Synopses & Reviews
Imagining Transgender is an ethnography of the emergence and institutionalization of transgender as a category of collective identity and political activism. Embraced by activists in the early 1990s to advocate for gender-variant people, the category quickly gained momentum in public health, social service, scholarly, and legislative contexts. Working as a safer-sex activist in Manhattan during the late 1990s, David Valentine conducted ethnographic research among mostly male-to-female transgender-identified people at drag balls, support groups, cross-dresser organizations, clinics, bars, and clubs. However, he found that many of those labeled andldquo;transgenderandrdquo; by activists did not know the term or resisted its use. Instead, they self-identified as andldquo;gay,andrdquo; a category of sexual rather than gendered identity and one rejected in turn by the activists who claimed these subjects as transgender. Valentine analyzes the reasons for and potential consequences of this difference, and how social theory is implicated in it.
Valentine argues that andldquo;transgenderandrdquo; has been adopted so rapidly in the contemporary United States because it clarifies a model of gender and sexuality that has been gaining traction within feminism, psychiatry, and mainstream gay and lesbian politics since the 1970s: a paradigm in which gender and sexuality are distinct arenas of human experience. This distinction and the identity categories based on it erase the experiences of some gender-variant peopleandmdash;particularly poor persons of colorandmdash;who conceive of gender and sexuality in other terms. While recognizing the important advances transgender has facilitated, Valentine argues that a broad vision of social justice must include, simultaneously, an attentiveness to the politics of language and a recognition of how social theoretical models and broader political economies are embedded in the day-to-day politics of identity.
Review
andldquo;David Valentine had the good fortune to be conducting anthropological fieldwork in New York at the precise moment when a new term, andlsquo;transgender,andrsquo; was first coming into widespread use. Now we have the good fortune of sharing his ethnographic insight into this new categoryandrsquo;s emergence. Imagining Transgender offers a provocative on-the-ground account of this important shift in Western notions of gender identity and sexuality. The book is sure to stir debate in the emerging field of transgender studies, as well as in other disciplines that concern themselves with this timely topic.andrdquo;andmdash;Susan Stryker, coeditor of The Transgender Studies Reader
Review
andldquo;The definitive study that documents the rise and spread of andlsquo;transgenderandrsquo; as a category and a field of knowledge, activism, and power but also as a mechanism for disenfranchisement, discrimination, and violence. Deeply learned, wonderfully accessible, and ethnographically rich, this remarkable book sets a new benchmark not only for all future work on transgender but also for how we might think about gender, sexuality, identity, and politics more generally.andrdquo;andmdash;Don Kulick, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes
Review
andldquo;There is a paucity of ethnographically based work on transgender, and David Valentineandrsquo;s book is a major contribution not only ethnographically but also historically and theoretically. Valentine is concerned with a range of value and political questions, committed explicitly to humane positions without being ideological or propagandist.andrdquo;andmdash;Esther Newton, author of Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas
Review
andldquo;Imagining Transgender proceeds through sophisticated and multilayered analysis. It offers a new way to approach gender and the institutions that name and manage it, and this is a provocative contribution. . . . Scholars will find this readable and engaging book well worth their time, as it will allow them to develop a nuanced understanding of transgender and its social ramifications.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;David Valentineandrsquo;s Imagining Transgender is a well-written and well-executed ethnography that is able to balance a critical take on the category of transgender while not denigrating those most affected by rethinking the term. . . . Imagining Transgender is an example of what we as ethnographers should be doing and is a must read not only for those in transgender studies, gay and lesbian studies, or queer studies, but throughout the field of anthropology.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Valentineandrsquo;s writing manages to be both theoretically insightful and accessible. Whether musing on his bicycle as he travels between fieldwork sites of the street and the drag ball, or reflecting on conversations with clients and staff at GIP, Valentine presents a humorous, touching and very relevant political tale of the state of play of andlsquo;transgenderandrsquo;. This is an extremely valuable contribution to work on gender and sexual diversities, and, importantly, a very enjoyable read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Valentine. . . does an excellent job in showing just how messy the category andlsquo;transgenderandrsquo; is; how it was born of a variety of discursive practices; how those discursive practices had little to do with the lived realities of many of the people the term andlsquo;transgenderandrsquo; claims to represent; and how taking the time to think critically about transgender as a category can create space, literal and symbolic, for those whose lives most thoroughly blur the neat distinctions between some of the foundational categories of our time: male/female, straight/gay, represented/not represented.andrdquo;
Review
“In his provocative new book, The Making of a Man, the Dutch novelist and newspaper columnist reveals with humor and insight what a body in transition goes through under the influence of testosterone . . . . While details like these illuminate the journey of the transsexual, Februari has created something far more than a portrait of gender evolution. With celebrities such as Bruce Jenner drawing attention to the issue, Februari has done our culture a service. . . . His intellect and honesty allow us to see gender, in all its manifestations, as simply one component of the complicated human experience. Februari leads us away from a common belief that our perception of ourselves as male or female is determined by our genitals.”
Synopsis
An ethnography in which the author’s fieldwork with transgendered and transsexual individuals in New York City demonstrates the creation and confusion of gender identity labels.
Synopsis
In the autumn of 2012, Maxim Februari, known until then as writer and philosopher Marjolijn Februari, announced his intention to live as a man. In The Making of a Man he describes how the news was greeted: the unease, the interest, and the slightly too comradely tone in which people suddenly started to address him. Whatever the reaction, there was always an element of ignorance. Hardly anyone seemed to understand what a sex change actually involves or how best to react to it.
Februari analyzes our impressions of effeminate men and butch women, and examines apparent acceptance and actual prejudice. Curiously, to gain access to medical treatment you are required to demonstrate that you are psychologically disturbed—you need to be diagnosed as suffering from a “gender identity disorder”—and the book examines the implications of this requirement. Then there are the far-reaching demands of officialdom that must be met so that, for example, “you can go on holiday with a passport that gives your correct gender.”
Februaris account of his own transition is fascinating. Although the process of changing sex is of course a lengthy one, the outside world experiences it as a fairly abrupt switch. From one day to the next, as the testosterone took effect, Februari started to find himself addressed as a man rather than as a woman. “What had changed?” he asks himself. “In the intervening twenty-four hours I hadnt had a haircut, I wasnt wearing different clothes; it was just that the testosterone had altered the subtle signals by which my body suggested its sex.”
Februaris characteristically clear, philosophical voice, combined with his intimate, sometimes moving, sometimes funny experiences make this account unique. He analyzes and describes, charts and enquires. Above all, he makes us think.
Synopsis
In the autumn of 2012, Maxim Februari—known until then as writer and philosopher Marjolijn Februari—announced his intention to live as a man. The news was greeted with a diversity of reactions, from curiosity to unease. These responses made it absolutely clear to Februari that most of us don’t know how to think about transsexuality.
The Making of a Man explores this lacuna through a deeply personal meditation on a profoundly universal aspect of our identities.
Februari contemplates the many questions that sexual transitions entail: the clinical effects of testosterone, the alteration of sexual organs, and its effects on sexual intimacy; how transsexuality figures in the law; and how it challenges the way we talk about sex and gender, such as the seemingly minor—but crucially important—difference between the terms “transsexual” and “transgender.” He analyzes our impressions of effeminate men and butch women, separating apparent acceptance from actual prejudice, and critically examines the curious requirement in many countries that one must demonstrate a psychological disturbance—a “gender identity disorder”—in order to be granted sex change therapies. From there he explores the seemingly endless minutiae changing genders or sex effect, from the little box with an M or an F on passports to the shockingly sudden way testosterone can adjust physical features.
With his characteristically clear voice combined with intimate—sometimes moving, sometimes funny—ruminations, Februari wakes readers up to all the ways, big and small, our world is structured by sex and gender.
About the Author
“David Valentine had the good fortune to be conducting anthropological fieldwork in New York at the precise moment when a new term, ‘transgender,’ was first coming into widespread use. Now we have the good fortune of sharing his ethnographic insight into this new category’s emergence. Imagining Transgender offers a provocative on-the-ground account of this important shift in Western notions of gender identity and sexuality. The book is sure to stir debate in the emerging field of transgender studies, as well as in other disciplines that concern themselves with this timely topic.”—Susan Stryker, coeditor of The Transgender Studies Reader“The definitive study that documents the rise and spread of ‘transgender’ as a category and a field of knowledge, activism, and power but also as a mechanism for disenfranchisement, discrimination, and violence. Deeply learned, wonderfully accessible, and ethnographically rich, this remarkable book sets a new benchmark not only for all future work on transgender but also for how we might think about gender, sexuality, identity, and politics more generally.”—Don Kulick, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes“There is a paucity of ethnographically based work on transgender, and David Valentine’s book is a major contribution not only ethnographically but also historically and theoretically. Valentine is concerned with a range of value and political questions, committed explicitly to humane positions without being ideological or propagandist.”—Esther Newton, author of Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Part I: Imagining Transgender
Introduction 3
1. Imagining Transgender 29
Part II: Making Community, Conceiving Identity
Introduction to Part II: Reframing Community and Identity 68
2. Making Community 71
3. andldquo;I Know What I Amandrdquo;: Gender, Sexuality, and Identity 105
Part III: Emerging Fields
Introduction to Part III: The Transexual, the Anthropologist, and the Rabbi 140
4. The Making of a Field: Anthropology and Transgender Studies 143
5. The Logic of Inclusion: Transgender Activism 173
6. The Calculus of Pain: Violence, Narrative, and the Self 204
Conclusion: Making Ethnography 231
Notes 257
Works Cited 277
Index 299