Humanities Nonfiction Social Sciences Theory

Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela

Queen for a Day connects the logic of Venezuelan modernity with the production of a national femininity. In this ethnography, Marcia Ochoa considers how femininities are produced, performed, and consumed in the mass-media spectacles of international beauty pageants, on the runways of the Miss Venezuela contest, on the well-traveled Caracas avenue where transgender women (transformistas)…

Essay Humanities Law/Legal Nonfiction Theory

Immunising Birthsex: Ontology’s Place in the Pandemic

On 30 March 2020, the Hungarian parliament approved emergency measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, granting prime minister Viktor Orbán the power to rule by decree. The very next day, the government repealed the legal recognition of transgenderism, ruling that assignations of biological sex are binary and permanent. The decision to place sexual difference…

Biography Critique Essay History Humanities Law/Legal Natural Sciences Nonfiction Social Sciences Theory

The Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress

Update: we are saddened to learn that the translator has requested a takedown of this text. We are currently looking into open access options but the text will not be available on Trans Reads for now. Please contact us if you have any questions. —— For the first time in history, we are proud to…

Archive Biography Critique History Humanities Nonfiction Reference/Guide/Manual Social Sciences Theory

Die Transvestiten: Untersuchung Über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb; Mit Umfangreichem Casuistischen und Historischen Material (2nd edition)

Magnus Hirschfeld’s second print of the historic book, “The Transvestites.” Transvestites are women and men who feel reluctant and even refuse to dress in the clothing of their own sex. For them, the inherent drive to cross-dress is often more powerful than sexual drive itself. This phenomenon has often been confronted with both ignorance and…

Archive Critique History Humanities Natural Sciences Nonfiction Social Sciences Theory

Die Transvestiten: Untersuchung Über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb; Mit Umfangreichem Casuistischen und Historischen Material

Magnus Hirschfeld’s first print of the historical book, “The Transvestites.”   Transvestites are women and men who feel reluctant and even refuse to dress in the clothing of their own sex. For them, the inherent drive to cross-dress is often more powerful than sexual drive itself. This phenomenon has often been confronted with both ignorance…

Critique Essay History Humanities Nonfiction Theory

Reflections: Egg Hatching; Or, Letting the Eighteenth Century Be Trans

For the past several decades, scholars have examined the queer identities and sexual practices in eighteenth-century materials. However, queer and non-normative gender has been less frequently researched, even within the body of scholarship devoted to queer eighteenth-century studies. Scholars often take at face value the period’s gender norms, thereby suppressing the fact of a transgender…

Biography Critique History Humanities Nonfiction Social Sciences Theory

Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City

Queer history is a living practice. Talk to any group of LGBTQ people today, and they will not agree on what story should be told. Many people desire to celebrate the past by erecting plaques and painting rainbow crosswalks, but queer and trans people in the twenty-first century need more than just symbols–they need access…

Anthology Biography Critique Essay History Humanities Law/Legal Social Sciences Theory

Trans Dilemmas Living in Australia’s Remote Areas and in Aboriginal Communities

Trans Dilemmas presents the findings of a three-year research project which examined the lived experiences of trans people in Australia’s Northern Territory. The book argues that whilst trans people, who live in remote areas, experience issues which may not be distinct from those living in urban areas and the inner-city, these issues can be aggravated…