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- Convenors:
-
Laurence Hérault
(Aix-Marseille Université)
Niko Besnier (La Trobe University)
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- Formats:
- Workshops
- Location:
- V314
- Sessions:
- Thursday 12 July, -, -, Friday 13 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Short Abstract:
Contrary to appearances, gender is uncertain. Transgender experiences are sites where the uncertainty of gender emerges and generates particular disquiet. The workshop seeks to explore multiple ways in which European and non-European societies apprehend contemporary forms of transgender life.
Long Abstract:
To speak of gender is to speak of certainty: according to widely held essentialist perspectives, gender is certain because it is grounded in biology and anatomy. Yet it is clear that gender is not self-evident and, contrary to appearances, it is uncertain. Transgender activism as well as the experience of the intersex is sites where the uncertainty of gender emerges and generates particular disquiet. What is one to do with and about a person who says s/he does not belong to his/her assigned gender? How do societies apprehend the particular take on gender certainty that the transgender experience represents?
A comparative approach to the question is essential because it is in the contemporary context that the transgender experience constitutes itself in a transnational space. Knowledge, both expert and everyday, of the broad variety of transgender experiences throughout the world is now so widely disseminated that trans-identified people today craft their life designs in a global context. For example, Western transgender persons often turn to "traditional" forms of transgenderism as inspirational models and/or resources for a critique of what they see as Western gender binarism. At the same time, some non-Western transgender persons are demanding and accessing the body modifications (hormone therapy, surgery) made possible by Western medicine since the 20th century, enabling the emergence of new transgender figures in these societies. The workshop seeks to explore multiple ways in which European and non-European societies apprehend contemporary forms of transgender experience.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 12 July, 2012, -Paper short abstract:
Comment se font, dans la société indienne, la gestion sociale et la gestion individuelle de ruptures d'avec le genre assigné à la naissance ? C'est à cette question que je m'intéresserai à travers une étude consacrée à la catégorie socio-religieuse des Hijra.
Paper long abstract:
Il existe en Inde trois genres : le genre masculin, le genre féminin et le genre « Hijra ». Les personnes que ce dernier caractérise sont nées avec un sexe masculin ou une malformation sexuelle correspondant à un micropénis ou à un hermaphrodisme, s'habillent et se parent comme des femmes, et parfois sont émasculées. Elles forment une catégorie socio-religieuse panindienne et s'organisent en communautés très structurées au moins dans toutes les grandes villes. Celles qui constituent la communauté de Delhi, - groupe auprès duquel j'ai mené une enquête ethnographique -, ne se sont pas identifiées d'elles-mêmes au genre « Hijra », mais l'ont été par autrui pendant l'enfance ou l'adolescence alors même que le genre masculin leur avait été assigné à la naissance. Cette catégorisation fondée sur une inadéquation entre un sexe masculin et une habitude féminine ou sur la découverte d'une malformation sexuelle, a engagé un processus qui a abouti à la rupture d'avec l'entourage et à l'intégration dans une communauté de Hijra. Mon intervention portera sur ce processus. J'examinerai tour à tour le moment de la catégorisation, les bouleversements des rapports aux autres et à soi-même que cet évènement a suscités, et les nouveaux régimes relationnels dans lesquels les personnes touchées se sont retrouvées prises vis-à-vis des non-Hijra. J'interrogerai ainsi les modes sur lesquels se font, dans la société indienne, la gestion sociale et la gestion individuelle de certaines ruptures d'avec le genre assigné à la naissance.
Paper short abstract:
Among the Maale people transgender individuals have been present since a long time. The following paper discusses the circumstances under which those individuals lived and still live and the challenging experiences of an anthropologist studying transgender issues in this small rural community.
Paper long abstract:
The Maale, a small agro-pastoralist group in the south of Ethiopia promised to be an interesting place for research on transgender issues. In the past transgender individuals carried out women's tasks at the king's compound, which is a male domain. This cultural practice was stopped by a modernizing king at the beginning of the 20th century. But still today, men, who decide to live as social women, are present among the Maale.
Carrying out research on that topic is more than a challenging task. The Maale are a small rural community, where anthropologists can only survive being adopted by a host-family. A researcher is physically dependent on the goodwill of the hosts and because of the indispensable social involvement in the society one also wants to please the hosts with one's research and its outcomes. In my case those facts lead to a general change of the research focus.
In my paper I will discuss the life of transgendered individuals among the Maale today and in historical perspective. At the same time I want to show the practical problems and ethical concerns of an anthropologist working on a sensitive topic that among the small face-to-face society, where she is working in, leads to disquiet.
Paper short abstract:
Legally recognized as male, Kathoey, Thai transgenders MTF migrants risk constantly to be controlled in daily situations, therefore their transgender experience can also be exposed. This communication aims to show how kathoey negotiate their female identity in European countries of settlement.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation will expose how Kathoey, or Thai transgenders MTF migrants struggle for their life and their gender in European countries. Within transnational context, western societies, less familiar to transgender persons, offer kathoey a possibility to live as a woman. Their female identity is based on their physical appearance and their ability to pass as female. Nonetheless, kathoey still have to face some difficulties linked to their legal status. Legally considered as men in their homeland, some kathoey seek the way to conceal their legal identity in order to live and work normally in the countries of destination. Some of them manage to get false identity and documents, providing a possibility to work as a woman. Some of them decide to go underground, and become a "Robin Hood", a Thai term for illegal workers. These kathoey are subject to immigration control, police arrest and expulsion, as well as a disclosure of their male identity. Those who decide to keep their legal male identity are also exposed to the same risk. They have to face up different administrative controls in daily life, in which their transgender experiences can be exposed. In fact, kathoeys' female gender is at stack constantly. As a non-European migrant, they are target of the regime of control, which can destabilize or even interrupt their performance as female. Their female gender is uncertain, through lack of official recognition. The communication aims to display how kathoey migrants negotiate their female gender in these unstable situations and how their new social environment perceives their female identity.
Paper short abstract:
Transnational non-heteronormative Indonesian identities are not only the product of gendering and sexuality, but also of a complex politics, which echo the Indonesian context and are produced by transnational mobility and the politics of desires and economic survival in the host countries.
Paper long abstract:
Among Indonesian migrants in the Netherlands and Belgium, the boundary between gay and transgender identities is the subject of uncertainty. These categories are characterized by both simplicity and complexity: simplicity because, at any moment, gay/transgender Indonesians are clear about who they are; complexity because identification is a matter of not only sex and gender, but also a host of other matters, particularly social class, race, and evanescent matters such as body regimes. A middle-class and urban background, a lighter complexion, and features that conform to both Indonesian and European aesthetics of masculinity are likely to categorize an individual as gay (banci), even though the individual may cross-dress. In contrast, a working-class and rural background, a darker complexion, and features that conform to both Indonesian and Western stereotypes of femininity categorize the individual as transgender (banci dandan). But, in contrast to Indonesia, in Belgium and the Netherlands non-heteronormative Indonesian migrants' identifications also respond to dominant society's responses, particularly those of sexual partners. Non-heteronormative Indonesians adapt their self-identification to the gender and sexual desires of European partners, negotiating their gendering accordingly. This gendering also has economic motivations, associated with both seeking upward mobility and meeting the expectations of remittances to relatives back in Indonesia. Transnational non-heteronormative Indonesian identities are therefore not only the product of gendering and sexuality, but also of a complex politics, some aspects of which echo the Indonesian context, while others are produced by transnational mobility and the politics of desires and economic survival in the host countries.
Paper short abstract:
The purpose of this paper is juxtaposition of legal and political discourses pertaining to transgenderism in Poland and analysis of the conceptualizations of gender and gender ambiguity over the last 30 years.
Paper long abstract:
Transgender people in Poland have had access to diagnosis and sex reassignment procedures since the 1960s. Before 1989 the law was relatively liberal and the medical procedures were funded by the state. Legal discourse was based on medical accounts of transsexualism and documents change was seen as part of therapy, which aimed at reinstating the binary gender system. After 1989 existing legal solutions came to be considered a threat to the legal order of the state. Since 1995 transsexuals' parents are defendants in the sex reassignment proceedings, since 2000 public funding has been withdrawn. The site of disciplining practices has been thus shifted from the families, who are becoming considerably more supportive of transgender identities, into the realm of law.
Transgender activism is a relatively recent development in Poland, which emerged in 2007 and gradually gained public attention through frequent media appearances. Its most urgent aim is to introduce new regulations that would acknowledge the existence of transgender individuals by Polish law. Transgender activists conceptualize their experience using the languages of sexology, human rights discourse and queer theory in order to achieve their goal.
Languages employed by legal scholars and transgender activists reveal struggle for vocabularies, which would allow for - respectively - exclusion or inclusion of gender ambiguity. Certainty of gender as the basis of legal order is threatened by Western discourses emphasizing the individuals' right to decide upon their gender identity.
The paper is based on ethnographic research among transgender community and analysis of legal and media discourses.
Paper short abstract:
In contemporary Japan, many transgender and transsexual activists have chosen to ally themselves with disability activism, rather than as queer allies as with most of the West. This paper explores the historical, cultural, and linguistic roots of transgender politics in Japan.
Paper long abstract:
In contemporary Japan, many transgender and transsexual activists have chosen to ally themselves with disability activism, rather than as queer allies as with most of the West. Part of this is due to the Japanese translation of gender identity disorder (GID) as gender-identity-disability. This allowed for interpellation into the powerful disability political frame in Japan at the risk of considerable diminution of radical aspects of the movement. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tokyo in 2011-2012, this paper explores the historical, cultural, and linguistic roots of transgender politics in Japan.
Paper short abstract:
La transcapacité consiste à passer volontairement d’un état de non handicap à une situation d’handicap (ex.: s’amputer). En mettant en relief les similitudes entre la transsexualité et la transcapacité, cette communication montre les rapports qu’entretiennent la transphobie et le capacitisme.
Paper long abstract:
Les revendications des personnes transgenres et transsexuelles (trans) dans les dernières décennies ont favorisé des réflexions approfondies sur les corporéités et l'autodétermination. Depuis, d'autres groupes stigmatisés se font entendre, telles les personnes transcapacitaires. Qualifiée d'Amputee Identity Disorder et de Body Integrity Identity Disorder dans la littérature scientifique, la transcapacité consiste à passer volontairement d'un état de non handicap à une situation d'handicap (ex.: s'amputer, devenir aveugle). De façon similaire aux personnes trans, les personnes transcapacitaires ressentent un clivage entre leur identité/image corporelle et leur corps tel qu'il se présente; elles se sentiraient davantage elles-mêmes si certaines parties de leur corps étaient enlevées. Les premières recherches sur le sujet (First, 2004; 2009) indiquent que, comme les personnes trans, les personnes transcapacitaires ressentent un apaisement de leur dysphorie lorsqu'elles atteignent la situation d'handicap souhaitée. En mettant en relief les similitudes entre la transsexualité et la transcapacité, cette communication montrera que les modifications corporelles demandées par les personnes transcapacitaires, loin d'être des mutilations comme plusieurs le prétendent (et comme plusieurs le prétend(ai)ent pour la transsexualité), s'inscrivent dans un continuum d'identités corporelles et capacitaires comme l'identité de genre. À partir d'une analyse intersectionnelle, les rapports qu'entretiennent la transphobie et le capacitisme seront étudiés. Les réflexions trans serviront de levier pour penser les identités transcapacitaires de manière non opprimante, en mettant en lumière les privilèges (trans)capacitistes sous-tendant les refus d'acquiescer aux requêtes transcapacitaires. L'exemple de la transcapacité, lui, permettra d'éclairer les limites actuelles de la catégorie trans, centrée sur le sexe/genre sans considérer les capacités.
Paper short abstract:
Using examples from British Columbia, Canada, I illustrate how butch lesbians, transmen, and genderqueer individuals’ experiences of pregnancy and breastfeeding present uncertainty with gender by challenging the Western cultural norms that equate ‘motherhood’ with femininity.
Paper long abstract:
In Western cultures, when a baby is born with a vagina, it is a cultural expectation that the child will grow-up to become a feminine heterosexual mother. In British Columbia, Canada, I investigated the reproductive experiences and choices of individuals labeled 'female' at birth, but who as adults do not identify as feminine heterosexuals. Through this research, it became evident that despite the increased visibility of and rights pertaining to queers and their families (in Canada), gendered assumptions related to reproduction have not changed. In fact, through interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation, it became clear that "uncertainties of gender" were not socially permitted, but rather erased as such experiences became classified within normative gendered expectations. This was exemplified through the narratives of individuals who when pregnant were recognized as either straight women or beer-bellied men, and who also witnessed people's reaction to their gender-crossing behaviour as they 'switched' from "being viewed or assumed to be a male to a woman who dared feed her child" (Teg, questionnaire respondent). Overall, my paper will argue that while even transgendered people are gaining recognition and rights in Canada, the cultural prevalence of gendered expectations regarding reproduction continue to prevail and be used to make sense out of even 'queer' and 'uncertain' experiences.
Paper short abstract:
The embodiment expressed and lived in the Drag King performance, in its interaction within the public space, brings on a complex set of tensions. Narrations and reflections that arise when the criteria of identity of the “other” are vague or not understandable.
Paper long abstract:
Performing drag king is a movement that blurs masculinity and feminity territories, taking them out of the field that made them intelligible up until that moment, with the aim of shaking them up to the construction/experimentation of a new subjectivity. Transits appear as acts of resistance, as interactive and reflective corporal practices (Robert Connel), where relationships are not only between the discourses about the body, but among bodies.
The drag king performance affects the logics around the organisation of experience, and sensitive schemes of those whom the drag king performance interacts in the public space. Its mere presence creates the possibility to be comprehended, according to these "social and natural laws", living them without a voice. The spect-actor in the interaction increases the attention, and the memory mechanisms are mobilised in order to connect the information with the cultural background available. Thus, acts of exploration appear, like the association or analogy trying to fit the experience into the normalization mechanisms. This way, the synthesis is completed through the experience of the person that interacts during the performance. This person designs and creates this alterity, which is not subject to its own frames of reference.
To becoming a drag appears as an oxymoron that embraces opposite forces of feelings of power and danger, wishes and fear. A fascination is generated, which is impossible to ignore, and that does not allow to get minimised by the confusion of the senses and does not disappear in front of rejection and aversion.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing from a multisited ethnography based on observation, participation and video taped interactions of Drag King Workshops in Bruxelles, I will focus on ethnographic and interactional analysis stressing the collective, categorial and normative dimensions of gendered self presentation practices.
Paper long abstract:
A drag king is generally a "female" birth assigned person who dresses in masculine ways for the sake of performance, political agendas, personal self-fulfillment by portraying zir own definition of masculinity in order to disrupt borders between masculinity and femininity and create dissonant genders and bodies.
Drawing from a multisited ethnography based on observation, participation and video taped interactions of Drag King Workshops in Bruxelles, I will focus on ethnographic and interactional analysis stressing the collective, categorial and normative dimensions of gendered self presentation practices.
Through detailed analysis of interactions between praticipants in drag king workshops, I will show, in a first time, how drag kings are less oriented to construct a « male » character than a dissonant gender and body where female to male transition experiences are coalesced into feminism and lesbianism and where elements of masculinity are meshed to feminity in a polyphonic (vs. monolithic) self.
Finally, I will show how the construction of a dissonant body and of a polyphonic self has political and categorial issues in that it undermines binary ideologies and an essentialist vision of categories. This point could shed a light to recent debates and works on incoherence (post-) feminism » (Noble 2006), ethnography of transgender categories (Valentine 2007) and a a praxeological perspective on female masculinities (Halberstam 1998, Noble 2004).