Transfeminist Perspectives Edited by ANNE ENKE Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2012 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Transfeminist perspectives in and beyond transgender and gender studies / edited by Anne Enke. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4399-0746-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4399-0747-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4399-0748-1 (e-book) 1. Women’s studies. 2. Feminism. 3. Transgenderism. 4. Transsexualism. I. Enke, Anne, 1964– HQ1180.T72 2012 305.4—dc23 2011043061 Th e paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Transfeminist Perspectives 1 A. Finn Enke Note on Terms and Concepts 16 A. Finn Enke PART I “This Much Knowledge”: Flexible Epistemologies 1 Gender/Sovereignty 23 Vic Muñoz 2 “Do Th ese Earrings Make Me Look Dumb?” Diversity, Privilege, and Heteronormative Perceptions of Competence within the Academy 34 Kate Forbes 3 Trans. Panic. Some Th oughts toward a Th eory of Feminist Fundamentalism 45 Bobby Noble 4 Th e Education of Little Cis: Cisgender and the Discipline of Opposing Bodies 60 A. Finn Enke PART II Categorical Insuffi ciencies and “Impossible People” 5 College Transitions: Recommended Policies for Trans Students and Employees 81 Clark A. Pomerleau vi Contents 6 “Ain’t I a Woman?” Transgender and Intersex Student Athletes in Women’s Collegiate Sports 98 Pat Griffi n 7 Training Disservice: Th e Productive Potential and Structural Limitations of Health as a Terrain for Trans Activism 112 Christoph Hanssmann 8 Transnational Transgender Rights and Immigration Law 133 Aren Z. Aizura PART III Valuing Subjects: Toward Unexpected Alliances 9 Elusive Subjects: Notes on the Relationship between Critical Political Economy and Trans Studies 153 Dan Irving 10 Reclaiming Femininity 170 Julia Serano 11 What’s Wrong with Trans Rights? 184 Dean Spade 12 When Something Is Not Right 195 Ryka Aoki Notes 203 Bibliography 233 Contributors 249 Index 253 Acknowledgments ne of the greatest things about collaborative projects is that at the outset and for a good bit of the way through, no individual—even the editor of a O collection of solicited articles—can quite envision the process or predict the outcome. I did not take this project on lightly, but thanks to the many people who generously contributed their time and wisdom, this has been an exception- ally rewarding experience. Th rough it, I have had the opportunity to meet and learn from a great number of inspiring people and to simultaneously develop a deeper appreciation for the ways that our everyday lives as well as local and global political contexts fuel our work. First and foremost, I must express my gratitude to the eleven other contributors to this collection: Aren Aizura, Ryka Aoki, Kate Forbes, Pat Griffi n, Chris Hanssmann, Dan Irving, Vic Muñoz, Bobby Noble, Clark Pomerleau, Julia Serano, and Dean Spade. In addition to writing for this book, they have introduced me to others, shared resources, and in general have given meaning to the word “collaboration.” In some ways, this book began when Nancy Hewitt invited me to edit a volume of primary documents. It was a highly compelling invitation, and although I ultimately did not take it on, that invitation got me thinking seriously about where I wanted to put my post-tenure energies. Th at same year, the Uni- versity of Wisconsin granted me a sabbatical that gave me the necessary time and space with which to imagine a transfeminist collaboration as one possible response to a pressing concern: namely, the mutually constituted but highly ambivalent relationship between Trans Studies and Women’s Studies, and our need for new perspective on the ways that gender is disciplined and practiced in academic institutions and beyond. I also owe thanks to Jeani O’Brien, Rachel Buff , and Joe Austin, who, in very diff erent ways, helped convince me that edit- ing a collection can be enjoyable. I am indebted to Janet Francendese, who, as editor in chief at Temple Uni- versity Press, took an early interest in this project and has helped it sail smoothly along to its existence as a book. Not least, Janet lined up a stellar group of viii Acknowledgments reviewers. Reviewing manuscripts is always “overtime” labor, but in the best of worlds, it is also part of what keeps our intellectual communities alive. I would like to thank Paisley Currah, Cris Mayo, and Susan Stryker for their generous and astute feedback at various stages of this project. All the articles individually, and the collection as a whole, have benefi ted dramatically from their critical acumen and deep knowledge of the interdisciplinary conversations in which this book takes part. Amanda Steele at Temple and Lynne Frost have also facili- tated stress-free (at least on my end) production. As is perhaps fi tting in a book about gender and transgender, Temple has allowed some administrative navigations to remain or become visibly idiosyn- cratic. One such navigation is that my name appears on the book cover and title page as Anne Enke and on my contributions as A. Finn Enke. Much like gender, it turns out that names function at the confl uence of personal histories, cultural categories, legal apparatuses, and marketing interests. Given these vicissitudes, it was my preference to keep all names available and accessible, though the reader will be aware that this poses some minor hazards of citation. I owe heartfelt thanks to Susan Stryker for ongoing support and particu- larly for organizing the Postposttranssexual: Transgender Studies and Femi- nism Conference (2011), and to Sandy Stone, who, in so many ways, started it all. Kate Bornstein and Beth Elliott have also off ered kindness, inspiration, and irreverent humor of the “without which” variety. I am grateful to Hans Scheirl for allowing me to use his paintings for the cover and for being an all-around mensch. Chris Hommerding and Faron Levesque worked on the compiled bib- liography, sparing me some headaches. Shannon A. Th istle created the index and introduced me to the history and poetry of the indexing profession. As always, Nan Enstad has been there to encourage this project from its fi rst little spark of an idea; in fact, it seems quite possible that the fi rst spark was hers. She helped me be patient during the long stage of not knowing what this would become, understanding my need to facilitate more transfeminist conver- sation. She also read and provided invaluable feedback on the parts that I wrote and off ered suggestions related to the whole. She is thus an integral participant in this book and in my own sense of what transfeminist perspectives can off er. A. FINN ENKE Introduction Transfeminist Perspectives his book is born of the conviction that feminist studies and transgender studies are intimately connected to one another in their endeavor to T analyze epistemologies and practices that produce gender. Despite this connection, they are far from integrated. Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies seeks to highlight the productive and sometimes fraught potential of this relationship. Feminist, women’s, and gender studies grew partly from Simone de Beauvoir’s observation that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”1 Transgender studies extends this founda- tion, emphasizing that there is no natural process by which anyone becomes woman, and also that everyone’s gender is made: Gender, and also sex, are made through complex social and technical manipulations that naturalize some while abjecting others. In this, both feminist and transgender studies acknowledge the mutual imbrications of gender and class formations, dis/abilities, racializations, political economies, incarcerations, nationalisms, migrations and dislocations, and so forth. We share, perhaps, a certain delight and trepidation in the aware- ness that gender is trouble: Gender may trouble every imaginable social relation and fuel every imaginable social hierarchy; it may also threaten to undo itself and us with it, even as gender scholars simultaneously practice, undo, and rein- vest in gender.2 Women’s and gender studies have registered increasing interest in things transgender since the mid-1990s. Scholars have organized conferences on the topic, and numerous feminist journals have published special transgender issues.3 Th is interest has been inspired in part by inquiry into the meanings of gender, bodies, and embodiment, by transnational and cross-cultural studies that address the varied ways in which cultures ascribe gender, and also by insti- tutional practices that circumscribe or broaden the range of gender legibility. Interest is further inspired by the multiple arrivals and iterations of transgender in classrooms, playing fi elds, and political movements. As a direct result of these 2 A. Finn Enke arrivals, the meanings associated with such terms as “gender,” “transgender,” “woman,” “man,” and “queer” have changed dramatically over the last two de- cades. Nevertheless, transgender remains institutionally marginal to gender and women’s studies. As a well-established fi eld, gender and women’s studies may include transgender as an add-on, without fundamentally changing the theo- retical articulations and material practices that all but ensure that the defi nition of “women’s studies” will position transgender as something outside or other than itself. Gender and women’s studies is one place where transgender studies has managed to make an institutional home (the other is LGBT studies), but it is as yet an ambivalent home.