Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2011 Recognition of the transgender self: an examination of the apologia of the 'pregnant man' Erika Marie Thomas Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, Erika Marie, "Recognition of the transgender self: an examination of the apologia of the 'pregnant man'" (2011). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 336. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. RECOGNITION OF THE TRANSGENDER SELF: AN EXAMINATION OF THE APOLOGIA OF “THE PREGNANT MAN” by ERIKA M. THOMAS DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2011 MAJOR: COMMUNICATION Approved by: ______________________________________ Advisor Date ______________________________________ Co-Advisor Date ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY ERIKA M. THOMAS 2011 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to all individuals who ever felt silenced and unrecognized because of their identity. I also dedicate this dissertation to my biggest fans, my grandparents, Gerda and Dominic White, and in memory of Robert and Mary Thomas. Thank you for always believing in me and for giving me the confidence I needed to complete my education. I will continue to strive to make you proud. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Like most projects, this dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of instructors, colleagues, friends, and family. First and most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. William Trapani and Dr. Kelly Young for their supervisions, invaluable recommendations, and encouragement. You make up the ultimate advising “Dream Team,” and I am forever grateful for your willingness to stick by me and guide me even when I moved to the opposite side of the country. It is largely because of your teaching, mentoring, and support that I have developed as a scholar and instructor, finished my project, and found a wonderful teaching/coaching position. I cannot thank Kelly enough for his close proofreading and editing, and I am thankful that Bill provided insightful feedback that was also hilarious, which brightened my day and kept me sane through laughter, throughout the entire process. I would like to thank Dr. Mary Garrett who was by my side during my doctoral coursework and was always willing to offer advice, invaluable knowledge, feedback and support. My project is stronger because of your insights and recommendations. I am thankful to have received a second opportunity to work with Dr. James Cherney on this project. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with you at Miami University, and I am most grateful to once again have your brilliant insights and guidance, as well as your support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr. Jacalyn Harden for agreeing to join my committee, and for strengthening my project. I am forever indebted to your course for directing my iii interests in sex/gender/sexuality studies and for your reminders to never lose sight of the people and material experiences that are affected by the discourses that I study. I want to thank my best friend, and “consubstantial” soul mate in the program, Marylou Naumoff, who personally and academically supported me throughout the last six years. Thank you for providing me with enthusiastic cheerleading (complete with jazz hands), endless hours of nerdy and theoretical discussions, and for making our friendship one of my most fond memories of our time at Wavne State. I am also grateful for the members of the Inter-cohort Panel on Dissertation Completion (IPDC) group – Neil Butt, Donny Peters, and Katie Rasmussen – it was nearly a year and a half ago that we began our group, and your texts, emails, and chats left me feeling inspired and close to you, despite the thousands of miles that actually separated us. Also, thanks for the advice you provided on dissertation topics and ideas, writing schedules, and formatting. I also want to thank some other colleagues I met along the way – Anthony Cavaiani, Elizabeth Durham-Smith, Christopher Gullen, Denise Oles-Acevedo, and Anke Wolbert – I hope our paths in rhetorical studies continue to cross in the future. Finally, thanks to Stephanie Tomko, Lisa Hanasono, Leslie Pechkurow, and Jennifer Bevan, my dear friends who always believed me and never forgot to ask about the state of my project. I also extend thanks for support from the faculty, staff and my students at California State University, Fullerton, especially Jon Bruschke, Toni Nielson, Collete Blumer, Nise Frye and K. Jeanine Congalton – your encouragement and guidance went beyond the boundaries of collegiality. You always understood when I needed administrative help or simply to disappear for some time. Most importantly, your iv kindness, friendship, and the joy that accompanies working with all of you reminded me each day that all this hard work was worth the reward. To my parents, Richard and Deborah Thomas, and my brother, Corey – you have my gratitude for tolerating me during this process. I am grateful to my parents for teaching me the importance and value of an education at an early age, and for their endless emotional and financial support. I am excited to see how our conversations will begin now that you can no longer start by asking me: “are you working on your dissertation?” While your constant pestering pushed me to complete the project, I was all the more inspired to finally finish to see the smiles on your faces for reaching another milestone. Finally, to my best friend and love, Chris Losnegard: I couldn’t have done this without your support and all that you sacrificed for me. Thank you for your willingness to take on a long commute, your help with housework and preparing our meals so I could have more time to write, and for listening to explanations of my dissertation’s subject that you could not have possibly have cared about but faked attentiveness through nonetheless. At last, the writing is over, and we can begin to plan the rest of our lives. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iii Chapter 1 The Pregnant Man Controversy ..........................................................................1 The importance of reproduction in contemporary times .........................................2 Beatie as the exemplar of reproductive controversy ...............................................4 Current trends in academic research in gender studies ........................................16 Aims of this project ................................................................................................30 Chapter 2 Apologia as methodology .................................................................................35 Apologia as genre ..................................................................................................36 Apologia rhetoric and the evolution of the study...................................................42 Ware and Linkugel’s apologia methodology .........................................................47 Methodological procedures ...................................................................................59 Chapter 3 Denial, bolstering, and differentiation as rhetorical agency .............................61 Beatie’s denial .......................................................................................................63 Bolstering: Moving from victim to hero ...............................................................76 Differentiation as Beatie’s gender blurring...........................................................95 Chapter 4 Transcendence as ideological change and sex/gender blurring ......................106 Beatie’s use of transcendence as reframing ........................................................106 Image as Transcendence......................................................................................124 Chapter 5 Beatie as a Template for future im/possibility ...............................................140 Beatie’s performance – The impossible demand for recognition ........................142 Beatie’s paradox – Exposing convention by performing an impossible demand 156 vi Future Research...................................................................................................169 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................173 Abstract............................................................................................................................184 Autobiographical Statement ............................................................................................186 vii 1 CHAPTER 1 THE PREGNANT MAN CONTROVERSY On March 25, 2008, The Advocate published