AJ Ripley Doctor of Philosophy
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TAKING ON THE ‘TIPPING POINT’: TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION ACROSS POPULAR AND DIGITAL CULTURE By AJ Ripley Master of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, 2011 Bachelor of Arts, St. Thomas University, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate Academic Unit of Interdisciplinary Studies Supervisor: Lauren Cruikshank, Ph.D., Dept. of Culture and Media Studies Examining Board: Chloë Brushwood-Rose, Ph.D., Faculty of Education, York University Sabine LeBel, Ph.D., Dept. of Culture and Media Studies Casey Burkholder, Ph.D., Faculty of Education External Examiner: Cael Keegan, Ph.D., Dept. of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Liberal Studies, Grand Valley State University This dissertation is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK April, 2020 © AJ Ripley, 2020 i ABSTRACT As more transgender images move from the shadows of intelligibility to mainstream media, the question of visibility remains critical. This dissertation explores examples of how transgender cultural production can highlight less visible transgender narratives already in circulation by examining the Amazon Prime television show, Transparent, and self-representations of transmasculinity across the Instagram hashtag #ftm and a 90-week Tumblr blog about gender transition entitled Trans Canada (My Way). This dissertation illustrates how these examples both adhere to and resist dominant discourses about transness in an effort to move beyond discerning between good and bad representation and instead to lobby for more and different transgender representation. Using the frameworks of critical transgender studies, media studies, queer theory and creative nonfiction, this dissertation explores the process of telling transness and considers how individuals use self- respresentation to exact agency over how their transgender identities and bodies are spoken of and for. Through textual analyses of a popular media text, a social media hashtag, and an autoethnographic account, this project argues that telling transness— or speaking about one’s understanding of their transgender identity—is a negotiated process that includes, but is not limited to, conversations about bodies, memories, other identities, and cis and transnormativity. In the wake of increased transgender visibility in popular culture that aims to educate cisgender audiences about transness, and with the knowledge that this type of visibility does not ensure more physical or political protection, this dissertation demonstrates how transgender cultural production, both online and offline, is widening the scope of what is possible and articulable for transgender becoming in the service of establishing a less essentialized understanding of the transgender community. ii DEDICATION For my father, Robert Ripley Jardine, who taught me to work hard and showed me what genuine happiness looked like. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I started this dissertation as a twenty-nine-year-old woman who wanted to move closer to her family because her father had just been diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s. I am finishing this dissertation as a thirty-four-year-old man without a father, and whose mother narrowly escaped death. Over the years it took to complete this dissertation, I learned a great deal about myself. I had patient teachers in this process and I would like to take the time to honour them here. First—to my family: thank you for keeping me real. Whenever I have asked for your acceptance you have provided it without question or hesitation. I am better because of each of you. Your love has kept me safe enough to continue to think and write things down. Thank you for your ongoing generosity and gentleness. To my dogs: Thanks for getting me out of bed on the hardest of mornings. To my supervisor, Dr. Lauren Cruikshank: Thank you for eagerly answering an email from a perfect stranger. Thank you for allowing me to grow and adapt my research under your supervision. And thank you for the incessant reference letters. I appreciate how you were always equipped with a laugh when I needed it the most. You care in a way that not many can or do. To my committee member, Dr. Sarah Crymble: You have taught me a lot about teaching. It has been a pleasure to get riled up about critical theory and media studies with you. I cherish the time we spend lost in conversation together. You made this process a lot less lonely and your guidance and support have pushed me toward the finish line. To my committee member, Dr. Chloë Brushwood Rose: It was an honour to receive mentorship from you during this process. I read your co-edited anthology, Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, while I was completing my master’s degree iv and it changed my life forever. At that time, I thought whoever put a collection like that into the world was brilliant and magical. Getting to work with you over the past few years has confirmed my initial suspicion. Thank you for supplying the unique insight I needed and for challenging me to push my work harder. In 2019, I spent two fantastic months in Roskilde, Denmark, graciously sponsored by the SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement. Here, I had the privilege of being mentored by Dr. Tobias Raun, who read and edited the third essay in this dissertation. Early into my PhD, a friend told me to find scholars whose work I loved and get close to them. My travelling to Denmark was precisely about this. Dr. Raun: thank you for guiding me through the most rewarding and challenging essay in this dissertation. It was a gift to hear your thoughts about transgender studies and to feel seen by a person who gets it. Tak skal du have. To my friends: thank you for not abandoning me while I have been largely absent for the past five years. Marie—may we continue to have coffee and conversations into old age as though we are invisible from the rest of the world. Amanda—walks through the woods were better when I met you. Thank you for bringing the sunshine and for helping me see hard truths in myself. Erin M—I am so happy that I met you when I did. Thank you for all the hours you have spent reading my work and reassuring me that I am not part of the problem, but part of the solution. Laura Clarke—nobody makes me laugh the way you do. Although we only see each other in two dimensions these days, you are never too proud to be vulnerable or too busy to care. May we spend the next decade howling at the moon together. v To my students (past, present, and future): You are my primary motivation for doing this. Teaching and learning from you makes me feel grateful and alive. Purpose comes in many packages—when you find it, don’t let go. As a media scholar and writer, I must spend a moment thanking some of my favourite creators and thinkers. Joan Didion, Kate Bornstein, Shonda Rhimes, Dionne Brand, Maggie Nelson, Wendy C. Ortiz, James Baldwin, Melissa Febos, and Toni Morrison: when days seemed impossibly quiet and painstakingly predictable, your content was there to pull me out of myself. To the transgender warriors who have left us, and to those who continue to fight: your fire burns the way. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………… ii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………… iv TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………… vii 1.0 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………… 1 1.1 Locating the Struggle: Queer Theory and Transgender Studies… 2 1.2 Pass or Fail?.................................................................................. 3 1.3 Body as a Wonderland………………………………………….. 8 1.4 Body Stories; Storied Bodies…………………………………… 12 1.5 Representation and In/Visibility………………………………… 20 1.6 Trans Subjectivity and Queer Futures…………………………… 25 1.7 Research Questions……………………………………………… 28 1.8 Discussion of the Articles ………………………………………. 29 1.9 A Note on Positionality…………………………………………. 33 1.10 Methods……………………………………………………….. 35 1.11 Summary………………………………………………………. 39 1.12 References……………………………………………………… 43 2.0 ARTICLE ONE: “‘FEELING SEEING’ IN TRANSPARENT…”……… 50 2.1 Abstract…………………………………………………………. 50 2.2 Transgender In/Visibility: Viable? Valuable?.............................. 50 2.3 Gaze for Days…………………………………………………… 55 2.4 The Mirror and Transnormativity………………………………. 58 2.5 Plugging the Wrong Body with the Wanted Body……………… 68 2.6 Desire and the Transgender Now……………………………….. 74 2.7 The Moving Mirror: Other Transparent Reflections…………… 83 2.8 Conclusion……………………………………………………… 86 2.9 References ……………………………………………………… 87 3.0 ARTICLE TWO: “SURFACING THROUGH SELFIES: #FTM ON INSTAGRAM”……………………………………………………………... 94 3.1 Abstract…………………………………………………………. 94 3.2 The Necessary Narcissism of the #FTM Selfie…………………. 94 3.3 Insta-grip………………………………………………………… 97 3.4 Instagram as a Networked Counterpublic ………………………. 99 3.5 Comparison Photos……………………………………………… 108 3.6 The Question of Memory………………………………………… 115 3.7 Articulative Selfies………………………………………………. 119 3.8 Political Selfies: A Reaction to Trump’s Military Ban………….. 131 3.9 Conclusion……………………………………………………….. 138 3.10 References…………………………………………………….... 140 vii 4.0 ARTICLE THREE: “TELLING TRANSNESS ONLINE…”…………. 146 4.1 Why Blog?................................................................................... 148 4.2 Queer Methods, Autoethnography, and Performative Writing… 155 4.3 My Performative Hopes………………………………………... 158 4.4 On Telling……………………………………………………… 161 4.5 On Being……………………………………………………….. 166 4.6 On Feeling……………………………………………………… 197 4.7 References……………………………………………………… 217