Phenomenal Gender: What Transgender Experience Discloses

174 Pages·2017·3.45 MB·English

by  Ephraim Das Janssen

Phenomenal Gender

Phenomenal
Gender
What Transgender
Experience Discloses
Ephraim Das Janssen
Indiana University Press
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Contents
ix 97
Preface 4. Gender and
Individuation
xv
Acknowledgments 125
5. Gender, Technology,
1 and Style
1. The Question of Gender
139
43 Bibliography
2. Gender in Its Historical
Situation 147
Index
67
3. Heidegger Trouble:
Gendered Dasein and
Embodiment

Preface
There is something of a tradition among phenomenologists to write of
tables—of writing tables, mostly.1 So, as a preface to my examination of the
question of gender, I too describe a table. In fact, I tell of two tables. In my
room, the writing table is placed near the east wall, facing west so I can turn
my gaze past the computer and out over the room and a slice of Chicago that
is visible through the windows. This writing table is a cheap one, purchased
while I was a student. It is valuable to me as the table on which I wrote my dis-
sertation, for I am a sentimental phenomenologist, prone to value familiarity
and scratches over perfection. The computer sits on the table, and the virtue
of both is that I rarely have to notice them. They are simply there while I do
research, write, and check Facebook. They are the background of my work, the
context in which I am free to pay attention to what is actually interesting and
engaging. But at the same time, they are a context that shapes how I am in the
space governed by the table. I sit upright, on a desk chair, to use the writing
table and raise my arms to the right height to use the keyboard. The table, in a
literal sense, shapes me.
My writing table is not a girl, and it is not a boy. Since I speak English
and use English almost all the time, it is simply an “it.” Were I thinking in
German, my table would be masculine; were I speaking Spanish, it would be
feminine. The pronoun “it” in English indicates that the writing table is an
entity to which I owe no ethical debt; I do not need to worry about the writ-
ing table’s well-being or opinions regarding the World Cup in order to be a
good person. Men, women, and people who challenge these categories can
use writing tables, although the products we buy are increasingly marketed to
ix