Language matters, both in terms of what we say and how we say it. Our words can do real violence to those about whom we speak. This violence reflects the broader socio-cultural oppressions which marginalized communities face as a daily reality. Simultaneously, hateful language supports such oppressions, as a vehicle by which bigoted ideologies re-circulate…
In this article, Mizrahi (Jews of Arab descent) and trans legal claims will serve to expose the law as a tactic of stability. These experiences, positioned at the in-between of stable legal categories, embody the “other” of law, the affective ideologies that the law refuses. If transgender as an identity category emerged from the violent…
The term trans is a word-forming element. The original meaning, in Latin, is ‘‘across, beyond, through, on the other side of, to go beyond,’’ with the prefixal meaning of crossing (trans-Atlantic), changing (transformation), or between (transracial). What are the stakes of invoking a term that both invites and confounds oppositional thinking (male–female, masculine–feminine) in the…
This is the first introductory textbook intended for transgender/trans studies at the undergraduate level. The book can also be used for related courses in LGBTQ, queer, and gender/feminist studies. It encompasses and connects global contexts, intersecting identities, historic and contemporary issues, literature, history, politics, art, and culture. Ardel Haefele-Thomas embraces the richness of intersecting identities—how…
There is no one way to be transgender. Transgender and gender non-conforming people have many different ways of understanding their gender identities. Only recently have sex and gender been thought of as separate concepts, and we have learned that sex (traditionally thought of as physical or biological) is as variable as gender (traditionally thought of…
To date, media and scholarly attention to gay politics and policy has focused on the morality debates over sexual orientation and the legal aspects of rights for non-heterosexuals. However, transgender concerns as such have received little attention. As transgender activism has become more visible, policymakers, both in the United States and around the world, have…
Germany is to become the first nation in Europe to legally recognise intersex babies, allowing parents to leave the male and female designation of sex on birth certificates blank for babies whose sex is not clear.
What constitutes a “real” man or woman in the twenty-first century? Since birth control pills, erectile dysfunction remedies, and factory-made testosterone and estrogen were developed, biology is definitely no longer destiny. In this penetrating analysis of gender, Paul B. Preciado shows the ways in which the synthesis of hormones since the 1950s has fundamentally changed…
Travestis are highly vulnerable to HIV infection in Brazil. We conducted a survey among 304 travestis using Respondent-Driven Sampling from August to December 2008. Travestis are young (49% B24 years), poorly educated (55% just elementary school), low social class (62% Class C-E), reside with families (49%) or friends/madam (22%), are victims of homophobia (91%) and…
Luísa Marilac nasceu em Minas Gerais e assumiu-se travesti aos 17 anos. Além dos tradicionais traumas associados à transição de gênero em uma família conservadora e de classe baixa, levou sete facadas aos 16 anos, foi vítima de tráfico sexual na Europa, prostituiu-se, foi estuprada e presa mais de uma vez. Alçou-se à fama depois…