Trans*Enough was starting from the idea that you are enough, as you are, right now. We believed that however you identify is right for you, and that you didn’t need surgeries or hormones or outside approval to make it so.
We started with the mission of celebrating individuals who identify as transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming. We worked to engender mutual respect between many diverse communities and allies, and towards the creation of an environment where every person may live their life with the dignity that is their due. We sought to provide and maintain safe space for individuals to explore and dialogue about their experiences, and offered interactive spaces where individuals could freely express themselves. Trans*Enough also partnered with individuals and organizations to strengthen our community in an effort to enable all people access to those tools which help them attain their personal goals and come into themselves.
The make up of Trans*Enough has changed dramatically over the years. The original founding members were Del Rapier, Executive Director, and Nik Rapier, Creative and Content Manager. In the beginning we brought lots of original content, including content from several monthly columnists. We created TransFaces, which provided a visual representation of the diversity of trans* communities. However, over the years, interest in contributing to a 100% volunteer organization declined. And we totally understand! It’s hard to put in all the work of creating new and original content for no pay. In 2011, Del Rapier became the sole foundation of Trans*Enough. Over the remaining years, Trans*Enough has had various behind the scenes contributions from a variety of amazing folks. As Del has been pursuing their academic goals of getting their doctorate in clinical psychology, keeping up with the day-to-day operations of Trans*Enough has become more and more of a challenge. We began to lose the ability to continue bringing you original content and instead focused on our third goal of partnering with individuals and organizations, and in effect became a source for bringing together trans* content from a variety of outside sources. We feel that, without the ability to be an active source of new and original content, Trans*Enough is no longer living up to the whole of its original goals.
Because of these reasons, it is with a heavy heart that we at Trans*Enough have made the decision to come to an end. We have been humbled and honored by all of the support we have received over our four-year run. We have greatly enjoyed getting to know so many of you and watch the various communities grow and change. We have struggled with expanding our own definitions of what it means to be trans* (or trans) and deeply valued that struggle. We have been blown away by all of the political and personal victories trans* people have gained over these years. We have also been deeply disappointed by all the losses trans* communities have sustained. The annual Transgender Day of Remembrance reminds us that we still have so far to go.
Effective today, we will be closing down our Facebook page. Over the next week we will be closing down our Twitter page. We will be leaving up our website as an archive of our history. We will not be renewing our transenough.com URL, which will expire later next year. At that time, you will be able to reach this archive by going directly to http://transenoughblog.tumblr.com/.
We at Trans*Enough support research efforts to expand understanding and inclusion of trans* ranges of experience. We are happy to support our Executive Director, Del Rapier, in their efforts to challenge the status quo in how researchers think about who "counts" as transgender.
They are hoping to get 50 more participants! If you have not done so already, please consider adding your voice to this important study.
Call for Participants
I hope you will consider adding your voice to my dissertation research. This research has been approved by the Pacific University Institutional Review Board (#117-14). The survey for my dissertation is entitled Redefining Trans* Persistence and Desistence Toward A More Inclusive Account of Trans* Populations is now live.The purpose of this project is to examine from a social justice approach what, if any, impact access to surgical transition procedures have on trans* gender identity. I will be seeking to understand the following:• The importance of access to surgical transition procedures on trans* gender identity?• What barriers trans* folks experience related access to surgical transitions procedures, including: • health, • race/ethnicity, • religious and/or spiritual beliefs, and • socioeconomic status.Participants will have the opportunity to identify other barriers as well.I need your help in two ways:• Please consider taking the survey. Participation will take 15 - 20 minutes and will involve responding to two brief questionnaires presented online. All data related to your participation will be kept anonymous.• Please consider spreading the word with as many folks and/or groups that you think might be interested. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years of age, self-identify as a trans* individual (this is meant to be inclusive of both binarily identified folks and gender nonconforming folks), live in the United States, and read and comprehend English.NOTE: I am especially interested in getting more participation from and perspectives of trans* folks of color. I understand there are many valid and historic reasons for communities of color to distrust research. As a result, however, most research primarily represent those in the dominant and privileged majority.
We at Trans*Enough support research efforts to expand understanding and inclusion of trans* ranges of experience. We are happy to support our Executive Director, Del Rapier, in their efforts to challenge the status quo in how researchers think about who "counts" as transgender.
If you have not done so already, please consider adding your voice to this important study.
Call for Participants
I hope you will consider adding your voice to my dissertation research. This research has been approved by the Pacific University Institutional Review Board (#117-14). The survey for my dissertation is entitled Redefining Trans* Persistence and Desistence Toward A More Inclusive Account of Trans* Populations is now live.The purpose of this project is to examine from a social justice approach what, if any, impact access to surgical transition procedures have on trans* gender identity. I will be seeking to understand the following:• The importance of access to surgical transition procedures on trans* gender identity?• What barriers trans* folks experience related access to surgical transitions procedures, including: • health, • race/ethnicity, • religious and/or spiritual beliefs, and • socioeconomic status.Participants will have the opportunity to identify other barriers as well.I need your help in two ways:• Please consider taking the survey. Participation will take 15 - 20 minutes and will involve responding to two brief questionnaires presented online. All data related to your participation will be kept anonymous.• Please consider spreading the word with as many folks and/or groups that you think might be interested. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years of age, self-identify as a trans* individual (this is meant to be inclusive of both binarily identified folks and gender nonconforming folks), live in the United States, and read and comprehend English.NOTE: I am especially interested in getting more participation from and perspectives of trans* folks of color. I understand there are many valid and historic reasons for communities of color to distrust research. As a result, however, most research primarily represent those in the dominant and privileged majority.
We are excited to announce that our Executive Director has been approved to move forward in their research! Here is their call for participants:
Please consider participating in my dissertation research. My social justice based study is an examination of what, if any, impact access to surgical transition procedures have on trans* gender identity. The study explores the following: Is access to surgical transition procedures an important aspect of a trans* gender identity? What barriers exist for trans* populations to accessing surgical transition procedures? Finally, what extent do barriers limit access to surgical transition procedures? Participation will take about 20 minutes and will involve responding to two brief questionnaires presented online. All data related to your participation will be kept anonymous. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years of age, self-identify as a trans* individual (this is meant to be inclusive of both binarily identified folks and gender nonconforming folks) live in the United States, and read and comprehend English.
Gender Fluidity In Relationship To The Binary Gender Assumption
Column by: Del Rapier
Introduction
Stereotyping is the mental categorization of individuals in order to effect greater social control. In Gender Stereotypes: Reproduction and Challenge, Mary Talbot suggests, “Like caricatures, they focus on certain characteristics, real or imagined, and exaggerate them” (468). Although simplicity is the goal of stereotyping, the nature of stereotyping is anything but simple—a complex relationship between language and social construction. The binary gender assumption stereotype is an inherently flawed system. This research addresses the questions: what are the problems with the binary gender assumption and subsequent sex-typed gender roles? and what possibilities and benefits are gained through gender fluidity?
This paper will address the nature of stereotyping as it is used to reduce and simplify otherwise complex groupings of people—introducing linguistic judgment, the development of an Us/Them climate, and the legitimization of discrimination and bias. Next, it will consider the social, psychological, and physical effects of the binary gender system. This research will focus on the idea that gender is neither fixed nor unchanging. From this perspective, it will address pre-existing notions of gender appropriateness. It will then look at how gender is being redefined through gender independence and will consider the benefits associated with gender fluidity. Lastly, it will discuss the creation of new stories that include self-defined gender appropriateness.
Humans are social beings. We seek to create social comfort by developing ways of identifying others within our social interactions. Stereotyping is a method by which one reduces and simplifies otherwise complex groupings of people, creating an assumption of knowledge. Further, stereotyping constructs a set of behavior expectations. The comfort that stereotyping affords, however, is not without cost.
Attempting to par down a group of individuals into a simplistic set of expected behaviors establishes a judgment system as to what is normal and what is abnormal behavior for each stereotype. So simplified are these behavior expectations that, as Talbot suggests, those who are affected are often reduced to little more than caricatures. Stereotypes whittle away the characteristics of individuals, salvaging only those traits of commonality. In The Psychology of Stereotyping, David J. Schneider provides the following analogy, “stereotypes are the common cold of social interaction—ubiquitous, infectious, irritating, and hard to get rid of” (1).
Although it is often true that in stereotyped groups you will find commonalities, when a norm is established it often creates false, even harmful, expectations on both the members of the stereotyped group, as well as those in other groups. Schneider proposes, “The very concept of ‘stereotype’ was invented to label a common element of our experience—namely, that our expectations, attitudes, prejudices, stereotypes, and theories bias us even in the presence of valid disconfirming behavioral data” (147).
Once a stereotype has established normative behaviors, it then proceeds in the creation of an ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’ climate. Talbot suggests those most closely ascribing to normal behaviors are invited into the Us category, while those who are abnormal are thrust into the Them category. It is in this climate that power is allocated to those fitting in the Us category, while it is denied from those in the Them category. In Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain illustrates the power attributed with such classifications:
To affix a name to something is the beginning of control over it. After God created Adam, the very first task He instructed Adam to perform was the naming of all the animals. God informed Adam that by accomplishing this feat he would gain dominion over all the beast and fowl. Note that God didn’t teach Adam anything practical as how to make a fire or fashion a spear. Instead, He taught him to name. Words, more than strength or speed, became the weapons that humans have used to subdue nature. (18)
The dynamic of power based on stereotypic fit effectively legitimizes discrimination and bias. Due to the prescriptive nature of stereotyping, those who most fit the bill are welcomed to a wealth of opportunity, while those who stray outside expected behaviors are shunned as deviants worthy of discrimination and exclusion. Stuart Hall maintains stereotyping “reduces, essentializes, naturalizes and fixes ‘difference’…facilitates the ‘binding’ or bonding together of all of Us who are ‘normal’ into one ‘imagined community’; and it sends into symbolic exile all of Them” (qtd. in Talbot 471).
Stereotypes are very powerful and often damning social tools. Those who ascribe to its rules and enjoy its benefits may have difficultly seeing it through Schneider’s lens of illness. However, those who seek to be more than simply a caricature often find movement outside of the stereotype, at the least, isolating, and at worst, deadly.
The Effect of a Binary Gender System
Gendered stereotypes evolve from a basic assumption that gender is both binary and fixed. Binary language further supports this with its narrow and often rigid nature—normal vs. abnormal, acceptable vs. unacceptable. Narrowing gender still further, the binary gender system divides gender into two homogenous groupings centering on a hegemonic norm. Although a human norm is the center from which ideal sex-typed gender roles are birthed, according to Schneider, males are historically considered to possess traits more associated with being a normal human (443). Talbot, too, discusses the hegemonic norm in reference to an ideal male norm vs. a female deficiency (474). Such a frame of reference justifies a dominant patriarchal social order.
From this social order a set of expectations for appropriate sex-typed gender roles are constructed. For centuries societies have learned their gender roles from conduct literature. These literary gems act as how-to guides, primarily for women, on the expected appropriate behaviors for their time. Today, many of the self-help books continue the conduct literature tradition, such as the widely popular book by John Gray, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Sex-typed gender roles create a dynamic where societies perception of a trait or role will be dependent upon the perceived gender of the person with said trait or role. Schneider provides the example of kindergarten teachers and attorneys (440). When the kindergarten teacher is male, they are seen as more loving and kind than their female counterpart due to the fact that this would be considered an atypical job for a male. Likewise, female attorneys are seen as more competent than their male counterparts.
As social beings we seek to find acceptance within our social structure. The ability to label one an outcast, ironically, often creates self-fulfilling prophecies. People will modify their behavior in order to fit into the norm. In some cases, people will use a hyper modified version of gender in order to work it to their advantage. Kira Hall’s study, Lip Service on the Fantasy Lines, offers an example in which phone-sex workers profit from the use of women’s language in order to be successful in their industry. “This high-tech mode of linguistic exchange complicates traditional notions of power in language, because the women working within the industry consciously produce a language stereotypically associated with women’s powerlessness in order to gain economic power and social flexibility” (Hall 183).
Those who do not fit within the sex-typed gender roles face venomous linguistic attacks, and are often treated as outcasts or as having psychosis requiring treatment. In Psychopathology and the Social and Historical Construction of Gay Male Identities, clinical psychologist Gary Taylor provides a disheartening look at the effects of living outside accepted sex-typed gender roles:
Medically, religiously, legally and culturally-reified negative representation of homosexuality have had a toxically corrosive impact upon our psychological health. Negative ideas – such that homosexuals are sick, degenerate, immoral, deviant, potentially dangerous and so on – also appear to have been instrumental in driving many gay men towards self-damaging and abusive behaviors, thus confirming the prophetic myth that the homosexual is self-destructive and unavoidably doomed. (162)
Ironically, the same year the GLBT community celebrated homosexuality being removed from the DSM-III, Gender Identity Disorder (GID) was added in order to treat children who did not conform to sex-typed gender roles. GID solidified the social stereotype of an acceptable binary gender system. In Gender Shock: Exploding the Myths of Male & Female, Phyllis Burke points out, “when boys are diagnosed with GID because they pretend to be ‘mother’ and only play house, is it because they think they must choose one arena over the other? Why would they think otherwise?” (125). Butler argues that, “the displacement of a political and discursive origin of gender identity onto a psychological ‘core’ precluded an analysis of the political constitution of the gendered subject and its fabricated notions about the ineffable inferiority of its sex or of its true identity” (174).
Burke studied the social ramifications of sex-typed gender roles on the behavior of parents (124). Regardless of their liberalness, parents fear gender ambiguity in their children, in particular when a boy is mistaken as a girl. This will be reflected in the toys and clothing they deem as appropriate. Girls are allowed more gender flexibility where boys are still subjected to strict gender roles and expected behaviors. Says Burke, “If the boy picks up the doll, as we have seen from the most recent, wide-ranging study across all family types, he is at best ‘permitted’ to play with it, and at worst, the dolls are grabbed away from him…” If he is encouraged it is out of amusement, which provides a clear message to the child that “he is a freak, as clown enacting a role that can never be his” (128). Children have sex-typed gender roles demonstrated to them, and thus believe, their choices are limited to two sex-typed ways of being—boy or girl—and believe that they must be one or the other.
The prohibitive nature of the binary gender system not only limits the choices presented to children; when moving into the larger social arena, it becomes a powerful weapon of discrimination and division. In Constructing Meaning, Constructing Selves: Snapshots of Language, Gender, and Class from Belten High, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain, “Social labeling discriminates among people and is used like a weapon to divide and to deride. Attempts to define and delimit what labels mean are really attempts to delimit what people and the social structures they build can or should be like” (505). Butler submits, “gender is a divisive principle, a tool of subjection, one that resists the very notion of unity” (151). By narrowly defining gender into a binary system a hierarchal structure is created complete with expectations of gender appropriate behaviors and language. Because this defining clearly creates self-fulfilling prophecies, problems such as under-achievement, low confidence, and hyper gendered behaviors become cyclical in nature.
The binary gender system has created a very rigid lens in which gender is seen as having only three possibilities: appropriate male, appropriate female, or outsider. As gender is a socially constructed assumption, it is inherently flawed. Burke explains, “…adherence to the bipolar, sex-typed gender system has hidden within it the most debilitating of emotional illnesses, many of which literally affect the body” (235). She points out that women in traditional roles of femininity are particularly vulnerable to depression due to the lack of control that is often associated with this role. Likewise, men who are traditionally masculine sex-typed have been identified as being at risk for coronary artery and heart disease. In addition, the shorter life span of men is significantly contributed to by the fact that “men often experience the inability to ask for help, or to even acknowledge the onset of physical illness because it does not seem manly” (Burke 236).
The binary gender assumption also has a significant impact on relationships. Feelings of isolation, shame, fear, and powerlessness, as has been clearly demonstrated, are associated with non-gender appropriate traits. This commonly leads one to hide these traits out of fear of rejection. Individuals will deny themselves something that is natural to their individuality. When one pretends not to have a particular opposite sex-typed trait in order to feel more accepted, ultimately they will never be truly known or accepted within that relationship.
The Possibilities of a Fluid Gender System
By redefining gender as fluid it undermines the legitimization of bias and breaks down the ability to attribute traits or roles to a specific gender grouping. In doing so, a new method of thinking begins to take shape. A sensitive man is no more or less than a sensitive woman and his sexuality is irrelevant. Likewise, a powerful female manager is no less powerful than her male counterpart, nor is her ability for kindness taken into question. Burke offers the term gender independence. Gender independence, defines Burke, “simply means that the individual is not precluded from feeling or doing anything because of their body” (234).
It is clear that a movement toward gender independence has the potential to significantly impact our social structure. Burke also points out that sex-typed gender behaviors have serious neurological implications:
Since sex-typed gender behavior would tend to stimulate one area of the brain more than another, denying the parts of ourselves that don’t fit in with the gender myths is literally taking a toll on our neural structure. Through gender independence, there is the amazing possibility that, if our behavior became more flexible in terms of notions of appropriate masculine and feminine roles, we could literally affect the structure of our brains, and even the flow of our hormones, which are tied into behavior and psychological response, not just reproduction. (193)
Burke further attributes the following benefits to gender independence—more flexibility and resilience, wider range of strategies for dealing with diverse situations, more access to coping techniques, wider range of problem-solving tools, lower risk of suicidal behaviors, greater psychological well being, greater cognitive complexity allowing them to think abstractly, and greater life satisfaction (235).
Gender independence does not merely address an acceptance of non-traditional gender roles within men and women. In some cases, it can also affect the very core of gendered existence, in which gender independence presents the possibility of gender options beyond the binary. “It is perhaps ironic that research founded on a dichotomous view of gendered verbal behavior is being used by male-to-female cross-dressers to subvert the binary division of male and female” (Talbot 478). Cross-dressing allows one to tap into an experience outside one’s own, “to declare that you are not quite what has been determined by powers outside yourself” (Burke 145). In Gender Trouble, Butler’s study of drag troupe communities provides artistic expression of the comedy that is the binary gender system. Says Butler “the notion of gender parody defended here does not assume that there is an original which such parodic identities imitate. Indeed, the parody is of the very notion of an original…” (175).
Transsexuality offers further evidence that an individual is not bound by their birth sex for a prescription of gender. Gender independence is in the ability to conceive possibilities beyond gender appropriate behaviors. Bornstein speaks out against the great social assumption of gender definition, “There are many areas of gender we do not question…We’re so sure of our ability to categorize people as either men or women that we neglect to ask ourselves some very basic question: what is a man? and what is a woman? and why do we need to be one or the other?” (55). However, she admits that even within the transsexual’s ability to create change within themselves, often they still attempt to submit to the binary gender system out of fear of not passing as their chosen gender. “We transgendered people have been playing a hiding game, appearing in town one day, wearing a mask, and leaving when discovery was imminent” (Bornstein 60).
Individuals that are born intersex—“a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male” (ISNA)—further challenge the two-sex world assimilation. According to the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) the number of infants born intersex comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. Bo Laurent, a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and an intersexuality specialist, explains, “the binary sex system assumes concordance between the sex chromosomes, gonads, genitals, secondary sex characteristics, gender identity and role” (qtd. in Burke 221). Dr. Fausto-Sterling, author of the 1993 article The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough submits that intersex “individuals are members of sexes just as viable as male and female, and that they have been made invisible by the medical procedures performed, upon their bodies as infants since the 1960’s onward” (qtd. in Burke 220).
It is clear that gender independence has remarkable social, psychological, and physical benefits that can significantly improve the lives of both individuals and communities. What is also clear is that the binary gender system has such a strong grip on society that those who would deviate from the norm still often go into hiding—or are hidden—out of fear for their livelihoods, even their very lives.
A New Story
Otherwise marginalized individuals are bravely beginning to declare their gender independence through new forms of expression. This is allowingnew stories to be created and heard. In All Media Are Created Equal: Do-It-Yourself Identity in Alternative Publishing, Laurel A. Sutton explains that new media, such as zines and online journals, are being used to create new representations of gender and self-defined appropriate behaviors. “Zines and Web-based journals are fast becoming outlets for the voices of many who would otherwise remain silenced” (Sutton 166). She concludes, “It is the linguist’s responsibility to take such forms of discourse seriously. [. . .] it is especially important for language and gender researchers to look to vehicles like zines and Web journals, where a world of alternative identities is being created through language” (178). Transgendered activists, such as Kate Bornstein and Loren Cameron; and intersex activists, such as Thea Hillman and Emi Koyama are just a few examples of those putting a public face to previously invisible gender variations. Through their efforts to make gender variations known, they seek to bring a universal acceptance. Burke submits, “…we are not all the same, but most of us have nevertheless barely tapped our potential because of gender role training” (235).
Conclusion:
The binary gender system creates a language that instructs the listener on qualified ‘gender-appropriate’ behavior. People are forced to decide if they want to be a part of or an outsider to a given social structure. Behaviors will often be modified either to fit into a norm or in an effort to avoid being ostracized by their community. These stereotypes have consistently led to under-achievement, low self-esteem, and even serious health problems. The pressure to belong can lead to legitimized bias, discrimination, and, in some cases, death.
Feminists, scholars, and various brave gender independents have helped individuals to find acceptance in roles outside of the binary system. In redefining societies’ understanding of gender to include self-defined gender appropriateness, individuals are allowed to create their own storylines, in effect,voiding the efficacy of the stereotype.
Works Cited
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Burke, Phyllis. Gender Shock: Exploding the Myths of Male & Female. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
Eckert, Penelope, and Sally McConnell-Ginet. “Constructing Meaning, Constructing Selves: Snapshots of Language, Gender, and Class from Belten High.” Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. Ed. Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz. New York: Routledge, 1995. 469-507.
Gray, John. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.
Hall, Kira. “Lip Service on the Fantasy Lines.” Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. Ed. Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz. New York: Routledge, 1995. 183-216.
ISNA. “What is Intersex?” Intersex Society of North America. 29 November 2006 <http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex>.
Schneider, David J. The Psychology of Stereotyping. New York: The Guilford Press, 2004.
Shlain, Leonard. Art & Physics. New York: Perennial, 1991.
Sutton, Laurel A. “All Media Are Created Equal: Do-It-Yourself Identity in Alternative Publishing.” Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse. Ed. Mary Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, and Laurel A. Sutton. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 163-180.
Talbot, Mary. “Gender Stereotypes: Reproduction and Challenge.” The Handbook of Language and Gender. Ed. Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 468-486.
Taylor, Gary. “Psychopathology and the Social and Historical Construction of Gay Male Identities.” Lesbian & Gay Psychology: New Perspectives. Ed. Adrian Coyle and Celia Kitzinger. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. 154-174.
