Understanding, Knowing, and Telling Transgender Identities

310 Pages·1997·21.991 MB·English

by  Darryl B. Hill

UNDERSTANDmG, KNOWING, AND TELLING TRANSGENDER IDENTITIES
by
Darryl B. Hill
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies
through the Department of Psychology
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy at
the University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
01997 Darryl Hill
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 dedicate this dissertation, in fact my entire degree, to my parents, William
and Karen Hill. Vithout their unending and valuable support, 1 would never have
finished this degree.
1 am honoured to have shared my education with a unique cohort of colleagues
who encouraged a fertile atmosphere of innovative and critical inquiry. In particular,
discussions with David Zitney, Peter Cobrin, Julie Fraser, and Scott Mattson directly
influenced this project.
1 owe my committee a lot of gratitude. In a discipline that is just beginning to
encourage alternative methods and marginalized topics, they should be acknowledged
for accepting the unusual premise and methods of this study. Henry Minton, my chair,
profoundly influenced the direction of my research and world view by helping me find
the theories to fit my practices. Charlene Senn kept the feminist theory accurate and
significantly shaped the rnethodology. For the last five years, Michael Kra1 has given
me encouragement, good advice, and confidence. Barry Adam's suggestions on my
interview schedule were instrumental in achieving strong narratives, and his cautions
about postmodem theory were well-needed. Betty Bayer's insightful theoreticai
comments and questions were both encouraging and challenging.
1 would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the research participants in
this study. Their openness to share their lives and stories-often the result of deep
and intense personal struggles-and patience to bear my questions, is testament to the
importance of sharing their experiences with the profession of psychology.
Lastly, Julie Giroux was my firsr d e r . She bravely waded through the
difficult phrasing and "typos" on earlier drafis, and for that I'm grateful. She shared
my life during a time that 1 spent mostly in front of a cornputer, on the road
conducting interviews, or hooked to a transcriber. When 1 was at home and "off-line,"
her companionship was always needed and welcome.
ABSTRACT
Previous psychological research has pathologized muisgendered people.
Reconceptualizing gender fiom a postmodern perspective and theory and research fiom
within the transgender community leads to a very different view of gender and
transgender identities. However, the transgender community's thoughts on this
reconstruction of gender has been mostly unexplored Therefore, I engaged 17 male-
bom and one female-bom members of southwestern Ontario's transgender community
in a dialogue. We spoke about how they understand gender, came to know their
transgendemess, and tell the story of their gender. Then, 1 analyzed the inte~ews
using a four part coding strategy focused on direct responses to specific issues,
common patterns and metaphon across participant accounts, diflerent positions
amongst al1 respondents, and the bctions of these accounts.
On the question of the nature of gender, participants were split between
integrationist or social constructionist views of gender. Moreover, most participants
agreed that society supports a dichotomous view of sex and gender, but l e m ajority of
this sample did not see their own gender this way. They stressed the complexity,
diversity, and plurality of gender categories, transcending gender dichotomization by
personalizing and individuaiizing gender expressions. In addition, most participants
disrupted the standard sedgender semiotic code: some agreed that gender signified
sex, but privileged gender over sex and switched from one code system to another;
others privileged sex over gender, but disrupted the assumptions of gender signifying
sex or presented mixed signifiers.
With respect to knowing their gender, participants came to know their
transgenderedness through a variety of experiences: cross-dressing, explorations of
their own sexudity, gendered positioning by others, and connecting with others in the
transgendered community. Communication, information, and medical technologies
aiso played a significant role in respondents' self-knowledge, but a majority of
infonnants were critical of these technologies and the effects they have on transgender
subjectivities.
Most participants chose to identify as transgendered and not to edit their
biography. Those who did change the story they told others did so mostly to ensure
d e a nd respectfbl responses from others. Also, the majority of respondents'
narratives were innovative in both fom and content. Their life stories differed fiom
other, more traditional, life stories. Moreover, most respondents saw the development
of their gender identity as a life-long task. Their concems for the future centred on
developing relationships with others, politicai action and education, and optimism
about the friture of the transgender community.
A discussion of these results suggests that informant positions on the nature of
gender, knowing transgenderedness, and gender narratives serve previously unexplored
personai, political, and moral functions. Moreover, I contend that in order to
adequately respect transgender knowledges and subjectivities, psychologists must alter
both their theories of gender and transgender identities and methods. To better respect
the diveaity of gender experiences in our Society. psychologists must reconceptualize
sex and gender. One of the more promising ways to re-examine the fundamental
assumptions underlying traditional psychological gender theory and research is to
actively involve people previously marginalized by sex and gender theory, such as
those who identifjr as transgendereâ, in the research process.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES ............................................. x
....................................
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1
Transgender Identities ...................................... 1
The Study of Gender and Transgender Identities .................... 3
Gender and Sex ..................................... 3
Differentiating Gender and Sexual Orientation ................ 6
Acquisition and Developmeat of Gender .................... 9
Varieties of Sex and Gender ........................... 13
Hermaphrodites and Intersexes ..................... 14
Cross-Dressing and Cross-Dressen .................. 16
.................................
Transsexuals 17
............................
The Construction of Gender 19
Essentialism and Gender DifFerences ................ 20
Undoing Biologicd Essentialism ................... 22
Early Constnictionist Theories ..................... 23
Gender Across History and Culture ................. 24
Integrating Essentialism and Constructionism . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Reconsidering the Pathology of Transgender ................ 29
Reconstructing Transgender Identities .......................... 32
The Nature of Transgender Identity ...................... 34
Postmodem Anti-Essentialism ..................... 35
The Nature of Transgender .................. 38
Deconstructing Gender Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Are Gender Identities Complex? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Deconstmcting Gender Binarism ................... 44
1s Transgender the Third Tenn to Deconstruct
Gender Binarism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Semiotics of Gender ......................... 53
1s Transgender Based on a Postmodem Semiotics? . 56
Gender as Performative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
1s Gender a Perfonnative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Knowing and Telling Gender ........................... 64
Gender as a Discourse Position .................... 65
1s Transgender Identity Discursively Produced? .... 67
Communication and Information Technologies and Self-
Knowledge ............................. 70
What is the ERect of Communication and
Information Technologies on Self-
Knowledge? ....................... 71
Medical Technologies and Transgender Self-Knowledge . . . 74
What is the Effect of Medical Technologies on
Transgender Self-Knowledge? ........... 75
Authenticity and Self-Narrative .................... 78
Are Transgender Self-Narratives Authentic? ...... 80
Postmodern Narrative Form ....................... 87
Do Transgender Self-Narratives Reflect
Postmodem Narrative Form? ............ 90
Purpose of the Study ...................................... 93
CHAPTER 11: METHOD ........................................ 96
Participants ............................................. 96
Recruitment ....................................... 99
Procedure .............................................. 102
Interviews ........................................ 102
CHAPTER III: RESULTS ....................................... 105
The Analytical Approach ................................... 105
The Nature of Gender ..................................... 108
Gender as a Social Construction ......................... 108
Gender as Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Perfbnning Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Gender as a Role ......................... 111
Gender as a Strategic Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . li2
Gender as Cuftural/Historical Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Integrating Essentialism and Constructivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Gender as Born and Made ........................ 116
The Categories of Gender .................................. 117
EithedOr Gender ................................... 118
Deconstructing Gender Dichotomies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Gender as a Mix ............................... 122
Many Genders ................................ 123
In Between .................................. 124
Thirdness .................................... 126
Transgender as Third Gender or Space . . . . . . . . . . 126
Just Another Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Thirdness is Too Radical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Personalizing and Individualizing Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Gender Semiotics ........................................ 132
The SedGender Sign ................................ 133
Transgender SedGender Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Changing Signs ............................... 136
Mixing Signifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Knowing and Telling Gender ................................ 141
Through Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Being Gender-Typed ............................ 142
Being Positioned as a Woman ..................... 143
Refusing to be Gender-Typed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
vii
Through Dressing ................................... 150
Through Sexuality ................................... 152
Through Connecting With Transgendered People ............. 157
Support Groups and Social Clubs ................... 159
Gender Conventions ............................ 161
Obstacles to Connecting ......................... 164
Isolation and Independence .................. 164
Being Guarded and in the Closet .............. 165
...............................
Jealousy 166
Through Communication and Information Technologies ........ 167
Reading About Transgender ....................... 167
Broadcasting Transgender ........................ 172
The Internet and Comectivity ..................... 173
'ïhrough Medical Technologies .......................... 175
An Answer to a Question and a Dream ............... 176
Critical Consumen of Medical Technology ............ 178
Inaccessibility ........................... 178
Enforcing Gender Dichotomization ............. 179
Unsuccessful Interventions .................. 183
Resisting Pathology ....................... 184
Transgender Narratives .................................... 185
Authenticity ....................................... 185
Being Out ................................... 186
Editing One's Stooiy ............................. 189
Privacy and Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Pwing and Safety ........................ 190
Narrative Form and Content ............................ 193
Just The Same ................................ 193
Being Creative and Different ...................... 194
Multiple Selves ............................... 200
Gender Throughout Life .............................. 203
Developing Gender ............................. 203
Suppression: Fitting In and Purging . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Going Back and Forth ..................... 211
On The Funire ..................................... 212
Relationships With Othen ........................ 213
Political Action and Education ..................... 215
The Future of The Transgender Commwiity . . . . . . . . . . . 217
CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSION .................................... 219
A Few Reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Understanding Transgender ................................. 223
Knowing Transgender ..................................... 227
Telling Transgender ....................................... 229
Functions of Transgender Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
The Politin of Gender Ontology ........................ 233
The "Ends" of Stones ................................ 237
Authenticity and Destabilization ......................... 240
Psychology and the Smdy of Gender and Transgender Identities ....... 241
The Usefulness of Postmodernism ............................. 243
REFERENCES ............................................... 257
APPENDIX A: Intemet Announcement .............................. 282
APPENDIX B: Newsletter and Poster Announcement .................... 283
APPENDIX C: Instructions to Participants ............................ 284
APPENDIX D: Consent Forrn ..................................... 286
APPENDUC E: Demographics Questionnaire .......................... 287
APPENDLX F: Initial Interview Protocol ............................. 288
APPENDIX G: Final Interview Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
VITA AUCTORIS ............................................. 298
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Current Gender ......................................... 97
Table 2: Gender Identity ........................................ 98
Table 3: Highest Education Completed .............................. 100
Table 4: Curent Occupation ...................................... 100
Table 5: Current Yearly Eaming .................................. 101
Table 6: Sexual Orientation ...................................... 101