A feminist post-transsexual autoethnography on challenging normative gender coercion

256 Pages·2016·7.445 MB·English

by  Julie Peters

Thesis Title
A Feminist Post-transsexual Autoethnography
on Challenging Normative Gender Coercion
by Julie Peters
BSc(Melb), Dip Arts(RMIT)
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Deakin University
March 2016

iv
Acknowledgements
I would like to start with a very big thank you to Dr Maria Pallotta-
Chiarolli,myPhDsupervisor,whoenabledmetoseethatIhadaunique
voice on gender diversity as well as guiding me on the journey. Dr Jack
Migdalek and Dr Georgia Birch were Deakin University contemporaries
who gave me ongoing encouragement with the doctoral process. And I
would particularly like to thank Crusader Hillis and Rowland Thomson,
the proprietors of Hares and Hyenas bookshop in Melbourne, who in
the early 1990s gave me my first opportunities to be published and to
work onmy spoken-wordperformance. Theystillregularly hostliterary,
performance and spoken-word events supporting sexuality and gender-
diverse writers and performers. Very much part of my developing the
awareness needed for this project were the transwomen, especially ‘the
gang of four’, lesbians, gay men and other gender-diverse individuals I
met and with whom I had deep and meaningful conversations. There
are many others, including intimate partners, performance coaches, stu-
dents, conference attendees and audiences, who have helped me work
though my beliefs on gender, often by disagreeing with me.
Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to improving the lives of all people who have
felt limited by the cultural coercion to perform gender dichotomously as
defined by their biological sex. I would like to acknowledge those trans
pioneers who led the way and, sadly, those who were never able to fulfil
their dreams to live authentic lives.
v
A Note on Layout
This document has been optimised to be viewed as pdf. Many of the
images are in colour, and there are a number of active hyperlinks (as
blue text) in the Contents, within the text and in the References.
Julie Peters’ ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1389-8863
(ORCID – Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
vi
Dissertation Abstract
A Feminist Post-transsexual Autoethnography on
Challenging Normative Gender Coercion
by Julie Peters
BSc(Melb), Dip Arts(RMIT)
School of Health and Social Development
Deakin University
In our Western culture, a non-normative gendered life – such as a transgendered life
– is often seen, even by the individuals themselves, as problematic, morally bankrupt or
sick (American PsychiatricAssociation 1994). Termssuchastranssexualortransgendered
carry so much stigma (Goffman 1963, Kando 1973, Leonard et al. 2012) that most who
couldbesolabelledgotoextraordinarylengthstoavoid thislabelling. Theirlifestrategies
often include bordering (Anzaldua 1987) behaviour: navigating the different identities
and codes required in the various communities they move in, sometimes passing (Kroeger
2003) as gendernormative and secretive and at other times being out and asserting their
individuality. Others, who do not question normative beliefs on gender, often seek a cure
or medical intervention. I believe there is a need to counter the lack of knowledge and
understanding of people who do not or cannot conform to our cultural norms of gender
performance, and that better knowledge and understanding of the range of gender non-
conformities will help both gender-nonconformist and gender-conformist individuals live
more productive lives. My conviction comes from growing up feeling I was unable to meet
the gender- specific social behaviours expected of me. And even though I do not identify
as such, I have been diagnosed by some in the medical profession as transsexual or as
suffering from Gender Identity Disorder (GID) (APA 1994).
This thesis will demonstrate that I, as subject, both in the sense of being subject to
the culture I have lived in, and also because of my self-conscious awareness, was able to
gain some understanding of the limits that our culture imposes over my performance of
gender. My subjectivity is examined by exploring the multiple and often contradictory
linksbetweenmyselfassubject,myinternalagenticvoice, thesubculturesIwasinhabiting,
and the changing society I was living in. In a general sense the work examines how I,
the autoethnographic subject, have challenged the normative coercion to perform gender
dichotomously as determined by my biology and consequently delivered myself a liveable
life (Butler 2004).
More specifically, the thesis conducts an in-depthanalysis of the lifechoices of theau-
toethnographic subject(myself), whowas souncomfortablewith theirculturally allocated
masculinity that they chose to live an apparently normal female life, while attempting to
remain gender transcendent. In order to place this life in context, it was also important to
explore how theindividualwas subjected to life-long dichotomous heteronormative gender
coercionfromfamily,media,popularcultureandothergender-rigidculturaltexts. Second,
vii
I explore how the life of the subject can shed light on the normative operation of gender
in society (Kando 1973, p.137). Third, this thesis is a testament to the need for remaking
the gendernormative and heteronormative social world with the aim of enhancing social
justice and equity.
Consequently, Iseethisworkasfeministinthesensethat,atitscore, itisacritiqueof
patriarchy, male-privilege, my perception of incompetent male hegemony as well as chal-
lenging patriarchally endorsed normative gender coercion. This work is post-transsexual
(Stone 1991) in that it relies on the autoethnographic subject (myself) to forgo passing
(Kroeger 2003) whichthenenables metowritemyself intofeministdiscoursesonthetrans
experience.
The aims of this exploratory research are realised by focusing on the following three
questions:
1. What can we learn from the successes and failures of our gender nonconforming
subject in finding an empowered accommodation to the gender-dichotomous social
world they inhabit?
2. Can we shed light on and critique the normative operation of gender in society and
its tolerance for nonconformity by examining the interaction of our subject with
their social world?
3. Using the interpretation of the subjects life arc and the operation of gender in the
social world, is it possible to develop strategies for remaking the social world, with
the aim of increasing public health, social justice and equity?
Contents
1 The Gendered Subject in the Social World 1
1.1 Aims of the Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Critical Framing: Literature Review 4
2.1 Sociological Framing of Gendered Subject Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1.1 Normativities, Conformity and Nonconformity . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1.2 Power and Social Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.3 Identity Memes and their Usefulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.4 A Livable Life, Recognition and Having One’s Needs Met . . . . . . 10
2.1.5 Biological and Medical Discourses on Sex and Gender . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.6 Psychoanalytic and Psychiatric Models of Gender . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.7 Queer Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 The Subject in the Social World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.1 Individual Subject Formation in a Social Context . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.2 Cultural Reproduction — Making the Social World . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 Competing/Intersecting Complexes of Power Constructing Gender . . . . . 25
2.3.1 The Family and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.2 Religions, Philosophies, Ethics, Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.3 The Law and Gender Conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.4 The Economic Organisation of Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.5 Medical Prescriptions for Normative Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3.6 Heteropatriarchal Popular Culture and the Mass Media . . . . . . . 30
2.3.7 The Radical Feminist Moral Critique of Transsexuality . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.8 Toward a Post-transsexual Feminist Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
viii
CONTENTS ix
2.4 Trans and Gender-Diverse Health and Wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5 In Summary — A Complex Intersectional Multidisciplinary Framing . . . . 35
3 Methodology and Methods 37
3.1 Qualitative Research Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Methods Chosen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.3 The Exegesis — Analysis and Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 Autoethnography I — Peter 49
4.1 Ignorance is Bliss (1951-1958) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Realisations (1958-1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.3 Secret Agency (1963-1965) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.4 Puberty Rupture (1965) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.5 My Dark Ages (1966-1971) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5 Autoethnography II — Ghost 85
5.1 Grasping for Stability (1971-1973) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.2 Transgression and Identity Quest (mid-1973-1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.2.1 Early Transgression and Optimism (1973) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.2.2 Seeking the Normative, Transgression and/or Borderlands (1975-1980) 94
5.2.3 Extreme Contra-Pressures (1977-1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.2.4 The Incredible Balancing Act (1979-1988) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.2.5 Escalating the Search (1988-1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.2.6 Crunch Time (1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.2.7 Exegesis — Transgression and Identity Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6 Autoethnography III — Julie 128
6.1 Rebirth — Transition Work (1990-1992) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.1.1 The Art of Lighting — Writing Cultural Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.1.2 Playing Feminine Roles — Gaining a Woman’s Voice . . . . . . . . . 134
6.1.3 Gendered Embodiment/Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.1.4 Exegesis — Rebirth, Transition Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.2 The Art of Becoming Myself in a Gendered World (1993 and beyond) . . . 138
6.2.1 Post-Rebirth Adaptions (1992-1994) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
CONTENTS x
6.2.2 A Genealogy of my Psychological and Physical Health (1994-2014) . 142
6.2.3 A Genealogy of my Political Agency (1994-2014) . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.2.4 My Situated Agency — Living in a Gendered World (2000-2014) . . 154
6.2.5 Conclusion — The Will to Become Self, a Life as Art . . . . . . . . 157
7 My Accommodation to the Social World 159
7.1 The Interplay between Desire and Non-Normativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.2 Challenging Normative Gender Coercion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7.3 Agency Grounded in a Transformation of Subjectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.4 Agency Grounded in Restructuring Power Relations with Institutions . . . 169
7.5 Political Recognition and Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.6 Gendered Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.7 Psychological Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.8 Gendered Embodiment, Habitus and Physical Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.9 Relationships, Intimacy and Sexuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.10 Aesthetic Appreciation and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.11 Becoming Myself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
8 The Subject’s Explication of the Social World 189
8.1 Society Needs Coercion for Gender to be Performed ‘Naturally’ . . . . . . . 189
8.2 Individual, Ascribed Identity and Identity Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.3 Disease Models of Gender Nonconformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
8.4 A Critique of Complexes of Power on Gender Nonconformity . . . . . . . . 194
8.5 The Radical Feminist Moral Critique of Transsexuality . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.6 Non-Pathological Gender Non-Normativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
9 Remaking the Social World/Synthesis 209
9.1 Strategies for Achieving the Necessities in Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
9.2 Strategies for a Healthy Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
9.3 Strategies for Achieving a Life with Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
9.4 Strategies for Making One’s Life a Work of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.5 The Realistic Possibility of Social Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
9.6 Synthesis and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
References 230