Table Of ContentTrans* Lives in the United States
Being and becoming trans* is a complex and varied experience
whether an individual is living openly as trans* or not. Few
published studies in either the academic or popular press
illuminate the challenges of living as a trans* person after medical
and social transition are complete. Trans* Lives in the United
States builds upon earlier research and contributes a much-
needed theoretically grounded empirical study that examines the
hurdles from transition to the end of life by employing an
intersectional analytical frame. The analysis pays careful atten-
tion to the role of class inequality, and draws on critical race
studies, sexuality studies, and feminist studies. Drawing upon
thirty face-to-face interviews, it privileges the experiences and
voices of trans* individuals from a wide range of racial, ethnic,
and class backgrounds. Moving beyond earlier studies that ended
with an analysis of the moment of identity transition, this text
provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex negoti -
ations that individuals who self-identify as trans* endure.
Andrew Cutler-Seeberis an openly trans*-identified scholar. He
earned his doctorate in Sociology with a doctoral emphasis in
Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Andrew teaches courses in Sociology, Social Work, and Trans*
Studies. He lives in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands with his wife,
Haley.
Framing 21st Century Social Issues
Series Editor: France Winddance Twine, University of
California, Santa Barbara
The goal of this new, unique series is to offer readable, teachable “thinking
frames” on today’s social problems and social issues by leading scholars. These
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Available
Trans* Lives in the United States
Challenges of Transition and Beyond
Andrew Rene Cutler-Seeber
Entrepreneurs and the Search for the American Dream
Zulema Valdez
The Global Beauty Industry
Colorism, Racism, and the National Body
Meeta Rani Jha
Series Advisory Board:Rene Almeling, Yale University, Joyce Bell, University
of Pittsburgh, Elizabeth Bernstein, Barnard College, David , Loyola University—
Chicago, Tanya Golash-Boza, University of California—Merced, Melissa
Harris, New York University, Matthew Hughey, University of Connecticut,
Kerwin Kaye, SUNY—Old Westbury, Wendy Moore, Texas A&M, Alondra
Nelson, Columbia University, Deirdre Royster, New York University, Zulema
Valdez, University of California—Merced, Victor Rios, University of
California—Santa Barbara.
Trans* Lives in the United States
Challenges of Transition and Beyond
Andrew Cutler-Seeber
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Andrew Cutler-Seeber to be identified as author of this work has
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ISBN: 978-1-138-29668-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-29669-5 (pbk)
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Contents
(cid:2)
Series Foreword vii
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
1 Bodies and Behaviors 1
2 Embodied Resources 31
3 Hierarchies of Stigma 57
4 Families, Intimacy, and Sexuality 85
5 Employment and Housing 109
6 Healthcare, Eldercare, End-of-Life Decisions 131
Epilogue 155
Appendix A 167
Appendix B 171
Bibliography 173
Glossary and Index 187
Contents v
Series Foreword
(cid:2)
The first decades of the 21st century have been a time of
paradoxes. We have witnessed a vibrant human rights movement
that has advanced the civil rights of women, ethnic minorities,
religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ, all during
a period in which there is increasing economic inequality in
some regions, climate change, and mass migration because of
civil wars, religious conflicts, and state violence. The 21st century
has also witnessed a resurgence of earlier forms of racism,
nativism, white nationalism and violence (in Asia, Africa, the
Americas, Europe, and the Middle East), against vulnerable
populations including girls, women and individuals perceived
to be sexual dissidents. Sociologists offer theories, concepts and
analytical frames that enable us to better understand the
challenges and cultural transformations of the twenty-first
century. In doing so, they generate new forms of collective
knowledge that can help solve some of our local, global and
transnational problems.
This is the seventh year of our Routledge “Framing 21
Century Social Issues” series. Our series includes books on a wide
range of topics including climate change, consumption, torture,
entrep reneurship, assisted reproductive technologies, and the
global beauty industry. These books all explore contemporary
social problems in ways that introduce basic sociological
Series Foreword vii
concepts, cover key literature in the field, and offer original
interpretations and diagnoses. They also intervene in current
debates within the social sciences over how to best define, rethink
and respond to the social concerns that preoccupy the early 21st
century.
The goal of this series is to provide accessible essays that
examine a wide range of social issues with local, global, and
transn ational impact. Sociologists are ideally poised to cotribute
to a global conversation on issues spanning state violence,
migration, militarism, class inequality, the impact of mass
incarceration on local economies, medical technologies, health
disparities and en viro nmental degradation. The contributors to
this series bring the works of classical sociology into dialogue with
contemporary social theorists from diverse theoretical traditions
including, but not limited to, critical race theory, feminist,
Marxist and European social theory.
Readers do not need an extensive background in academic
sociology to benefit from these books. Each one is student-
friendly in that we provide glossaries of terms for the uninitiated
that are connected to bolded terms in the text. Each chapter
ends with questions for further thought and discussion. The
books are ideal for undergraduates because they are accessible
without sacrificing a theoretically sophisticated and innovative
analysis.
Andrew Cutler-Seeber provides the first sociological analysis
of the lives of trans individuals that is intersectional. This book
considers the life cycle of trans individuals from diverse racial,
ethnic, class, and regional backgrounds. It provides a much-
needed corrective to the monochromatic representations of
middle and upper middle class white trans individuals who are
celebrities and thus, not representative of the experiences of a
diverse group of people. The challenges, complexities, and class-
based struggles of trans individuals, after transition, have received
little attention in either the academic or popular press. Moreover,
the ways that racial and class inequality structure the experiences
viii Series Foreword
of trans individuals have been neglected and missing from earlier
discussions. This book provides a much- needed intersectional
analysis of the struggles of trans individuals, who live in all
regions of the mainland United States. It will inspire complex
discussions of how trans people negotiate their social, sexual,
medical and economic needs during different life stages. It is
ideal for courses in the sociology of sex, gender, sociology of the
body and social psychology.
France Winddance Twine
Series Editor
Series Foreword ix
