Self-Made Men: Identity and Embodiment among Transsexual Men

222 Pages·2003·7.31 MB·English

by  Henry Rubin

Self-Made Men
Self-
Made
Identity and
Men Embodiment
among
Transsexual
Men
H E N R Y R U B I N
V A N D E R B I L T U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
© 2003 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First Edition 2003
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubin, Henry, 1966-
Self made men : identity, embodiment, and recognition
among transsexual men / Henry Rubin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8265-1434-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8265-1435-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Female-to-male transsexuals. 2. Female-to-male
transsexuals—Identity. I. Title.
HQ77.9 .R83 2003
305.9’066—dc21
2002155487
Dedicated with love to my mother and father
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Logic of Treatment 33
Chapter 2. Border Wars: Lesbian and Transsexual Identity 97
Chapter 3. Betrayed by Bodies 141
Chapter 4. Transsexual Trajectories 174
Chapter 5. Always Already Men 219
Conclusion 265
Notes 185
References 197
Index 207
Acknowledgments
This book has taken many shapes on its way to this, the final version.
Though I alone am responsible for this version, I thank the countless
eyes that read each successive draft, in part or in whole, and gave me
priceless feedback and endless encouragement. It is to them that I owe
what intelligibility I have achieved. Without them, I never would have
completed this project. I am especially indebted to circle of Brandeis
Ph.D.s who had the wisdom to form writing groups and the kindness
to include me in them. Cameron Macdonald, PJ McGann, Joan Alway,
Faith Ferguson, Jean Elson, Monisha das Gupta, Amy Agigian, Betsy
Hayes, Janet Kahn, and Sadhana Berys have nurtured my writing and
aided me in all my endeavors. The faculty at Brandeis, especially Peter
Conrad, Gila Hayim, Maury Stein, and Karen Hansen also supplied
advice and encouragement well after I finished the dissertation that
was the basis for this book. I am immensely grateful to my students
and colleagues in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at
Harvard University, in spite of the fact that they often ate up my pre-
cious writing time. My involvement in the culture of Social Studies
raised the intellectual and spiritual stakes of this project and of the
foundations of my thought.
To document the thesis of chapter one, I was lucky enough to
have access to the Countway Medical Library at Harvard University.
This collection’s rare books and extensive journal holdings made it
possible to do this research on endocrinology and surgery in the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries in my own backyard. Christian
ix
x / Self-Made Men
Hamburger’s article on the 465 letters he received after Christine
Jorgensen’s case was publicized was among the treasures at Harvard.
Dr. Michael Dillon’s book Self (1946) was made available thanks to
Susan Stryker’s generosity. In order to document the thesis of chapter
two, I made extensive use of three archives with primary documents
collected from old gay life both before and after 1970. I worked at the
Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, the Gay and Lesbian Histori-
cal Society in San Francisco, and the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe
College. The first two provided the best material on old gay life, in-
cluding documents from Vice Versa, the first known lesbian magazine
in the U.S., from as early as 1948. They also had the most useful ma-
terial on the lesbian view of the conflicts as feminism met lesbianism.
I used the archives at Harvard to get a perspective on the heterosexual
women who revived feminism in the 1970s. The Gay and Lesbian
Historical Society had a strong collection of the back issues of The
Lesbian Tide, which provided the basis for a comparison between the
East and West coasts of the country.
My gratitude goes to the many transsexual men in Boston, New
York, and San Francisco who were willing to share their life stories
with me. These interviews are the backbone of the book. Wherever I
met you and whatever you told me, I hope I have brought something
of your experiences to the public or to one transsexual man who needed
to hear that he was not alone.
Thanks to Doug Mitchell at the University of Chicago Press for
helping me hone my critical sensibilities and my understanding of the
state of the field of Queer Studies. I am grateful to my editor, Michael
Ames, who understood this project from the start and was willing to
give it a second chance.
True colleagues are hard to find, but I have the good fortune to
have several. Thanks to all of you who informed the book with your
insights and supported me with your friendship: Lynne Layton, Shelly
Tenenbaum, Dan Chambliss, Mitchell Stevens, Dennis Gilbert, Paula
Rust, Dana Luciano, Sharon Hays, Clare Hemmings, Jay Prosser,
Vivianne Namaste, Carolyn Dinshaw, Susan Stryker, Vernon Rosario,
David Halperin, Dean Kotula, Jason Cromwell, and Ben Singer. I give
Acknowledgments / xi
special recognition to Dr. Judith Vichniac at Harvard/Radcliffe whose
irreplaceable advice has guided me for a decade.
I also acknowledge the handful of friends who have been with me
during the writing of this book: Anne Murdock, Barbara Brousal, Mark
Hood, Beth Apfelbaum, Samanta Sassi, and Russell Fernald. The years
on Bay State Avenue provided nourishment of all kinds necessary for
long blocks of writing. The extended clan of Penlands was supportive
even before I married into it. Thanks, Daniel, for last-minute editing
and moving during crunch time. Love and gratitude to my family,
Michael, Lauren, Brent, Veronica, Nancy, Mark, and Tobi, who will
be pleased to see this book completed after learning not to ask when it
would be finished. And finally, no single intellectual, moral, or physi-
cal presence took more care to see that I had whatever I needed to
finish this book than my love, my wife Liz.
Self-Made Men