Gender hurts a feminist analysis of the politics of transgenderism

225 Pages·2014·1.576 MB·English

by  Jeffreys, Sheila

GENDER HURTS
It is only recently that transgenderism has been accepted as a disorder for
which treatment is available. In the 1990s, a political movement of transgender
activism coalesced to campaign for transgender rights. Considerable social,
political and legal changes are occurring in response and there is increasing
acceptance by governments and many other organisations and actors of the
legitimacy of these rights.
This provocative and controversial book explores the consequences
of these changes and off ers a feminist perspective on the ideology and
practice of transgenderism, which the author sees as harmful. It explores the
eff ects of transgenderism on the lesbian and gay community, the partners
of people who transgender, children who are identifi ed as transgender and
the people who transgender themselves, and argues that these are negative.
In doing so the book contends that the phenomenon is based upon sex
stereotyping, referred to as ‘gender’ – a conservative ideology that forms the
foundation for women’s subordination. G ender Hurts argues for the abolition
of ‘gender’, which would remove the rationale for transgenderism.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students of political science,
feminism and feminist theory and gender studies.
Sheila Jeff reys is Professor of feminist politics in the School of Social and
Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
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GENDER HURTS
A feminist analysis of the
politics of transgenderism
Sheila Jeffreys
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2014 Sheila Jeff reys
The right of Sheila Jeff reys to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Jeff reys, Sheila.
Gender hurts : a feminist analysis of the politics of transgenderism / Sheila Jeff reys.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Transgenderism. 2. Transgender people–Political activity. 3. Feminism.
4. Feminist theory. I. Title.
HQ77.9.J44 2014
306.76ʹ8–dc23
2013042861
ISBN: 978-0-415-53939-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-53940-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77826-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
This book is dedicated to Ann Rowett with my love and with
gratitude for her support and advice throughout this project.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
I ntroduction 1
1 T he construction of transgenderism 14
2 T ransgenderism and feminism 3 6
3 D oing transgender: really hurting 5 8
4 ‘ A gravy stain on the table’: women in the lives of men
who transgender 8 0
5 W omen who transgender: an antidote to feminism? 101
6 G ender eugenics: the transgendering of children 123
7 A clash of rights: when gender is inscribed in the law 142
8 W omen’s space and the transgender challenge 162
C onclusion: the abolition of gender 183
References 190
Index 211
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to Janice G. Raymond for her pioneering book, T he Transsexual
Empire (1994, fi rst published 1979). Her work is the foundation on which
feminist criticism of transgenderism has been built, and continues to inspire
radical feminist thought. I am grateful to all those friends who have read and
commented upon chapters of this book: Lorene Gottschalk, Lynne Harne,
Kathy Chambers, Ruth Margerison. Lorene Gottschalk’s contribution was
particularly valuable. She was much involved in the initial stages of this pro-
ject and contributed to the writing of half of the chapters, and she conducted
the three interviews that have been so important to Chapters 3 and 4. I am
grateful, too, to the new wave of radical feminism both online and offl ine.
Radical feminist bloggers such as Gallus Mag from ‘GenderTrender’ (n.d.a)
and Dirt from ‘Dirt from Dirt’, among others, have provided invaluable fac-
tual material, references and ideas on their blogs, without which it would
have been harder to write this book. Indeed, over the period that this book
has been incubating, radical feminist bloggers strengthened and clarifi ed my
analysis. Radical feminist activists have provided venues at which I have been
able to test out my thinking, these being the two very successful radical
feminist conferences in London – Rad Fem 2012 and Rad Fem 2013. I
owe much to these brave women. I salute the courage and tenacity of those
radical feminists who are making it possible for r adical feminists to speak,
and furthering radical feminist analysis. I intend this book as a contribution
to the considerable struggle that is presently taking place between mainly
male transgender activists and radical feminists over who has the right to
defi ne what a woman is: women, or men who fantasise about being women.
I am thankful for the support I continue to receive from the University of
Melbourne, which has provided a crucible over the last two decades in which
to develop my ideas, research and write.
INTRODUCTION
This book will explore the harms created by the ideology and practice of
transgenderism, a phenomenon that developed in the mid to late twentieth
century. Transgenderism has only been an accepted disorder for which the
treatment of choice is the administration of hormones, and perhaps ampu-
tation or other surgery, for a comparatively short time. Many US physicians
contested the idea of such treatments for the condition until the 1970s, and
some still do (Meyerowitz, 2 002 ). In the 1990s, partly as a result of the potential
for networking created by the Internet, a political movement of transgender
activism was created to campaign for transgender ‘rights’. Considerable social,
political and legal changes are occurring in response, and there is increasing
acceptance by governments and many other organisations and actors of the
legitimacy of such rights. These changes have ramifi cations for lesbian and
gay existence and the lesbian and gay community; for the health and life
chances of transgenders themselves; for the possibilities of women’s equality;
for organisations, workplaces, services and the law. There is now a copious
literature on transgenderism, on its history, treatment, theory and practice.
But this literature is generally positive towards the phenomenon, seeing trans-
genders as constituting an essential category of persons that has been denied
rights and needs recognition. Some of this literature makes the claim that
transgenderism is transgressive and part of a revolutionary process of social
change, because it destabilises the ‘gender binary’.
This book takes a quite diff erent approach. It argues, from a feminist per-
spective, that transgenderism is but one way in which ‘gender’ hurts people
and societies. Transgenderism depends for its very existence on the idea that
there is an ‘essence’ of gender, a psychology and pattern of behaviour, which
is suited to persons with particular bodies and identities. This is the opposite
of the feminist view, which is that the idea of gender is the foundation of
the political system of male domination. ‘Gender’, in traditional patriarchal
thinking, ascribes skirts, high heels and a love of unpaid domestic labour to
those with female biology, and comfortable clothing, enterprise and initiative