Suchergebnisse

Celem artykułu jest przyjrzenie się reinterpretacjom klasycznej opowieści o księżniczce Ćitrangadzie w kulturze bengalskiej na przykładzie dzieł Rabindranatha Tagore'a oraz Rituparno Ghosha. Zgodnie z przekazem eposu Mahabharata Ćitrangada była bierną kobietą pozwalającą, by to ojciec decydował o jej cielesności. Nieco inaczej jej historię przedstawia Rabindranath Tagore w dramacie tanecznym z 1892 roku. Jego Ćitrangada staje się kobietą świadomie kształtującą swoją płeć biologiczną i wykraczającą poza sztywne ramy kobiecości sformułowane przez tradycje hinduizmu. Jeszcze dalej w reinterpretacji tej opowieści posunął się reżyser Rituparno Ghosh. Przenosząc historię księżniczki z pałacu do sali operacyjnej, Ghosh wpisał się nie tylko w dyskurs feministyczny, ale też w narrację dotyczącą transpłciowości i miejsca przedstawicieli tzw. trzeciej płci we współczesnym społeczeństwie indyjskim. Reinterpretacje historii Ćitrangady to rezultat zastępowania narracji tworzonej z perspektywy mężczyzn wywodzących się z klas uprzywilejowanych społecznie głosem tzw. Innych: kobiet i osób nieheteronormatywnych.

The Crowning Wish and the Truth of Thruth. The Figure of Chitrangada in the Works of Rabindranath Tagore and Rituparno Ghosh. The aim of this article is to look at the reinterpretations of the classic tale of Princess Chitrangada in Bengali culture, based on the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Rituparno Ghosh. According to Mahabharata Chitrangada was a passive woman, who allowed her father to decide about her body. Rabindranath Tagore, in the dance drama from 1892, presents her story in a different manner. His Chitrangada becomes a woman consciously shaping her biological sex and going beyond the rigid framework of femininity formulated by the traditions of Hinduism. Director Rituparno Ghosh went even further in reinterpretation of this story. By moving the story of the princess from the palace to the operating room, Ghosh entered not only into the feminist discourse, but also into the narrative of transgenderism and the place of representatives of the so-called the third sex in modern Indian society. Reinterpretations of the Chitrangada history are the result of replacing the narrative created from the perspective of men from socially privileged classes with the voice of the so-called Others: women and non-heteronormative people.

The article highlights the relevance of the problems of critical pedagogy, associated with the name of the Brazilian scientist Paulo Freire (60s of the XX century), who promotes problem-oriented learning, anthropological interpretation of culture, and concepts of humanity. The main content of the concept of critical pedagogy is highlighted due to the necessity to overcome stereotypes regarding the organization of pedagogical education and teaching in an educational institution based on oppression, humiliation, and (non) recognition of differences, in particular linguistic and cultural. It has been revealed that followers of Freire's ideas regarding critical pedagogy emphasize the principles of equality and justice, understanding/acceptance of various issues that are debatable or in need of public criticism (repression and resistance in higher education, teaching, and consumerism, issues of transsexuality and transgenderism, etc.). The author extrapolates the main principles of critical pedagogy to the subject of their use in modern conditions, when slightly different forms of bullying (violence) take place in educational institutions (or outside them) or the virtual world – a negative attitude towards persons with special needs, various types of bullying (physical, social, verbal), cyberbullying, cyber grooming, flaming, harassment, denigration, etc. It is substantiated that various forms of discrimination often arise in the educational setting due to the social or material status of the child's parents, and his/her racial or religious affiliation, that is, they are associated with the rejection of diversity and have an impact on the educational process and personal self-expression in society. The issue of criticality in education must be considered in the modern dimension: in school and student society, teaching and scientific activities, educational management, pedagogical imageology, intercultural education, etc. The theoretical analysis of the content and structure of the concept of "critical pedagogy" was carried out, the necessity to develop students' critical perception of the world, critical thinking, and info media literacy. To motivate young people to search for and acquire new knowledge independently, to be active in applying it in practice, to teach them to criticize and respond adequately to constructive criticism, to draw conclusions and check them, etc. In a practical context, it is recommended to use the improvisation method to develop students' critical thinking, as well as Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning, Inquiry Based Learning, Flipped Learning, Interactive or Dialogic Learning, etc.

Showing what life is like as a non-binary or genderqueer person, this book explores relationships, mental and physical health, language use and identity and appearance, providing advice for non-binary people and how friends and family can support them.

In politischen Auseinandersetzungen wird "Gender" als Sammelbegriff für Themen wie Frauen- und LGBTIQ + -Rechte, Gleichstellung der Geschlechter, sexuelle Bildung, feministisches Wissen und Geschlechterforschung verwendet. Während sich bisherige Veröffentlichungen auf die anti-gender Gruppen selbst oder feministische und queere Reaktionen auf diese konzentrieren, beleuchtet dieser Band die verschwimmenden Grenzen zwischen beiden Lagern. Im Fokus steht die Frage, inwieweit "Anti-Gender"-Behauptungen mit bestimmten Spielarten in der feministischen und LGBTIQ+-Politik interagieren und so Diskursbrücken zu liberalen und progressiven Teilen der Gesellschaft bauen. Anders als der "Sammelbegriff" Gender vermuten lässt, ist das feministische und LGBTIQ+-Lager von politischen Konflikten, Meinungsverschiedenheiten und divergierenden Interessen durchzogen. Daher analysieren die Autor*innen die Verbindungen zwischen einigen dieser umstrittenen Positionen und dem "Anti-Gender"-Diskurs.

"'Staggeringly visionary' - Attitude 'Essential reading' - Charlie Craggs 'Bold and ground-breaking' - Owl 'All those layers of expectation that are thrust upon us; boy, masculine, femme, transgender, sexual, woman, real, are such a weight to carry round. I feel transgressive. I feel hybrid. I feel trans.' In this radical and emotionally raw book, Juno Roche pushes the boundaries of trans representation by redefining 'trans' as an identity with its own power and strength, that goes beyond the gender binary. Through intimate conversations with leading and influential figures in the trans community, such as Kate Bornstein, Travis Alabanza, Josephine Jones, Glamrou and E-J Scott, this book highlights the diversity of trans identities and experiences with regard to love, bodies, sex, race and class, and urges trans people - and the world at large - to embrace a 'trans' identity as something that offers empowerment and autonomy. Powerfully written, and with humour and advice throughout, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of gender and how we identify ourselves."--ONIX annotation

Part 1: Introduction -- 1 The Dinner Party in the Twenty-First Century: Setting a Larger Table for Women and Non-Binary/Third Gender Artists - Kyunghee Pyun, Associate Professor of History of Art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, USA -- Part 2: Countering Colonialism -- 2 Native Feminisms and Contemporary Art: Indigeneity, Gender, and Activism - Elizabeth S. Hawley, Visiting Assistant Professor in Art History/Visual Culture at Northeastern University, USA -- 3 Disrupting the Silence: Australian Aboriginal Art as a Political Act - Fiona Foley, PhD, artist, founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Co-operative, Australia -- Part 3: Against the Establishment -- 4 "Insanity Prize": Postwar Feminist Art in Cold War East Asia - Sooran Choi, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at New York University, USA -- 5 From NonConformism to Feminisms: Russian Women Artists from the 1970s to Today - Natalia Kolodzei, curator and art historian, Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation, Russia -- 6 Liminal Space of Artnauts: Global Women Artists Historicize the DMZ in the Korean Peninsula - Joo Yeon Woo, Associate Professor of painting and mixed media at the University of South Florida's School of Art and Art History, USA and Sandy Lane, Associate Professor and Drawing Coordinator at Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA -- 7 From South Africa to Afghanistan and America: An Exploration of Female Street Artists and the Socially Disruptive Nature of their Work - Deborah Saleeby-Mulligan, PhD, Associate Professor of Visual Studies and Art History at Manhattanville College, USA -- Part 4: Dislocation and Migration -- 8 Yong Soon Min's Defining Moments Heartland: Gendered Space of Decolonization in the Pacific - Soojung Hyun, PhD, independent curator, USA -- 9 Sited Nomadism from the Atlantic to West Africa: Addoley Dzegede - Ila Nicole Sheren, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Washington University in St. Louis, USA -- 10 Alterity in Germany: Occupying Spaces as Feminist Strategy in (Post)Migration Aesthetics - Parastou Forouhar, professor of Fine Arts at the Art Academy of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and artist, Germany, and Cathrine Bublatzky, PhD, Assistant Prof at Heidelberg University, Germany -- 11 Maria Jose Arjona, Into the Woods: From Fairytales to Political Interactions in South America - Jennifer Burris, PhD, director of Athenée Press, Colombia, and Maria Jose Arjona, performance artist, Colombia -- Part 5: Race and Gender Identity -- 12 Blurring Lines/Breaking Barriers: Harlem and Beyond, the International Photographer Ming Smith - Gillian Hannum, Professor of Visual Studies and Art History at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, USA -- 13 Queer Craft and Radical Cuts: Transgenderism and the Malay-Muslim Body in the Work of Anne Samat - Louis H. Ho, independent curator, art historian and critic, Singapore -- 14 Halo Rossetti on Visually Representing the Intricacies of Queer and Trans Life - Halo Rossetti, writer, director, performer, and artist, USA -- 15 The Future is more than Female: Post-Feminist, Trans-Feminism, and the Performance of Identity - Ace Lehner, PhD, artist, art historian and visual culture scholar, USA.

"Queer Presences and Absences" explores changes and continuations in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer lives, identities and spatial practices in the 21st century. Queer futures are situated across local, national and international spaces including the UK, USA, Italy, Brazil, Russia and the Czech Republic. Queer movements, marginalities and mainstreams are located in legislative changes, institutional locations and in everyday spaces: these are mediated through consumption, possession and entitlement, alongside dispossession, poverty and inequality. Rather than positing a queer arrival or a queer present 'everywhere', care is taken to consider the diversity of queer existence. Using a range of methods, including qualitative interviews, ethnographies, auto-biographical 'fictions' and archival research, authors connect pasts, places and policies with contemporary times, linking individual and social presences (and absences) affectively and materially

In this quintessential work of queer theory, Jack Halberstam takes aim at the protected status of male masculinity and shows that female masculinity has offered a distinct alternative to it for well over two centuries. Demonstrating how female masculinity is not some bad imitation of virility, but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders, Halberstam catalogs the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag king performances. Through detailed textual readings as well as empirical research, Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities while arguing for a more nuanced understanding of gender categories that would incorporate rather than pathologize them. He rereads Anne Lister's diaries and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness as foundational assertions of female masculine identity; considers the enigma of the stone butch and the politics surrounding butch/femme roles within lesbian communities; and explores issues of transsexuality among "transgender dykes"--Lesbians who pass as men--and female-to-male transsexuals who may find the label of "lesbian" a temporary refuge. Halberstam also tackles such topics as women and boxing, butches in Hollywood and independent cinema, and the phenomenon of male impersonators. Featuring a new preface by the author, this twentieth anniversary edition of Female Masculinity remains as insightful, timely, and necessary as ever.

Don't expect apologies from Louisiana's leftist
institutions and activists having now been caught out on supporting the erroneous
"gender affirmation" model of addressing difficulties faced by a small number
of youths, which state policy-makers continue to address.

The tiny proportion of youths who express "gender
dysphoria," or a feeling their mental maps of themselves are incongruent with their
physical sex, has multiplied in numbers over the past decade. Until then, from
the last part of the 20th century medical professionals addressed this
through watchful waiting as children, perhaps with psychological therapy,
sorted out their feelings. Data indicated that feelings of this dysphoria were
highly related to, if not a reflection of, other psychological maladies and
that most children by their adult years shed the condition.

But in the early 21st century the
competing "gender affirmation" model developed in the U.S. and was exported
globally. Over time the approach became more radicalized, dictating that even
the youngest children who appeared to see themselves associated with typical conceptions
of one physical sex while the other, whether consciously picking up on any cues
to do that from adults called in to evaluate them, had to be catered to with
social and even physical interventions to physically alter them to the sex with
which they identified at that particular point in time.

Yet in recent years it became increasingly clear
gender affirmation was doing much more harm than good. Those children and even
young adults who underwent interventions by and large remained unhappy and some
expressed regret to the point that they underwent "detransition" back to their previous
physical sex. Meanwhile, a whole cottage industry catering to affirmation model
sprung up – clinics, professional associations, media outlets, and ideological
activists with some in elected office – that in increasingly shrill terms tried
to defend it.

That
all fell apart last week with the issuance of the Cass
Review in Britain. Its National Health Service commissioned this research
into treatment of dysphoria as part of an investigation into its practices on
the issue, particularly with its Tavistock Clinic that had gained a reputation for
aggressive promulgation of the affirmation agenda. The report reviewed the
relevant and recent literature as well as data collected for it and determined
the affirmation model almost entirely wanting in validity, stating "Gender
medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations." It
reiterated that no surgery should be performed on children and that that no one
under 18 get hormone drugs and on that account that "great caution" should be
exercised with patients under 25.

Actually, much data available already indicated as
such. One previous Dutch study popularly held out by the affirmation lobby as supporting
evidence long ago withered under methodological critiques. Another recent longitudinal
Dutch study revealed that transgenderism among children mostly
is a fad. Besides the claim found wanting that suicidal ideation increased
among children without affirmation, the report also shredded the view of adherents
of affirmation who also hung their hats on the myth that detransition was rare.

The report dispatched
all of this misinformation, thereby confirming the approach that Louisiana
took last year when it banned use of puberty blockers for children. It also
excoriated primarily American professional societies that favor affirmation for
the poor research quality, almost evidence free in nature, and lack of
independence among them for their treatment guidelines – strictures that the
pro-affirmation lobby often cites to justify its extremist views. Additionally,
it faults protocols that disregard the real phenomenon of desire to detransition.

And, most importantly for the current debate in
Louisiana, it criticizes affirmation's uncritical advancement of social
transition – such as educators calling school students by a different name
and/or pronoun – and strongly discouraging this among younger children, noting
this may alter profoundly alter a child's developmental trajectory, with
long-ranging consequences. Should parents insist on this, the review
recommended that a health care professional be involved in helping parents
understand the risk-return ratio of such a profound and likely life-altering
decision. For older teens, it strongly recommends that parents be involved in
the decision, noting that secret transitions cause a rift between teens and
their families, destabilizing the very support networks that are essential for
young people's long-term well-being.

That's the approach behind Republican state Rep. Raymond Crews'
HB 121, which would have school employees address students by their given names
or nicknames, and by the pronoun aligned with their natal sex, unless their parents
wished them to do otherwise. Even in that case, the employee may not follow that
wish if it conflicts with sincerely-held religious beliefs, echoing an approach
endorsed
late last year by Virginia's highest court in a case there.

The bill provides protection from employees from
being punished over confusion about a desired name and related pronoun of a
student. It protects parents in that they can't be subverted by schools
officials' ideology concerning social transition, which
has become increasingly common. But, most importantly, the bill protects
children from what the review identifies as a problematic, if not harmful, approach
fulfilling an agenda where education employees may identify susceptible students
then coach them into social transition by encouraging the use of different
names and incongruent pronouns.

Naturally, legislative opponents during floor
debate on the bill several days after the review's release studiously avoided
its implications, trying to steer debate into lacunae irrelevant to its
protective intent of teachers, parents, and children. In fact, some repeated
the same talking points discredited in the review. Nor have these same
politicians, nor activists, special interests, and media outlets that opposed
last year's successful legislative effort to halt the interventions severely
criticized in those few days after issuance, delivered apologies for being
wrong on this issue and they continue to spread misinformation appertaining to
the bill, which easily passed the House.

In fact, by amendment Crews bent over backwards to
accommodate parents who, regardless of the caution expressed in the review,
would want to facilitate social transition. The bill's path to follow must continue all
the way into statute, because on a matter this important policy-makers must
disregard an agenda that suits the desires of a minority of adults in favor of fulfilling
children's needs.

The field of 'trans' studies, which incorporates transsexual, transgender, and cross‐dressing among its experiences and theorizing, has undergone tremendous changes within the century or so in which it has been developing. Initially, the scope of transsexual studies spans for almost a century, across social institutions and within a rigid model of proving a person's 'true transsexuality'. On the other hand, the reach and depth of transgender studies, emergent only less than 20 years ago, moves across disciplines, incorporates first and third person accounts, and it is less invested in reifying 'true' transgender identity and expression (although there are emergent movements attempting to solidify transgender as a multiple gender response to the gender binary, often by elite or privileged citizens). In summary, the field of transgender and transsexual studies is in constant development and change, and there are significantly some tensions that could offer much newer theorizing (e.g. between the categories of transsexuality and transgender as an umbrella term).Sociology's continued influence within the transsexual and transgender studies/fields require our attention to interdisciplinarity, while at the same time a serious grounding on the sociological literatures concerning the topic. Sex, gender, and sexuality are analytical concepts of much importance in order to study 'trans' populations and issues, as are questions of social location based on ethno‐racial, class, and other positionalities. These recommended readings, films and exercises form a foundation to implement critical views on the topic of 'trans' studies, and its intersections with other topics such as gender identity, homosexuality, gender presentation, and some historical accounts of the formation and solidification of the transgender category.Author recommendsStryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle (eds) 2006. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York, NY: Routledge.A compilation of a number of old articles, and recent contributions by emergent scholars from many areas (including sexology, psychiatry, queer theory, feminist scholars, and transgender men and women), this reader is a critical reference to those interested in trans studies. Susan Stryker, herself one of the originators of transgender studies, poses a critical look at the resistance to acknowledge transgender (and transsexual) embodiment and identity. Stephen Whittle, a European scholar, also bridges the field in his beginning remarks. The chapters are a varied contribution to the scholarship of transgender studies, broadly defined. Its first part is a compilation of previously published work on transsexuality, but the majority of the text uncovers a series of issues newly developed (such as intersectionality, embodiment, and identities and communities).Valentine, David 2007. Imagining Transgender: An ethnography of a Category. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.This book is empirically based on fieldwork among three groups of transgender populations in New York City. Ranging from the staff and volunteers of the Gender Identity Project at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, sex workers in the area of the 'meat packing district' (a district in the lower part of Manhattan) and at 'House Balls' (events of dance and competitions among queer youth of color), Valentine draws from all of these experiences to formulate the solidification of the 'transgender' category. A compilation of previously published articles and new material, this book is award winning within its field – anthropology. One of its main contributions is the use of 'transgender' as a term that evokes current debates and political struggles to solidify distinctions between gender and sexuality, and in many instances, the transgender category as relational to homosexuality.Bryant, Karl 2006. 'Making Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood: Historical Lessons for Contemporary Debates.'Sexuality Research and Social Policy 3 (3): 23–39.This article is a social history of the diagnostic category of 'gender identity disorder' and, in particular, how it was applied to children (mostly boys) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders from the American Psychiatric Association. The discourses surrounding the psychiatric diagnosis are traced from the beginning of related studies and the inception of the term (from the 1960s on) and into the present. Bryant gives a significant review of past debates in order to inform the contemporary ones taking place through his analysis of archival data, interviews with key mental health and psychiatry providers, and published reports on the development of this diagnosis. Among the aspects he looks at are the controversies as to whether atypical gender behaved boys will grow up to be homosexual, transsexual, or transvestite, and how current advocates for or against this diagnosis may be reproducing similar assumptions, or producing normative results, in their critiques of this diagnosis.Halberstam, Judith 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York, NY: New York University Press.This book is a significant development from a humanities‐based cultural studies angle that takes a close look at artistic and media portrayals of transgender experience. Halberstam argues for a complex relationship (much closer than otherwise portrayed) between transgender and transsexual identities by looking at various individuals and their experiences – most notably Brandon Teena, who was killed in Nebraska by acquaintances, when it was 'discovered' that Brandon was a female‐bodied person who 'passed' as male. Halberstam's introduction to the book is a great challenge to the privileging of analysis of space in contemporary social theorizing (drawing on criticisms of works such as David Harvey's) and centering a newer analysis of queer uses of time as a challenge to normative assumptions about family and the nation. In a Queer Time and Place seriously engages the relationship between embodiment and representation, and the urban and rural contrasts in trans theorizing.Meyerowitz, Joanne 2002. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA, and London, UK: Harvard University Press. How Sex Changed is an elaborate historical examination of the ways sex, gender, and sexuality are tied together in early sexual science studies through the authority of medical and scientific 'experts'. Meyerowitz offers a broad historical and geographic discussion on transsexuality, ranging from the 19th century to the 1980s United States, and at times draws excellent comparisons between the US and European nations in their (often imprecise) dealings with transsexuality. A significant feature of Meyerowitz's work is the tracing of medical and scientific authority over access to technologies that would allow transsexuals to 'change sex'; transsexual narratives countered this authority with their accounts of self. The book illustrates the complex negotiation between what doctors considered to be the reasons and symptoms of transsexuality and the kinds of stories put forth by transsexuals seeking their help.Rubin, Henry 2003. Self‐Made Men: Identity and Embodiment among Transsexual Men. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. Self Made Men is a sociological study of the experiences of 22 transsexual men from various US cities. Rubin answers questions about the body and identity for his research subjects by weaving two discussions: of genealogy and phenomenology; the former a more discursive argument, the latter, a more grounded one. In this way, Rubin attempts to engage in structure versus agency theorizing in the narratives shared by the female‐to‐male transsexuals he interviewed. Rubin's book has a significant overlap to Meyerowitz, where he discusses the 1970s division between female‐bodied transsexual and lesbian identifications – worth taking a close look at as well. But Rubin's contributions also attest to the embodied experiences of the transmen he interviewed, by weaving experiences of betrayal and misrecognition, identities in progress, and some of the historical determinants for the development of a male transgender identity.Irvine, Janice 1990. Disorders of Desire: Sex and Gender in Modern American Sexology. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.This book gives a comprehensive look at the sexological field in the 20th century. As a sociologist, Irvine produces a compelling set of critiques of the ways in which a normative set of perspectives – about what takes place in one's sexual lives, about seeking help for sexual health, and about homosexuality and gender variant men and women – is dissected by the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and medicine. The text gives a comprehensive sense of the professionalization of sexology as a field – discussing Alfred Kinsey's work, the visibility and political mobilization of feminists and gay/lesbian groups, and later sexological scholarship on the physiological reactions to sex, erotic sensations, and pleasure. An award‐winning book, this is a great text to combine with readings on the social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality in contemporary USA.Kessler, Suzanne, and Wendy McKenna 2000. 'Who Put the "Trans" in Transgender? Gender Theory and Everyday life.'International Journal of Transgenderism, 4 (3): July–September. http://www.symposion.com/ijt/gilbert/kessler.htm.This very brief online essay offers a set of reflections on the uses and claims of 'trans' as a prefix that means different things to various populations (including academics and transgender people). The authors link their current reflections to their early work (Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach) in order to politicize the various possible social change results that can come out of radical uses of trans. Their discussion is a refreshing approach that combines sociological and feminist analyses of gender identity in transgender people. Moving through the meanings of trans, and the history of the study of transsexuality and transgender identity nowadays, they evoke a social constructionist perspective to how gender develops, but as well, to how the biological is also a social construction.Mason‐Schrock, Douglas 1996. 'Transsexuals' Narrative Construction of the True Self.'Social Psychology Quarterly, 59 (3): 176–92.This article shows the development of interactive strategies to solidify an identity construction among several identities and experiences expressed in a support group for transsexual, cross‐dresser, transvestites and other gender variant men and women. Through naming, 'modeling', guiding each other through their past histories, and ignoring certain 'facts' about each other's past, the participants in these support groups foregrounded a transsexual narrative, to the detriment of other expressions. The work Mason‐Schrock developed here is an exploration of identity negotiation at its core, and one that merits attention by scholars on gender and sexuality, as well as transgender studies. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Special Issue: 'Puerto Rican Queer Sexualities', Volume XIX, Number 1 (Spring 2007) (Guest Edited by Luis Aponte‐Parés, Jossianna Arroyo, Elizabeth Crespo‐Kebler, Lawrence La Fountain‐Stokes, and Frances Negrón Muntaner).This special issue of the Centro Journal has an introduction that frames the place of Puerto Rican sexualities in social scientific knowledge. I recommend this issue in particular due to several articles that illustrate the lives of an important Puerto Rican transgender woman (Sylvia Rivera, key figure in the Stonewall riots), as well as José Arria, another key Latino individual whose visibility in the gay/trans communities has often been overlooked. The special issue also reproduced the talk that Sylvia Rivera gave at the Latino Gay Men of New York (the largest Latino gay male group in New York City) in 2000, a few years before her death, as well as an interview with Antonio Pantojas – a long‐time female impersonator in Puerto Rico. For the reader interested in literature, the special issue also includes some discussion and analysis of Caribbean fiction that gave visibility to transgender people.Films and documentaries Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (Victor Silverman, Susan Stryker, writers, directors, producers, 2005). Info at: http://www.screamingqueensmovie.com/.This documentary illustrates a challenge to the notion that a queer revolution started in 1969 in New York City, but instead, was initiated in the Tederloin, a marginalized San Francisco neighborhood. The historical accounts of transwomen that experienced life in the neighborhood where the Compton's cafeteria was located at the time of the riot are presented through interviews and archival documentation. You Don't Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men (Bestor Cram, Candace Schermerhorn, producers, 1997. Info at: http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films/womens_studies_gender_studies/gay_lesbian_transgender_issues/you_dont_know_dickAlthough old, this documentary shows the stories of several female‐to‐male transsexual men whose lives, their sexual experiences, and their gender negotiations are made evident. A very heartfelt documentary to show students the range of histories of transsexuality in an often ignored group – transgender men.Online materials

Sexuality Research and Social Policy e‐journal. Many articles published in this electronic journal showing the range of trans experiences (see in particular special issues December 2007 and March 2008, co‐edited by Dean Spade and Paisley Currah).
Trans‐academics.org. An excellent website with many resources for scholars.

Suggested syllabiInstead of providing a single (and perhaps, narrower) view of 'trans' studies and issues through a sample syllabus, I urge the reader to go to Trans‐academics.org. There are several syllabi addressing the various perspectives in teaching trans issues (and from various disciplines). The page can be accessed here: http://trans‐academics.org/trans_studies_syllabiProject ideas and suggested exercises1. This exercise explores various issues foundational to discussions of trans experiences by looking at self‐representations, or other representations, as well as potential sociological analyses.Take a look at recent films, documentaries, research articles and books, and first person testimonials from transgender people. Divide the classroom into groups of 4–5, and assign each of them a different cultural text/document to look at. After exploring general reactions in each of the groups, assign each of the groups a collective response to some or all of the following questions:

What are the representations of transsexuality or transgender identity or experience in your assigned text?
What is the relationship between sex and gender as evidenced in the films/videos/documentaries/articles/research reviewed? What, if any, are the discussions of gender and sexuality in the text?
How are first person narratives authorized? What are the underpinnings – the history, the encounters with regulating social institutions, and the community formation as expressed in these texts?
How does your group see sociology and sociological analyses in these texts? (This is important to assess whether the source you are reflecting upon is sociological or not.)

2. This assignment may lead students to think critically about the separation of gender and sexuality as analytical constructs. The document utilized also makes students reflect on migratory experiences and whether (and to what extent) they influence one's own knowledge and perceptions about transgender and transsexual experiences.Look at the Sexilio document (a comic‐book style autobiography) in the AIDS Project Los Angeles website (apla.org). Sexilio (Sexile) is a life history of a male‐to‐female transsexual who was born and raised in Cuba, and migrated with the Marielitos, the massive 1980 migration from Cuba to Miami, Florida. It is but one example of a first person illustration of transgender issues that complicates the relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation, adding migration experiences as yet another layer of analysis. Specific links: http://apla.org/publications/sexile/Sexile_web.pdf (English) http://apla.org/espanol/sexilio/Sexilio_web.pdf (Español)3. This assignment is intended to make students aware of the differences between first person representations, and media representations, of trans experiences.Have students research blogs, newspaper articles, films/documentaries, made‐for‐TV movies, other media coverage, and interviews (when available) of trans people that have been recently on the public eye, such as Calpernia Adams, Gwen Araujo, Tyra Hunter, Fred Martinez, and Brandon Teena. Then, have students explore:

What are trans people saying about themselves? (In the cases in which they have said anything about themselves – there are cases where they became well known after death.)
What are the various media outlets saying about trans people? Trans experience? (And here, pay special attention to the various media outlets and the regional, cultural, and religious differences, as well as other potential differences, in their reporting.)
Are the messages about transsexual and transgender expression/identity clearly separated in these illustrations?
Which (re)presentations link homosexuality to transsexuality? Which separate it? Under what arguments are these fusions and distinctions being made?

4. This is an exercise for smaller classrooms, where there can be significantly more discussion about one's own personal experience.Have students evaluate their own gender presentation and the ways in which others attribute their gender identity. For such a discussion, refer to the reflections on Lucal (1999). Then have the students discuss the different meanings of trans as discussed by Kessler and McKenna (2000), or the gender insignia as discussed by West and Zimmerman (1987).Kessler, Suzanne, and Wendy McKenna 2000. 'Who Put the "Trans" in transgender? Gender Theory and Everyday Life.'International Journal of Transgenderism 4 (3): July–September. http://www.symposion.com/ijt/gilbert/kessler.htm.Lucal, Betsy 1999. 'What It Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System.'Gender & Society 13 (6): 781–97.West, Candace; Don H. Zimmerman 1987. 'Doing Gender.'Gender & Society, 1 (2): 125–51.5. This assignment aims to break away from the transgender versus transsexual discussion, by incorporating cross‐dressing and drag performances.Discuss the meanings of 'trans' beyond the transgender and transsexual as explored in the article. Focus on cross‐dressing and drag queen/king discussions, by taking a comparative approach to cross‐dressing among some of the following scholars:Schacht, Steven P. (ed.) 2004. The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Customary World of Female Impersonators. New York, NY: Haworth Press.Schacht, Steven P. 2002. 'Four renditions of doing female drag: feminine appearing conceptual variations of a masculine theme.' Pp. 157–80 in Gendered Sexualities (Advances in Gender Research, Volume 6), edited by Patricia Gagne and Richard Tewksbury. New York, NY: Elsevier Science Press.Shapiro, Eve. 2007. 'Research Report: Drag Kinging and the Transformation of Gender Identities.'Gender & Society 21 (2): 250–71.Taylor, Verta, and Leila J. Rupp. 2006. 'Learning from Drag Queens.'Contexts, 5 (3): 12–17.Taylor, Verta, and Leila J. Rupp. 2003. Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Discuss: What are some of the assumptions about gender that those 'doing drag' engage in? Likewise, what are some of the ways in which the researchers apply those assumptions themselves? Is there a difference between cross‐dressing and drag? Have the students exhaust the potential differences, and name what they perceive to be the similarities between the two.If possible, further the conversation by incorporating drag and cross dressing as part of the transgender umbrella term. What are some of the historical implications of drag and cross‐dressing? Where do they see cross‐dressing in relation to sex, gender, and sexuality? And doing drag? Do they see a distinction between doing drag for female‐bodied and male‐bodied individuals? If yes, how so? If no, why not?6. This assignment is intended for a theory or sociology of gender class where theoretical discussions are expected – ideally, an upper‐level sociology course.Discuss the ways in which ethnomethodology, phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, cultural studies, queer theory, and discourse analysis all frame transgender and transsexual experience. Use any of the sociology references in the 'Transgender and Transsexual Studies' article.

Gene Healy


"The library looms as the next big confrontation in the culture war," the Atlantic reports, and President Biden, our Culture‐​Warrior‐​in‐​Chief, is itching for the fight. "The president signaled a new approach in his late‐​April announcement video, when he cited book bans as evidence for his accusation that Republicans in the Donald Trump era are targeting Americans' 'personal freedom.'"
Not today, Satan—not on Joe Biden's watch. "We're taking on these civil rights violations, because that's what they are," Biden told the crowd at the White House Pride Celebration in June: "book bans may violate the federal civil rights laws when they target LGBTQ students or students of color and create hostile classroom environments."
When that happens, local school districts will face the wrath of the new federal Czar of the Middle‐​School Library. "Students have a right to learn free from discrimination," the president's top domestic policy advisor, Neera Tanden, explains, but "across the country, our nation faces a dangerous spike in book bans [targeting] LGBTQI+ communities." Accordingly, the administration is appointing a new "coordinator" in the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights who'll bring the full force of the federal government to bear in this fight.
I wrote recently that Biden's new Title IX edicts make him "Commander‐​in‐​Chief of the Girls' Room"; with this latest move, he can add "Boss of the Bookmobile" to his collection of extraconstitutional titles. It's an absurd power‐​grab based on the flimsiest of pretexts—and it's certain to make America's cultural conflicts worse.







The White House, like much of the press, has been cagey and duplicitious when it comes to what the "book‐​banning" controversy is really about. In Biden's reelection video, for example, while the president rails against "MAGA extremists… banning books," the camera shows a stack of titles including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
Atticus Finch in the dock? Maybe in a few notorious MAGA strongholds like, er, Los Angeles and Seattle, where Lee's novel has been pulled from the curriculum for its insensitive "white‐​savior" storyline. But the real school‐​library fight centers on a quite different class of books.
In both the PEN America and American Library Association "most banned" lists, number one by a wide margin is Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, a "graphic novel" that's decidedly Not Safe For Work and—arguably!—inappropriate for a grammar‐​school library.
Others in the ALA's top 10 include:
All Boys Aren't Blue (#2), (depictions of underage cousin‐​incest)
Lawn Boy (#7), "which describes 10‐​year‐​old boys performing oral sex on each other"; and
This Book Is Gay (#10), which includes advice on mutual masturbation—"something they don't teach you in school"(!)—and "instructions on how to use Grindr to find sex partners.")
The ACLU and former president Barack Obama have recently encouraged public‐​spirited Americans to start Banned Books clubs. I'd love to see the face of any earnest suburban liberal who signs up expecting a refresher course in Vonnegut and Steinbeck. In any event, if you'd like a clearer picture of what some parents are objecting to, in their new study, "The Book Ban Mirage," AEI's Max Eden and Heritage's Jay P. Greene and Madison Marino helpfully screenshot many of the offending passages.
As for the supposed "dangerous spike in book bans," Eden, Greene, and Marino show that activists are playing fast and loose with the term "banned." PEN America's definition is broad enough to include "any action taken against a book" that leads to "restricted" or "diminished" access for any period of time. Temporarily removed then reshelved after review? "Banned." Moved from the middle‐​school library to the high‐​school shelves? "Banned." Removed from a recommended reading list but still on the library shelves? "Banned."
In fact, when Eden et al. decided to check online school library catalogs against the PEN index of "banned" books, they found that:
"74 percent of the books that PEN America lists as banned are listed as available in the same districts from which PEN America says those books were banned."

Still, the authors managed to find a few localities where kids can no longer check out some of the spicier tomes on PEN's List. So what? There are over 13,000 school districts in the United States; are we supposed to think Our Democracy is imperiled because a couple dozen of them took Gender Queer off their library shelves?
Reports of a wave of book‐​banning Babbittry have been greatly exaggerated. But to be fair to PEN America, the organization does document some serious cases of legislative overreach by Red‐​state politicians claiming to speak for concerned parents. Last year, for example, Missouri made it a misdemeanor offense, carrying possible jail time, for librarians to provide "explicit sexual material" to students. That's nutty: decisions about what goes on school‐​library shelves should be made at the local level, not forcibly dictated from the state house.
Still less should those decisions be dictated from Washington, D.C.: if the taxpayers in a local school district don't want Gender Queer or This Book Is Gay in their kids' library, it's none of Joe Biden's business.
That's not how Biden sees things, unfortunately; in the president's view, it's his right and duty to make a federal case out of how school libraries stock their shelves.
In January, according to the Washington Post, the Biden administration embarked on its "first test of a new legal argument that failing to represent students in school books can constitute discrimination."
In early 2022, the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas removed multiple LGBTQ‐​focused books from its libraries for review, ultimately deciding to return most of them to the shelves. Only three books, including This Book Is Gay (the one "that teaches kids about anal sex, oral sex, and hookup apps"), were permanently removed. The ACLU hit back with a federal civil rights complaint charging that the district had "actively facilitated discrimination and hateful rhetoric" in violation of Title IX. As the Post noted:
"If the government finds in the ACLU's favor, the determination could have implications for schools nationwide, experts said, forcing libraries to stock more books about LGBTQ individuals and… ensur[e] student access to books that some Americans, especially right‐​leaning parents, deem unacceptable.

The Granbury investigation is still in progress, but in May, OCR reached a settlement in a similar case involving a suburban Atlanta school system. Here, the Biden administration advanced the novel theory that, even if the school district itself doesn't discriminate, it can be held accountable for a "hostile environment" created by parents' comments at a school board meeting.
The Forsyth County School District's trouble started in January 2022, when it temporarily removed eight books following parent complaints. After review, they returned seven of eight to the library shelves, excluding only one, the aforementioned All Boys Aren't Blue. FCS soon found itself subject to a federal civil rights investigation into whether the removal of those books created a "racially and sexually hostile environment for students."
In its May 19 letter announcing the resolution of that case, the Office for Civil Rights admits that Forsyth County wasn't engaged in an anti‐​gay book purge: it had "limited its book screening process to sexually explicit material." "Nonetheless," OCR chides, "communications at board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment." OCR found it troubling that during a February 15 board meeting:
"some [parents'] comments focused on removing books for reasons related to gender identity or sexual orientation. Also some parents made negative comments about diversity and inclusion or critical race theory."

The OCR letter doesn't specify what those comments were, but according to press coverage of the Board meeting, they included statements like
"Do you think it's healthy for 8‑year‐​olds to be exposed to books which encourage transgenderism, sexualization and masturbation?"

and
"CRT, DEI, SEL, or any other name you give it is not harmless…. No more lies, such as 'DEI's purpose is to teach children that there are different cultures that eat different foods. Really?"

Scandalous wrongthink—and in the presence of children, no less! According to OCR, parents' statements at the board meeting contributed to a potential "racially and sexually hostile environment," which the district failed to adequately address with "supportive measures" for afflicted students.
To get the feds off their back, Forsyth County Schools had to agree to a number of humiliating terms. Per the Resolution Agreement, FCS must:
Publicly Pledge Fealty to DEI Thought: "in locations readily available to the District's middle and high school students," FCS shall post a statement affirming that "the District strives to provide a global perspective and promote diversity by including in school libraries materials about and by authors and illustrators of all cultures";
Help Aggrieved Students Sic the Feds on Their School: that statement will also provide "any student who feels impacted by the environment surrounding the removal of books" with "information about how to file a complaint about discrimination or harassment" under Title IX and Title VI;
Take a Long, Hard Look in the Mirror: "The District will administer a school climate survey" on the prevalence of book‐​related and other harassment in its middle and high schools; and "assess whether any additional student or other training is needed to further improve the climate." Look, this is a wealthy school district with plenty of tax dollars to go around: why shouldn't the DEI‐​consultant industry get a taste?
…all this because school officials took a book featuring underage cousin‐​incest off their middle‐​school library shelves.
As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression notes, OCR's strong‐​arm tactics succeeded here despite the fact that
"there is no legal authority that [says] failure to 'promote diversity' violates federal anti‐​discrimination law. If OCR thinks it can require schools to affirmatively 'promote diversity'— a term left undefined — what else does the agency think it can get away with?"

I suppose we'll find out as Biden's new school‐​library czar gets to work.