.) pp. 466-482. Boston: Alyson.
Week 5:What's "Gay" and What's "Transgender?" (3/4/02)
Readings:
Feder, Ellen
1997 Disciplining the family: the case of gender identity disorder. Philosophical Studies 85:195-211.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky
1993 How to bring your kids up gay. In Fear of a queer planet: queer politics and social theory. Michael Warner (ed). Pp.69-81. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Minter, Shannon
1997 Diagnosis and treatment of gender identity disorder in children. In Sissies and tomboys: gender non-conformity and homosexual childhood. Matthew Rottnek (ed.) pp. 9-33. New York: New York University Press.
Valentine, David
In Press "We're not about gender": how an emerging transgender movement challenges gay and lesbian theory to put the "gender" back into "sexuality." Forthcoming in Anthropology comes out. Bill Leap and Ellen Lewin (eds.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Spring Break: March 11-15
Week 6: Voices from a Community: History and Autobiography (3/18/02)
Readings:
** Read an autobiography of your choice! (Some authors include: Feinburg, Martino, Lady Chablis, Morris, Jorgensen, Richards, County)
Feinberg, Leslie
1996 Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon. (parts 2 and 3)
Prosser, Jay
1998 Second skins: the body narratives of transsexuality. New York: Columbia University Press (introduction, chapter 3)
Week 7: Voices from a Community: Speaking in/to the Academy (3/25/02)
Readings:
Stryker, Susan
1998 The transgender issue: an introduction. GLQ 4(2):145-158.
Greaney, Markisha
1999 A proposal for doing transgender theory in the academy. In Reclaiming genders: transsexual grammars at the fin de siecle. Kate More and Stephen Whittle (eds). London: Cassell.
Rubin, Henry S.
1999 Trans studies: between a metaphysics of presence and absence. In Reclaiming genders: transsexual grammars at the fin de siecle. Kate More and Stephen Whittle (eds). London: Cassell.
Hale, Jacob
nd Suggested rules for non-transsexuals writing about transexuals, transexuality, transexualism, or trans______.
Week 8: Voices from a Community: The Politics of Identity (4/1/02)
Readings:
Wilchins, Riki Anne
1997 Read my lips: sexual subversion and the end of gender. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books. (pp. 19-26, 49-72, 79-88, 125-136)
Cartwright, Donna
nd Remembering Falls City: the death of Brandon Teena and the resurgence of transgender activism.
Reading packet on the GenderPAC controversy
Week 9: The Uses of Transgender I -- Cross-Cultural Description (4/8/02)
Readings:
Johnson, Mark
1998 Global desirings and translocal loves: transgendering and same-sex sexualities in the Southern Philippines. American Ethnologist 25(4):695-
Kulick, Don.
1997 Gender of Brazilian transgendered prostitutes. American Anthropologist 99(3):574-585.
Schmidt, Johanna
2001 Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa. Intersections 6. (http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/schmidt.html)
Blackwood, Evelyn
1999 Tombois in West Sumatra: constructing masculinity and erotic desire. In Female desires: same-sex relations and transgender practices across cultures. Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia Wieringa (eds.) Pp. 206-229. New York: Columbia University Press.
Week 10: The Uses of Transgender II -- Rights, Protections, Laws (4/15/02)
Readings:
Currah, Paisley and Shannon Minter
2000 Transgender equality: a handbook for activists and policymakers. Washington, D.C.: The Policy Institute of the National gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (http://www.ngltf.org/downloads/transeq.pdf).
Weiss, Jillian T.
2001 A review of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender legal issues. Tulane Law School Journal of Law and Sexuality 10:123-186
Flynn, T.
2001 Transforming the debate: why we need to include transgender rights in the struggles for sex and sexual orientation equality. Columbia Law Review (101)2: 392-420.
Minter, S.
2000 Do transsexuals dream of gay rights? Getting real about transgender inclusion in the gay rights movement. New York Law School Journal of Human Rights (17)2:589-623.
Week 11: Intersexuality -- Transgender or Not? (4/22/02) Film: Hermaphrodites Speak!
Readings:
Chase, Cheryl
1998 Hermaphrodites with attitude: mapping the emergence of intersex political activism. GLQ 4(2):189-211.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne
2000 Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books (chapter 3)
Dreger, Alice Domurat
1995 Doubtful Sex: The Fate of the Hermaphrodite in Victorian England. Victorian studies 38(3):335-
Valentine, David and Riki Anne Wilchins
1997 One Percent on the Burn Chart: Gender, Genitals and Hermaphrodites with Attitude. Social Text 52/53:215-222.
Week 12: Drag and Transgender (4/29/02) Film: Paris is Burning or The Salt Mines
Readings:
Newton, Esther
1979 [1972] Mother camp: female impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
hooks, bell
1992 Is Paris Burning? In Black looks: race and representation. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Halberstam, Judith
1997 Mackdaddy, superbly, rapper: gender, race, and masculinity in the drag king scene. Social Text 52/53:104-131.
Week 13: Course Review (5/6/02)
Research Paper Due May 12