Feminist embattlement on the field of trans -- Revaluing gender diversity beyond the TS/TG hierarchy -- Desire and the "(un)becoming other" : the question of intelligibility -- Risking the unfamiliar : psychic complexity in theories of transsexual embodiment -- Still not in our genes : theorizing complex bodies
Transgender studies is a heterogeneous site of debate that is marked by tensions, border wars, and rifts both within the field and among feminist and queer theorists. Intersecting the domains of women's studies, sexuality, gender and transgender studies, Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory provides a critical analysis of key texts and theories, engaging in a dialogue with prominent theorists of transgendered identity, embodiment and sexual politics, and intervening in various aspects of a conceptually and politically difficult terrain. A central concern is the question of whether the theories and practices needed to foster and secure the lives of transsexuals and transgendered persons will be promoted or undermined - a concern that raises broader social, political, and ethical questions surrounding assumptions about gender, sexuality, and sexual difference; perceptions of transgendered embodiments and identities; and conceptions of divergent desires, goals and visions.
Abstract This section includes eighty-six short original essays commissioned for the inaugural issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. Written by emerging academics, community-based writers, and senior scholars, each essay in this special issue, "Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a Twenty-First-Century Transgender Studies," revolves around a particular keyword or concept. Some contributions focus on a concept central to transgender studies; others describe a term of art from another discipline or interdisciplinary area and show how it might relate to transgender studies. While far from providing a complete picture of the field, these keywords begin to elucidate a conceptual vocabulary for transgender studies. Some of the submissions offer a deep and resilient resistance to the entire project of mapping the field terminologically; some reveal yet-unrealized critical potentials for the field; some take existing terms from canonical thinkers and develop the significance for transgender studies; some offer overviews of well-known methodologies and demonstrate their applicability within transgender studies; some suggest how transgender issues play out in various fields; and some map the productive tensions between trans studies and other interdisciplines.
This paper discusses the recent and ongoing battle involving Kimberley Nixon and her non-trans feminist supporters and detractors. Although non-trans feminists profess a desire to accept diversity, and to create a world that eschews oppression, we often fail to embrace those ideals, which deepens divisions among us and further alienates the trans community. Our capacity to become better allies depends on further reflection on this particular conflict and the theories that support it. ; Cet article discute de la lutte récente de Kimberley Nixon et de ses partisanes non-trans féministes et détractrices. Quoique les non-transféministes professent un désir d'accepter la diversité, et créent un monde qui évite l'oppression, nous manquons souvent de vivre ces idéaux, ce qui agrandit les divisions entre nous et aliène encore plus la communauté trans. Notre capacité de devenir de meilleures alliées dépend sur plus de prise se réflexion sur ce conflit particulier et les théories qui l'appuient.
This essay engages in a debate with Nancy Fraser and Dorothy Leland concerning the contribution of Lacanian-inspired psychoanalytic feminism to feminist theory and practice. Teresa Brennan's analysis of the impasse in psychoanalysis and feminism and Judith Butler's proposal for a radically democratic feminism are employed in examining the issues at stake. I argue, with Brennan, that the impasse confronting psychoanalysis and feminism is the result of different conceptions of the relationship between the psychical and the social. I suggest Lacanian-inspired feminist conceptions are useful and deserve our consideration.
Nelson argues the best we can hope for in a nonsexist society is to revalue those feminine qualities that have previously been devalued. I argue that those qualities are the result of a sexist construction of gender categories, and that a nonsexist society would have no reason to preserve them.