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In Transition: Analyzing Shifting and Competing Anglophone Discourses

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Saskatchewan's Research Archive In Transition: Analyzing Shifting and Competing Anglophone Discourses Impacting Canadian Trans People A thesis submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan By Maaya Kuri Hitomi Copyright Maaya Kuri Hitomi, June/2018. All rights reserved Permission of use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis/dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Head of the Psychology Department 154 Arts, 9 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5C9 Canada i Abstract Medical, community, and academic discourses offer competing interpretations of sex, gender, and the complexities of trans experiences, with variable attention to trans contributions to social and political thought and practice. Existing research shows that academic, medical, and psychological discourses continue to use pathologizing approaches and often misgender trans people (Ansara & Hegarty, 2011), with predictably negative impacts on trans people and communities (McNeil, Bailey, Ellis, Morton, & Regan, 2012). Using Critical Discourse Analysis and working from a stance that is critical of institutional complicities with dominating forms of power, this thesis explores the implications of medical, community, and academic discourses about trans people. In the interests of richly contextualized analysis, I have chosen to ground my discussions of selected discourses within a historical context, attending to the lived impacts on trans people and communities, and to the importance of evaluating ethical practices used in treating and researching them, through the inclusion of auto-ethnographic reflections on my own experiences. The majority of medical discourse sampled pathologizes trans experiences, defining trans people as abnormal and describing sex, gender, and sexuality as interconnected binaries. Transsexual separatist communities mirror this discourse in numerous ways, modifying medicalized categories to define their own transsexual identities as normal and all other trans identities as abnormal. Trans activists challenge both discourses, incorporating aspects of social justice thought and affirming diversities of perspective and experience. The thesis concludes with a review of participatory research projects representing a tentative step forward for researchers, trans people and communities by incorporating trans discourses within scientific approaches. These projects break with some of the ethical problems informing past psycho/medical inquiry and offer a glimpse at what trans-positive science might look like. Recommendations to realise this potential and recast academics as allies to minoritized communities are offered. ii Dedication This project would never have been completed without the support and encouragement of my partner, wife, and best friend. Rachel, thank you for your patience, support, and encouragement throughout this project. I love you. Without the guidance and support of my supervisor, Dr. Marie Lovrod, the process culminating in this degree would have been even more difficult. Thank you for handling my eccentric and excitable brain and guiding me through this intense process. iii Contents Permission of use .............................................................................................................................. i Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iii Contents ........................................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1: Academic, Social, and Historical Background ............................................................... 1 Outline .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 5 Historical Context ........................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 2: Setting the Methodological Stage ................................................................................. 21 Ontology and Epistemology ....................................................................................................... 21 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................................. 22 Critical Discourse Analysis .................................................................................................... 22 Critical Psychology ................................................................................................................ 27 Feminist Standpoint Theory ................................................................................................... 28 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 29 Critical Discourse Analysis .................................................................................................... 29 Auto-ethnography .................................................................................................................. 32 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 33 Inclusion Criteria .................................................................................................................... 33 Included Texts and Article Sourcing ...................................................................................... 34 Auto-ethnographic Groundwork and Political Stance ............................................................... 35 Chapter 3: The Medical Model (1960s to 1990s) .......................................................................... 39 Historical Context ...................................................................................................................... 39 Discourse Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 47 Methods .................................................................................................................................. 47 Results .................................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 4: Community Narratives (1960s to 2010s) ..................................................................... 87 Historical Context ...................................................................................................................... 88 Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................... 102 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 102 Results .................................................................................................................................. 104 Chapter 5: Burgeoning Community-based Research (1990s to 2010s) ....................................... 137 Historical Context .................................................................................................................... 138 iv The Rise of Transgender Studies and a shift towards a Trans-Positive Academia .............. 145 Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................... 146 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 146 Trans-skeptical Feminisms ................................................................................................... 148 Results .................................................................................................................................. 152 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................
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