Ashley S. Williams
ENGL-1102-004
An Inquiry into the Process of Transitioning
The process of transitioning is not like anything you could ever imagine. For the purpose of this assignment, I am inquiring into that process because I think it can teach the world a lot about agency, performativity, and the importance of approaching gender and sexuality with an open mind.
Many think the process of transitioning is just that--a process. In reality, this process is made up of other multi-faceted procedures of performance. I am using the phrase ‘process of transitioning’ to explain the process of a person changing their “gender” physically and performatively. This essay will inquire into the physical, intellectual, and mental processes that accompany transitioning.
What is Trans*
In this short clip, AnEducatedBabyGay sums up what trans* is in simple terms. This video will help explain trans* in a way that is not so technical. You may wonder why trans is followed by an asterisk. This AnEducatedBabyGay explains this too! It is important to me to unpack the term Trans* because it is significant to the understanding of transitioning and other ideas in my essay.
If you literally google “define trans*” you will not find the kind of trans* that I am referring to. Dictionaries define trans as a simple abbreviation for longer words. It has been defined as across. It even has a chemical definition. One way of defining something is discussing what it is not, rather than what it is. In philosophy, we call this determinate negation. It is easy to rattle off random definitions for what I think trans* is. However, trans* is not one thing.
It would be impossible for me to say what trans* is, because of this. I can say that most of the communities that are interested in advocating for marginalized people are in agreement on what trans* is not. Antonia D’ Orsay of The Bilerico Project does a great job of discussing what trans* is not in the piece “What is Trans*” D’Orsay implies suggests that “trans* is not an identity. I think that D'Orsay wants people to understand that trans* is not just about how one identifies oneself. Trans* can be many different things. “And the one thing they all have in common is that they do not conform to society's expectations of how someone of their physiological sex assigned at birth is supposed to be in the culture they live in.That's it. That's what makes someone Trans. That is as simple as it gets.” (D'Orsay, 2011)
D’Orsay would agree that if we really want to know what trans* is we have to open our minds, open our hearts, and widen our understanding of heteronormative things we have been taught from a young age.
The Physical
When we think about gender reassignment surgery, we often think of a one stop shop that allows individuals to change genders automatically. Physically transitioning looks different for everyone. There are multiple surgeries that an individual can undergo depending on their desired outcome. In his piece "8 Myths About Transgender Men’s Genital Reconstruction", Mitch Kellaway refers to 9 different procedures of reconstruction. He writes “ Concerning genital reconstruction, the go-to image is of a surgery that creates a penis (or whatever a man may refer to this organ as). For this goal, there are actually two different procedures men seek. A metoidioplasty is the removal of the ligaments surrounding a testosterone-enlarged phallus/clitoris, allowing it to protrude further from the body. A phalloplasty is a construction of a penis from tissue harvested from either the forearm, the side of the chest, the pubic area, or the thigh. Men sometimes first undergo a metoidioplasty and then later undergo a phalloplasty.”
Some people who identify as trans* have not undergone a reassignment surgery at all.
There are also varying degrees of transition. An individual may decide that they want to change their appearance and not their reproductive organs. For most individuals, any surgery is accompanied with Hormone Replacement Therapy. HRT changes the balance of sex hormones in an individual's body. The purpose is to cause the development of the secondary sex characteristics can affect the individual in various ways. Examples of secondary sex characteristics include breasts and facial hair in humans. In animals however, secondary sex characteristics might include a lion’s mane or a peacocks feathers.
Examples of secondary sex characteristics include breasts and facial hair in humans. In animals however, secondary sex characteristics might include a lion’s mane or a peacocks feathers. Usually, HRT has its own requirements. Doctors encourage patients to live as the desired gender for a length of time. This may give the transitioning person a chance to feel what it might be like. I wonder if living as the desired gender makes them change their mind, or encourages them even more to undergo procedures or life changes. Individuals that do decide to undergo physical transitioning also have to deal with the changes that their body faces. This might seem unimportant or obvious to cisgender people, but it is a realization for transitioning peoples.
The physical process of transitioning is costly. This is one of the reason that the process can take a toll on individuals mentally. Depending on the type of procedure that is sought out, it could cost an individual anywhere from $2000 to $20,000. it is also important to note that many health insurance plans do not cover the costs of the physical or mental health aspects of transitioning. People who are interested in transitioning rely on grants, loans, donations, and paying for their procedures and therapies out of pocket. Another option that individuals have is participating in Transgender Research Studies. Some of these studies included being poked and prodded, questioned, and basically used to the discretion of the researching group. It is more than obvious why someone seeking gender reassignment payment options would not be interested in this as an option.
It is important not to undermine the bodily happenings that transitioning people face everyday. It has become especially apparent to me since the start of this project, that cisgender men and women sometimes take their own bodily happenings for granted as “normal” or “common”.
The Mental
The Intllectual
Before many individuals make the decision to transition, they do copious amounts of inquiry projects of their own. One does not wake up one morning and decide that they want to transition. The decision to transition to any extent is usually well thought out. All the research in the world would not account for the experience of Annika Penelope, a transgender activist and blogger who shares her experiences in an article published on Huffington Post entitled "10 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started My Transition." Penelope writes about things that she did not see coming such as microaggressions. Microaggressions are interactions of non-physical aggression. She writes “ So what are microaggressions, exactly? In my case, it's everytime a well-intentioned friend posts an article about a trans* person on my wall or remarks on my physical changes since the last time they saw me, or every time someone asks if my girlfriend and I are sisters (even if we're holding hands). It's the little interactions that happen every day that remind you that you are "different" in some way. (Unfortunately, many trans* people, especially trans women of color, face more than just microaggressions. They are often subjected to discrimination, violence and institutional hostility. I realize that I am incredibly privileged, and in no way am I trying to diminish the struggles of others, but microaggressions are still unpleasant and something that I was not prepared for.)” (Penelope, 2013)
This is dffrnt4grrls. She has several informational videos that discuss aspects of transitioning. Check them out!
Another aspect of life that changes for transitioning peoples are relationships. Not only do they have to “come out”, but they have to reveal themselves to their friends, family, and others who claim to care about them, as someone whom those people are not familiar with. It is important to look at transitioning like becoming more of who you are, rather than trying to become something that you are not. For Penelope, she had to check her own privilege before transitioning into a female body. There were many things that she had taken for granted when she was a man. Annika Penelope presented and performed as a normative hetero guy before she transitioned. After she transitioned, she found herself giving up many of the privileges she had previously taken for granted. For example, when she presented herself as a hetero male, she did not have to worry about people constantly commenting on her appearance. Also, people began to take her less seriously at work and she had to “assert herself twice as much” after transitioning.
#IStandWithAndraya
If communities do hear about trans* people, it is usually because of someone famous or when a trans* person receives national news attention because of a brutal murder or suicide. Even this is rare. Recently, in the Charlotte community, accommodations for trans* individuals has come into question. People do not start paying attention to trans* people until something goes wrong. In many cases, gender-conforming people do not even realize that trans* people exist.
Over the past couple of months Andraya's story has received national news attention. Her story has also captured the attention of people who live here in Charlotte. Andraya recently filed charges against CPCC for discriminating against her based upon her race and the fact that she is trans*.
Andraya's story is so important because it is something happening here in our backyards. People automatically assume that being trans* is not an issue at all, or they do not understand the complexity of gender issues altogether. Andraya's story is interesting because with it, the intersectionality of race and gender can be found. Andraya is a black trans* student. She is arguing that the security officer at the school not only targeted her because of her gender, but her race as well. Discriminatory treatment on any individual is simply unacceptable. Andraya's unique story helps us understand why it is imperative that we take on issues for trans* (and other marginalized people) as a community. A trans* problem is our problem. A black problem is our problem. A woman problem is our problem. Once we start to take action as a community, marginalized people's will have more resources to choose from.
Sign the petition for Andraya, and for all trans* people of color here.
What Can We Learn?
The process of transitioning can cause us to be more open minded in our attempts to address inequalities in gender and sexuality through performativity. There are different ways to think about performativity, but I like to use Judith Butler's take on the matter. A central concept of the theory is that your gender is constructed through your own repetitive performance of gender. This is related to the idea that discourse creates subject positions for your self to occupy—linguistic structures construct the self. The structure or discourse of gender for Butler, however, is bodily and nonverbal. Butler’s theory does not accept stable and coherent gender identity. Gender is “a stylized repetition of acts . . . which are internally discontinuous . . .[so that] the appearance of substance is precisely that, a constructed identity, a performative accomplishment which the mundane social audience, including the actors themselves, come to believe and to perform in the mode of belief” (Gender Trouble). To say that gender is performative is to argue that gender is “real only to the extent that it is performed” (Butler, 263)
Gender and sexuality are performed. I am not a woman because I have female reproductive organs. I am a cisgender woman because of the way I show affection, because I like to wear dresses, because of the way I love, and more significantly,because that is how I choose to identify myself. Having an open mind is necessary for everyone to get along. Most of the people who are against gender being performative are also people who identify as the gender they were born with. It is important that we allow people to identify however they want.
Any disruption of heteronormative patriarchy is useful. Gender is highly complex. It has almost nothing to do with one’s reproductive organs, but everything to do with how one wants to identify. Letting people identify how they please also disrupts heteronormative patriarchy. Disrupting heteronormative patriarchy could be as simple as acknowledging a gender-nonconforming person how they would like to be acknowledged in a classroom setting. For example, some individuals would rather be called they instead of she or he. On Tumblr, Ariel Silvera writes “I am not in a position to say who is trans and who isn’t, and I absolutely don’t want to be in that position. However, I will say that when many genderqueer people describe their experience as transgender, they seem to mean something fundamentally different by the word ‘trans’ and the word ‘gender’. I think its fine and good that there are a variety of trans experiences. this is positive. I respect genderqueer folks’ genders.” They are illustrating this complexity." Silvera's views are significant because they qualify the idea that it is important to address and acknowledge individuals in a way that represents who they are.
I conducted a survey, inquiring about gender and gender identification. There was a positive correlation between people who thought that gender was defined as “sex” or “being male or female” and people who thought that you had to be the same gender you were born with. The answer choices were designed to make the person taking the quiz think about how they define themselves, others, and it questioned how much they knew about performativity. Around the same number of males and females who identified themselves as such believed that you had to be the gender that you were born with. I enjoyed conducting this survery because it gave me a chance to see the views and opinions of my classmates.
Gayle Salamon is a scholar who write on trans*, gender, sexuality, feminism and phenomenologoy. Her book Assuming a Body discusses trans* and rhetorics of materiality. She discusses how language plays a big part in how we define ourselves as far as gender is concerned. She writes, "...the transgendered subject can be distinguished from the normatively gendered subject by the specificity of hir embodiment and by hir ability to self-define apart from the oppressive social structures that determine gender. But this call for an autonomous subject is complicated by the way language circulates within that call." (Salamon, 81-82)
Advocation
There are many people around the world who are working hard to fight for the rights of trans* people. One of more prominent figures comes to mind. Dean Spade is a lawyer, activist, and writer. He has written many books on trans* theories of identities, feminism, and the intersection of race, gender and the law. Dean Spade founded the Sylvia Riviera Law Project, which is a non-profit law collective that provides legal services to transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. I had the pleasure of hearing Dean Spade at 2 talks he gave in Charlotte earlier this semester. He was extremely inspirational and he reaffirmed for me that people are working hard to change biases in the world. He affirmed that the advocational work for gender nonconforming people, and people of color is significant to not only progress as a country, but our understanding of individuals and ourselves. Seeing people like Dean Spade work so hard and be so passionate about things he believes in, lets me know that it is okay for me to follow my dreams of becoming a lawyer and fighting for other marginalized peoples. The impacts of people like Dean Spade will sometimes go unseen and unknown to heteronormative communities in the country. However, the work that he and other advocates do helps a smaller community of people who most people don’t know exist.
In Conclusion
If you've taken anything away after viewing my Digital Inquiry Project, it is my hope that the information in my project informed you on what it's like to be a trans* person and ways that advocates can help. I also hope that I have inspired you to take control of your own lives my not letting others identify who you are. Ultimately, I hope that after viewing my project, you are inclined to become an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. I charge you with keeping an open mind, an open heart, and being tolerant of the ALL of the things that make us different.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Gender trouble feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.
D'Orsay, Antonia. "What Is Trans*?." Bilerico Project RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/what_is_trans.php>.
D'Orsay, Antonia. "What Is Trans*?." Bilerico Project RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/what_is_trans.php>.
Killerman, Sam. "What does the asterisk in “trans*” stand for?." Its Pronounced Metrosexual RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/05/what-does-the-asterisk-in-trans-stand-for/>.
Price , Mark. "CPCC Opens Discussions with LGBT Groups." Charlotte Observer 8 Apr. 2014: 1-3. Print.
Salamon, Gayle. Assuming a body transgender and rhetorics of materiality. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Print.
Spade, Dean. "SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project)." SRLP Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Dean Spade, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://srlp.org>.