UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title "Not Just a Guy in a Dress": Transsexual Identity, Embodiment, and Genital Reassignment Surgery Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sz362kt Author Vernon, Muriel Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “Not Just a Guy in a Dress”: Transsexual Identity, Embodiment, and Genital Reassignment Surgery in the United States A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Muriel Vernon 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Not Just a Guy in a Dress” Transsexual Identity, Embodiment, and Genital Reassignment Surgery in the United States by Muriel Vernon Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Linda Garro, Chair Genital Reassignment Surgery (GRS) is commonly recognized as the surgical alteration of genitalia to align transsexuals’ bodies with their chosen gender identities in order to alleviate the persistent discomfort of Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Clinical and psychological evaluations of the outcomes of GRS have focused primarily on the individual benefits of the surgery and on the aesthetic or functional aspects of newly created genitalia. Left out of medical and social science research is attention to the patient’s hopes for social gains and benefits following GRS. Critically assessing the current biomedical model of transsexualism and its treatment, this study considers not only the different meanings GRS holds for patients (contrasting life-world concerns with biomedical concerns), but also explores what GRS is expected to contribute to the everyday experiences of transsexuals. Through participant ii observation and person-centered interviews, I examine what patients expect to gain from GRS socially, what kinds of hopes they have invested in the surgery, how they intend to integrate their past and present gendered histories, and whether they feel that undergoing GRS will significantly improve their social status. This study thus offers a patient-centered perspective on the meaning of surgical intervention for a socially stigmatized condition. I find that while GRS can provide individual benefits for transsexuals through eliminating body dysphoric feelings through the surgical alignment of the mind with the body, the surgery does not, and cannot, eliminate their social history of transsexual embodiment. The socially liminal positions that many transsexuals experience prior to surgery are thus likely to remain unchanged as the main barrier to social acceptance or social equality lies primarily in the history of gendered embodiment and not in the bio-medical assumption of mind-body disjuncture. iii The dissertation of Muriel Vernon is approved. Sondra Hale Doug Hollan Geoffrey Raymond Linda Garro, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Transsexualism from a Medical Anthropology Perspective: Theory and Background 30 Chapter 2 Research Methods, Data Analysis, and Patient Demographics: The Research Context 69 Chapter 3 The Ethnographic Setting: Trinidad, Mount San Rafael Hospital, and The Morning After House 91 Chapter 4 The Corporeality of GRS - Surgery, Recovery, and Post-Surgical Care: Becoming Female Bodied 124 v Chapter 5 Patient Perspectives on GID as a Medical Problem: Individual Gains of GRS 150 Chapter 6 Patient Perspectives on Transsexualism as a Social Problem: Anticipated Social Gains of GRS 195 Chapter 7 Patient Negotiations of the Social History of Gendered Embodiment: Narrative Consolidation of Past and Present 240 Conclusion GRS Past, Present, and Future 288 Appendix 1: Patient Profiles 312 Appendix 2: Interview Questions 315 Bibliography 322 vi LIST OF TABLES AND IMAGES Demographic tables 82-84 Transition year-to-surgery table 86 Trinidad Bricks Photos 109-110 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Linda Garro: First and foremost, my most sincere gratitude goes to Linda for believing in me and helping me accomplish the highest achievement of my life. There is no doubt in my mind that I could not have done this without her. I have never trusted in, and relied on anyone’s wisdom, mentorship, and unfailing support as much as I have on hers. Research Participants: My deepest appreciation goes to the 50 trans women who have granted me insight into their life experiences past and present. Special thanks also to Dr. Marci Bowers for her gracious support and making my work in Trinidad possible in the first place, and Robin Lassiter for her invaluable help with participant recruitment. Field-site (Trinidad) Residents: A very special thanks goes to Carol Cometto, Michelle Miles, Robin Lassiter, Monica Violante, and Leona Falsetto for adopting me into their midst, and making sure that neither my heart nor my wine glass were ever empty. Djarabi! PhD Committee: Many thanks to Sondra Hale, Doug Hollan, and Geoff Raymond for their invaluable advice, support, patience, and always positive reinforcement. UCLA Faculty and Staff: Ann Walters who has answered millions of my silly questions over the years; somebody please give this woman a gold medal. Carole Browner, Jason Throop, viii Elinor Ochs, and especially Jim Schultz for professional collegiality, opportunity, and encouragement. Fellow Graduate Students: Angela Orlando without whom graduate school’s inner workings would be a complete mystery to me still, and who keeps insisting I’m worth this academic degree. Katja Antoine, Ellen Sharp, Hadi Deeb, Jenny Walton-Wetzel, and Jennifer Taylor for every minute of commiseration as well as celebration of our milestones. I especially thank Jennifer Taylor for being my second pair of eyes in proofreading this manuscript. Friends and Family: To my parents and friends, especially Debbie Spafford, Julia Orr, and Conrad Vernon - thanks for the love, friendship, and being there through thick and thin. Inspiration: Anne Bolin and David Valentine, whose scholarly work has inspired me the most, and whose personal support, advice, and friendship means so much to me. ix VITA EDUCATION: 2007 M.A., Spring 2007, Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). 2005 B.A., Summa Cum Laude, Anthropology; Minor Degree in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) EMPLOYMENT/TEACHING: 2012 Instructor of Record. The Anthropology of Gender Variance: From Third Gender to Transgender, Spring Quarter Instructor of Record. LGBTS 187 Special Topics: Transgender History and Culture, Winter Quarter 2011 Teaching Fellow/Head TA. Culture and Society Instructor of Record: Dr. Jason Throop, Fall 2011 Instructor of Record. The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality: Cross Cultural Perspectives of Homosexuality, Summer Session Teaching Fellow. Medical Anthropology. Instructor of Record: Dr. Linda Garro, Spring Quarter. Teaching Fellow. Current Issues in Psychological Anthropology Instructor of Record: Dr. Alan Fiske, Winter Quarter 2009 Teaching Associate. History of Psychological Anthropology Instructor of Record: Dr. Jason Throop, Fall Quarter Teaching Associate. Introduction to Biological Anthropology Instructor of Record: Dr. Joseph Manson, Spring Quarter Teaching Associate. Culture and Society. Instructor of Record: Dr. Sharon Bays, Winter Quarter 2008 Consultant on NIH funded HIV Prevention Project, conducted by the University of Minnesota. Supervisors: Walter Bockting, Ph.D, and Jaime Feldman, Ph.D. (publication in process) Teaching Assistant. Introduction to LGBT Studies Instructor of Record: Dr. James Schultz, Fall Quarter 2007 Teaching Assistant. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Instructor of Record: Dr. Dwight Hines. Spring Quarter. 2006 Teaching Assistant. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Instructor of Record: Dr. Dwight Hines. Fall Quarter. AWARDS: 2011 CUTF Fellowship 2011-12 Teaching Assistantship (UCLA Winter-Spring 2011) 2009 Student Research Travel Grant (UCLA) x Teaching Assistantship (UCLA Winter-Fall 2009) 2008 Departmental Scholarship (UCLA) Teaching Assistantship (UCLA Fall 2008) 2007 Departmental Scholarship (UCLA) Teaching Assistantship (UCSB Spring 2007) One Quarter fees Fellowship (UCSB Winter 2007) 2006 Teaching Assistantship (UCSB Fall 2006) PRESENTATIONS: 2011 Society for Psychological Anthropology Bi-Annual Meeting Paper presented “To be seen as a woman: The Interaction of Intersubjective Memory, Cognition, and Transgender Embodiment” Thinking Gender 2011 Annual Conference Paper presented “Losing Sons and Gaining Daughters: Renegotiating Kinship through Male-to-Female Gender Transition” 2009 Society for Psychological Anthropology Bi-annual Meeting Paper presented “Natural Born Transsexuals: Challenging Cultural Ideologies of Becoming One Self” 2008 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting Paper presented “Women Trapped in Transsexual Bodies: Sexual Reassignment Surgery, Social Stigma, and the Limits of Biomedicine” xi Introduction Manhood as Illness: How to Recover from Life as a Man One afternoon in the Morning After House, I sat on a crooked chair next to Lana who was more or less comfortably lounging on her bed, still sore from having had genital reassignment surgery (GRS) only a week prior. With my digital recorder positioned on the nightstand and my notebook on my lap, I was working my way through interview number 4 questions, as I had done twice that