i

Girl in a Kink's shirt A socio-cultural examination of butch transwomen

and the trans community.

Hannah Rossiter

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The University of Auckland, 2014.

ii

With the increased visibility of transpeople there is a press-

ing need to explore the operation and growth of the trans com-

munity. From the outside looking in, the trans community ap-

pears to be monolithic and homogenous, but it is in fact made

up of a diverse collection of ethnicities, religions, social classes,

educational backgrounds, and gender performances and iden-

tities. Thus this dissertation examines the social environment

of butch transwomen, who are frequently viewed with suspi-

cion as they cross the boundaries of both gender and sexuality.

Their transition from identifying as straight men to identifying

as either lesbians or bisexual women, and their not adhering to

traditional notions of femininity, creates a complex social envi-

ronment.

This dissertation explores the social-cultural aspects of the

trans community, examining how social inclusion and exclu-

sion operates among transpeople and focusing on the lived ex-

periences of butch transwomen, who embody a wide spectrum

of male to female trans identities.

This dissertation will argue that non-traditional gender

performannce of transwomen have been largely ignored by so-

ciologists in favour of focusing on the process of gender tran-

sition and interaction with the cisgender world. Such a focus

iii

tends to ignore the diverse nature of existing internal social relations of the

trans community. Indeed within the wider social world there is the belief that

butch transwomen are an oxymoron, because of the common assumption that

by being butch, they fail to adhere to the hegemonic standards of femininity.

Yet their gender expression matches the wide variety of cisgender expressions,

with butch gender expressions often seen as being both a failure to meet social

norms or conscious acts of resistance to hegemonic ideals.

The primary goals of this research are: firstly, to understand what it

means to be a butch transwomen in the context of the global trans commu-

nity; secondly, to examine how butch transwomen engage with their commu-

nity; thirdly, through a critical examination of their gender performances and

the terms they use to describe themselves to gain an understanding how butch

transwomen interact with the wider social world.

iv

Abstract...............................................................................................................................................iiList of tables .......................................................................................................................................vAcknowledgments .............................................................................................................................viGlossary ...........................................................................................................................................viiIntroduction: In the beginning ........................................................................................................... 1 Socio-historical origins of transpeople.................................................................................5 Theoretical Position .............................................................................................................7 Doing gender........................................................................................................8 Gender accountability and the transwomen ......................................................10 Terminology associated with being trans............................................................................12 A day, a year, a life it is: Self-reflexivity and locating the researcher...................................13 Methodological Statement ................................................................................14

Subsequent chapters..........................................................................................................15Chapter 1: Rainy Days and Mondays...................................................................................................17 The research on transpeople...............................................................................................18 A review of butch gender performance..............................................................................22 Butch and trans..................................................................................................................25Chapter 2: Modern Woman................................................................................................................27 Under the stiffest of belts: Axes of power in the trans community......................................30 Daring to pass as one of us .................................................................................31 The issue of ageism among transwomen............................................................34 Transsexual separatists and transgender umbrella..............................................36 Crazy little thing called love - Lesbians and Transwomen and sexual orientation...............38 The exotic other and the cotton ceiling...............................................................39 The dangerous other...........................................................................................41 Gay men, bisexuality and transwomen..............................................................................44 Living a better life..............................................................................................................45Chapter 3: She's always a woman......................................................................................................47 Discourses on gender performance....................................................................................48 Gender performance by genderqueer people and transwomen.........................................52 Genderqueer gender performance ....................................................................52 Genderqueer people and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community..........54

Heteronormativity and genderqueer people.......................................................55 The gender performance of butch transwomen.................................................................56 Transphobia, trans-misogyny, femmephobia and he butch transwoman ..........58 Transwomen and cisgender partners ................................................................60

Changing gender in a binary world.....................................................................................62Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................65 “My turn to decide:” A personal reflection of a femme/butch transwoman........................65 Limitations of this dissertation...........................................................................................66 Opportunities for further research......................................................................................67References.........................................................................................................................................68

v

Table 1...............................................................................................................................................39

vi

I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor Vivienne Elisabeth.

Barb — my “dissertation consultant,” I couldn’t have written my introduction and chapters without you, and I appreciate the countless hours you spent por-ing over my chapters.

Vanessa — my flatmate I could not have completed this dissertation without your constant support, excitement, encouragement,

Tommy — Your support and friendship during my trans journey, has made this all possible.

Taylor — Thank you for proof reading my dissertation.

Nicole and Tessa — The conversations we had on sex and gender, helped me to frame my position. Your support will never be forgotten.

Francis — Your support and friendship has been an inspiration.

Cam — my dearest friend, living in Canberra has not stopped your friendship and support for me and this dissertation.

Andrew — Thanks for the lunches.

To you all, my thanks seem like a poor way to express for the help you have given me.

vii

Brick: A non-passing transwomanButch: A masculine gender performance Cisgender: Non transpeople. People who identify as the sex they are as-

signed at birth.Drag Kings: Mainly women and transmen but sometimes transwomen,

who perform as men in cabarets and nightclubs. Drag Queens: Men, usually gay men who perform as women in cabarets

and nightclubs.FAAB: Female assigned at birth.Femmephobia: is a form of sexism directed at feminine women and men

who are seen as maintaining the gender binary.FTM: Female to male transsexual. Genderqueer: People who cross the boundaries of the gender binary.GID: Gender Identity Disorder. The diagnosis for treating trans

people in the fourth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV). It has been replaced by Gender Dysphoria in the DSM V.

MAAB: Male assigned at birth.MTF: Male to female transsexual.Monosexual: is “someone who is attracted to people of no more than one

gender” (Eisner 2013, 17).Passing: The ability to pass as cisgender.SRS: Sex reassignment surgery.Top surgery: Having surgery to remove breasts (Transmen) or have breast

implants (Transwomen).Trans*: An umbrella term covering the wide variety of gender ex-

pressions and presentations from crossdressers, to gender-queer people, to those who have undergone a full gender transition.

Transgender: Is an umbrella term, used to describe trans* people. It is be-ing replaced by the term trans*.

Trans-misogyny: is where trans female/feminine spectrum people are cultur-ally marked, not just for failing to conform to gender norms, but because of their transition from male to female (Serano 2009).

Transphobia: is "not necessarily to imply the fear of transpeople, but sim-ply any negative attitudes (hatred, loathing, rage, or moral

viii

indignation) harbored toward transpeople on the basis of our enactments of gender" (Bettcher 2007, 46)

Transqueer: Someone who has had a sex change and consequently has gay relations with someone of the sex opposite to their birth sex.

Transition: The act of changing ones gender.Transman: The term that replaces FTMTranswoman: The term that replaces MTF

1

“It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly

indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life.”

Emma Goldman 1923

All people are defined by gender, it marks them and classifies them socially and individually. Even as gender is perceived

by the wider social world, as a natural state, it is also recognised by sociolo-

gists to be the result of our everyday actions. The violation the unwritten

code of social norms by people in western countries, in their everyday gender

performance reinforce the constraining power of gender norms. Since how

we do gender impacts us in a myriad of ways, gender minorities offer an op-

portunity to examine the way gender norms operate. To that end this disser-

tation will explore the gender performance of one particular gender minority

that of butch transwomen. Butch transwomen are those within the male to

female trans spectrum who “have more masculine traits,” but “do not neces-

sarily adopt masculine behaviours and attitudes in all social contexts” (Walker

et al 2012, 91-92). By examining their gender performance we can see how

gender is socially constructed and regulated.

The everyday gender performances of transwomen mean that they are

2

subject to a number of conflicting fields: as a medical/psychiatric condition,

an identity, a growing social movement and a community. Despite this varied

positioning, the dominant discourses concerning transwomen primarily tend

to focus on how transwomen meet traditional gender norms of femininity and

conform to heterosexual gender relations (Denny 2006; Eisner 2013; Stryker

2008). The power of gender norms is such, that transwomen are put in the

unique position of being perceived to challenge heteronormative, cisgender

social norms of gender performance and conversely as the vanguard of the

gender binary and its associated cultural impacts. The primary goals of this

research are: firstly, to understand what it means to be a butch transwom-

en in the context of the global trans community; secondly, to examine how

butch transwomen engage with their community; thirdly, through a critical

examination of their gender performances and the terms they use to describe

themselves, to gain an understanding how butch transwomen interact with

the wider social world.1

Butch transwomen by their very existence fall outside the traditional

norms of gender performance generally associated with traditionally femi-

nine transwomen and cisgender women and as a result are subject to a num-

ber of critical discourses. These discourses see the gender performance of

butch transwomen in terms of failing to pass as cisgender women; a reinforce-

ment of the butch/femme binary in the Lesbian community; and an indica-

tion that they are not serious (Halberstam 1998; Lee 2009). Currently there is

a deficit in the understanding of butch transwomen, as Western society sees

the idea of a butch transwomen as an “oxymoron” (Hill-Meyer 2008). This is

because of a number of prevailing attitudes that transwomen who transition 1 The terms futch, butch-femme switches, grrls, genderqueer, genderfluid and MTF spec-trum are used by transwomen to describe their gender performance.

3

“will always transition toward normative genders” and therefore should be

feminine in their appearance (MacDonald 2012, 136). By presenting as butch,

transwomen are implicitly undermining the normative assumptions associ-

ated with transition.

This results in butch transwomen being subjected to the dominant het-

eronormatative and cisnormatative narratives that privilege feminine, heter-

osexual transwomen as the socially ideal transwoman, while marginalising

those transwomen whose gender performance coincides with lesbian social

norms around the way they dress and the length of their hair. The heteronor-

matative and cisnormatative narratives are often advocated by medical and

psychiatric professionals, whose diagnostic criteria assumes of transwomen

that; “their sexual attractions are exclusively to the same biological sex,” they

are “sexually attractive” in their “cross-gender role” and “pass as a member of

the desired sex” (Denny 2006, 177; Lewins 1995). Hence a number of psy-

chologists place transwomen into two distinct categories: homosexual trans-

women (gay men who transition to be women to attract straight men) and

autogynephilic transwomen (straight men sexually aroused by the idea of be-

coming women) (Bailey and Triea 2007; Blanchard 2005, 2008; Veale 2005).

These categories echo the homosexual/heterosexual orientation binary and

presuppose that transwomen are motivated by deviant sex drives, as opposed

to a desire to live as a woman.

The narratives within the trans community tend to view gender identity

as a core part of who they are, where their gender identity is viewed as an es-

sential part of their identity. These narratives are influenced by the medical

and psychological discourses, yet they also seek to resist these discourses and

at the same time give legitimacy to changing one’s gender. Linked to the resist-

4

ance to medical discourses is the idea of resisting gender as a social construc-

tion, since it is seen as denying the personal agency of transpeople, because

social construction is perceived as denying the “born in the wrong body” nar-

rative (Bettcher 2014). This resistance shows a lack of understanding about

how the natural attitude of gender underpins the way gender operates as a

system of power and control. Sociological understandings of transpeople seek

to examine the way gender operates as a system of control (West and Zim-

merman 1987). The operation of gender for transwomen is imbued with a

mixture of the cultural and social aspects, which require adherence to con-

temporary social norms and to the processes that they undertake, whether it

is pharmaceutical (taking hormones), technological (having surgery) and the

social (being recognised as female). Within the trans community the growing

diversity of gender performance and gender identities mean, with creation of

such tumblr sites as ‘fuck yeah MTF butches’ and the butch transwomen panel

at the butch voices conferences, that being butch is a reality for many trans-

women (Butch voices 2012; West 2011).

Girl in the Kinks shirt is a discourse and textual analysis of secondary

data in order to address the following research questions, in order to analyse

butch transwomen in terms of the global trans community.2 This provides

insight into current notions of contemporary trans-ness and current social

expectations in the trans community:1. What are the socio-cultural axes of differences operating in the trans

community?2. How are transpeople and their cisgender partners subjected to these axes

of differences ?3. Why is the failure of transwomen meeting traditional notions of trans

femininity seen as troubling?

2 This project will specifically focus on the representations by or about butch transwomen using secondary data gathered from books, web articles, tumblr websites, blogs, zines, aca-demic articles, youtube and vimeo channels and documentary films created by trans people and available within the public domain.

5

Socio-historical recognition of transpeople

The current social models of transpeople have their origin in the field of sexol-

ogy in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, which sought to explain

homosexual behaviour as it emerged into an identity. Early sexologists such

as Richard Kraft-Ebbing and Havelock Ellis framed homosexual men as be-

ing women trapped in men’s bodies (Stryker 2008)3. Over the course of time,

homosexuality and heterosexuality became the social binary and the stand-

ard to which same sex and opposite sex practices have been assigned. In this

period, cross-gender activity (male to female crossdressing) was recognised,

by Magnus Hirshfeld, who coined the term transvestite in 1910, to explain

men dressing as women (Stryker 2008). The discovery and use of hormones

(oestrogen and testosterone) in the treatment of cross gender behaviour led to

the first recognised sex change operation taking place in the 1930s. Following

the Second World War, transpeople gained significant visibility with Christine

Jorgensen, whose sex reassignment surgery in 1953 became the most famous

surgery of the 20th Century (Stryker 2008). Harry Benjamin, an endocrinolo-

gist who had provided medical support to Christine, became known as the

father of transsexualism and laid the foundation for development of gender

clinics in the treatment of transpeople, with his 1966 book The Transsexual

Phenomenon (Styker 2008).

Gender clinics were established in the 1960s and 1970s, often in associa-

tion with university hospitals such as John Hopkins in the United States and

National Health Service hospitals in the United Kingdom, such as Charing

Cross. Such clinics strictly controlled access to sex reassignment services for

transwomen, with the patients often required to adhere to a script that re-

3 Being born in the wrong body continues to be an ongoing narrative within the trans com-munity.

6

inforced heteronormative discourse by requiring transwomen to present as

feminine women, wear dresses and be sexually attractive to the opposite sex

(Denny 2006). Varying from the heteronormative script saw transwomen

framed as dishonest, which resulted in them being prevented from obtaining

sex reassignment services (Denny 2006; Stryker 2008). During the 1970s

there was a concerted effort to limit access to sex reassignment services, by

closing gender clinics, and the development of gender identity disorder (GID)

as a psychiatric disorder in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual (DSM III) (1980), requiring transpeople to get a diagnosis in order to

transition (Stryker 2008). The medicalization of transpeople continued with

transsexualism being replaced by gender identity disorder in the DSM IV and

gender dysphoria in the DSM V. These diagnoses served to frame transpeople

as mentally disordered, which continued their marginalisation, as the Lesbi-

an, Gay and Bisexual community tended to view transpeople as heterosexual.

This process limited the ability of transpeople to organise as a community and

challenge the power of psychiatric professionals.

Late 20th and early 21st century models of being trans

The modern trans community as a social movement emerged in the late

1960s, in the wake of the Stonewall riots of 1969. While these riots opened

the door for the recognition of the gay and lesbian movement, the riots led to

marginalisation of the trans community. In 1973 the two San Francisco Gay

Pride parades refused to allow transpeople to participate. The Daughters of

Bilitis expelled Beth Elliot in 1972 and in 1978 Sandy Stone was expelled from

Olivia Records (Stryker 2008). This was in part due to the appearance and

occupations of transpeople,4 the desire of middle class gay men and lesbians

4 Many transwomen during this period worked as prostitutes or dressed in hyper feminine fashions.

7

to obtain legal and social recognition, who felt that transpeople would un-

dermine this work and partly due to antitrans prejudice (Denny 2006). The

resulting antitrans discourse culminated with the publication of Janice Ray-

mond’s The transsexual empire: The making of the she-male in 1979 (Stryker

2008).

During the 1980s significant sociological and anthropological research

into the trans community began to appear which focused on the variations

within the trans community (Bolin 1988; Valentine 2007). By the 1990s

transgender studies emerged as an academic subdiscipline with a number

of articles emerging that transformed the understanding of trans narratives

by reinforcing the importance of embodied experience of transpeople (Stone

1991; Stryker 1994/2006). In the 2000s significant change occurred with the

legal and social recognition of trans identities and butch, femme and gender-

queer gender performances, with a number of countries passing legislation

that enshrined the civil rights of transpeople or conducting inquiries into the

discrimination faced by transpeople.5 The increased visibility of transpeo-

ple and the trans community meant that they were gradually accepted by the

lesbian, gay and bisexual community, with community organisations adding

services directed towards transpeople and involving transpeople in Pride pa-

rades and other community events (Stryker 2008). During this period, non-

western gender performances of fa’afafine (Samoa), hijra (India) and kathoey

(Thailand), became more widely known, which led to them being appropriat-

ed or reframed to adhere to western notions of gender by western transpeople

as evidence that transpeople have always existed in one form or another (Ocha

and Earth 2013; Schmidt 2010; Towle and Morgan 2002).

5 For example, The Gender Recognition Act (2004) in the United Kingdom and the Human Rights Inquiry “To be who I am” (2008) in New Zealand.

8

Theoretical Position

The starting point for sociologists of gender is the notion of gender

as a social construction. As de Beauvoir famously argued ‘one is not born

but becomes a woman.’ Thus, social constructionists argue that as individuals

we become gendered as women or men through our actions in our everyday

lives as opposed to gender being something that is biologically determined.

In studying gender minorities, sociologists seek to understand how gender

is socially constructed both for the gender minorities, but also for those who

accept these norms (Kessler and McKenna 2000). For transpeople gender is a

complex and contradictory field, because their gender performance is a site of

political action in relation to the natural attitude of doing gender. The natural

attitude underpins conventional understandings of gender as a set of “unques-

tioned axioms about a world that appears to exist independently of particular

perceptions … of it” (McKenna and Kessler 2006, 342). The natural attitude of

gender is defined as a series of interlinked beliefs that: there are only two gen-

ders; gender remains constant throughout one’s life; genitals are the primary

determinant of an individual’s gender; those that cross gender boundaries are

deemed not to be serious in their gender performance; everyone is classified

as either female or male; and these classifications are assumed to be natural

(McKenna and Kessler 2006). The natural attitude suggests that gender is an

essential and naturally determined essence, present from birth. Through the

work of Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman on ‘doing gender’ we can un-

derstand “the relationship between biological and cultural processes” around

how we do gender as form of social control (1987, 126).

9

Doing Gender

For almost thirty years ‘doing gender’ by West and Zimmerman (1987)

has provided the theoretical base in which to critically examine the way we,

as people, ‘do’ our gendered lives. West and Zimmerman outline an approach

that uses “an ethnomethodologically informed … understanding of gender”

which sees gender “as a routine, methodical and recurring accomplishment”

(1987, 126). In conceptualising gender as being “constituted through interac-

tion” West and Zimmerman explore the interrelated concepts of sex, sex cat-

egory and gender (1987, 129). According to West and Zimmerman sex is the

“application of socially agreed upon biological criteria,” such as having either

a vagina or a penis; sex category is the application of sex criteria “in everyday

life” based upon “socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one’s

membership in one or the other category”; and gender is the social activity of

“managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and

activities appropriate for one’s sex category” (1987, 127).

The dominant cultural schemas see gender as an ontological state of be-

ing, associating the natural attitude of gender with psychological traits which

are viewed as inherently feminine and masculine. Conversely, West and Zim-

merman argue that gender is “the product of social doings” (1987, 129). Con-

sequently gender is no longer solely the product of being born and assigned

to a particular sex, but rather the product of one’s ongoing performance of

gender. The social construction of gender is itself a recognition that “abso-

lute claims should not be made about the world … until they are put in a

human context and interpreted through human eyes” (McKenna and Kessler

2006, 343). Even if one does or does not meet the “normative conceptions of

femininity and masculinity” then individuals are held accountable by other

10

people for their success and failure to perform gender properly (West and

Zimmerman 1987, 136). The normative conceptions of femininity and mas-

culinity are often used to maintain the differences between women and men,

and privilege behaviour and partnerships that meet the heterosexual ideal.

Gender differences are socially mediated through ones behaviour, clothing

styles which reinforce the perceived ideals of what it means to be a woman or

a man. These ideals encourage individuals or groups to perform actions that

meet these perceived axioms, and in doing so preserve the idea that gender is

essential or natural, even as these depictions are socially contrived.

Since the publication of ‘doing gender’ a number of researchers have used

West and Zimmerman’s framework to explore gender. According to Deutsch

(2007), West and Zimmerman’s theoretical approach, has changed the focus

of academic enquiry around gender in four ways: firstly, West and Zimmer-

man (1987) argue that the gender socialisation one receives in childhood is

not maintained over the course of one’s life, because changes in contempo-

rary norms result in changes in gender performance; secondly, doing gender

weakens biological determinist accounts for gender differences; thirdly, while

existing gender differences appear to be natural, they are in fact the result of

continual practice which merely gives the appearance of being natural; fourth-

ly, that as gender is constructed, then by definition it can be deconstructed.

While Messerschmidt (2009), sees ‘doing gender’ as an opportunity to exam-

ine “the relationship between one’s perceived sex category and the meaning

of situationally practiced gender behaviour” as well as how individuals may

simultaneously ‘do’ and ‘undo’ gender (88). In looking at how gender can be

done and undone, we can examine the relationship between performance and

situational behaviours to explore how transwomen are held accountable for

11

their gender performance.

Gender accountability and the transwoman

Gender accountability is linked to current understandings of the natural

attitude of gender, which requires that one adheres to the sex they are assigned

at birth, and those whose gender performance does not adhere to their as-

signed sex offer an opportunity to explore this relationship. Transwomen,

even as they have been required to meet contemporary gender norms, are also

positioned as people who defy these socially constructed norms. The gen-

der performance of transwomen can be read as a re-interpretation of social

norms, by the way they dress and behave and when interacting with others.

Even though some transwomen enact their gender performance by modifying

their bodies through surgery, hormones and other medical technologies, they

are still subjected to discourses which simultaneously assign transwomen as

being feminine and masculine (Bettcher 2007; Serano 2007). Such narratives

see the body of the transperson, despite the changes it has undergone, as still

having a masculine essence. This narrative while dominant is challenged by

the “born in the wrong body” narrative.

The “born in the wrong body” narrative frames transwomen as having a

female brain in a male body. Yet this narrative according to Bettcher, “ fails

to secure the validity of trans claims to belong in a particular sex” (2014, 386).

The “born in the wrong body” discourse provides a political basis through

which trans gender performance can be recognised as being similar to being

born gay or lesbian. During the transition process, which can last a lifetime,

transwomen in particular are subject to significant social control, because de-

spite their gender performance they are still perceived by men and as such

12

they are believed to be deceptive because of “an appearance-reality contrast

between gender presentation and sexed body” (Bettcher 2007, 48). This per-

ceived deception in a transwomen’s gender performance frequently leads to

violent sanction for “their ‘failure’ to conform to sex–gender congruence”

(Messerschimdt 2007, 87; Bettcher 2007; Schilt and Westbrook 2009). Even

transwomen who have undergone sex reassignment surgery are still subject to

the discourse that they are deceivers because despite surgery the neo-vagina

still retains its essential “maleness” (Bettcher 2007, 49). Gender accountabil-

ity is part of a transwoman’s everyday life, where they are not just account-

able for meeting gendered norms, they are also morally accountable because

they conceal their genital sex, because of the demands for gender congruence

(Bettcher 2014). Transwomen, through their clothing are perceived to be

hiding their genital sex, and are subjected to the forced exposure of genitals in

order to ensure genitals match the presented gender (Bettcher 2007). Hence

doing gender provides a framework through which to see the everyday gender

activities/displays of transpeople not just through normative notions of gen-

der performance, but through a trans conception of gender that sees account-

ability to these gender performance norms as a form of oppression. When

transpeople do gender we are subject to a complex set of norms that finds

having genitals that do not match one’s gender as very troubling.

Terminology associated with being trans

In studying transpeople there are a number of terms that can be confus-

ing and contradictory. For this dissertation the word trans is used as an um-

brella term to refer to people who break or challenge naturalized gender-sex

relations. While transwomen and transmen refers to men and women who

13

have undergone a gender transition - including sex reassignment surgery and

hormones and live in their preferred social gender (Vaccaro, August and Ken-

nedy 2012). Additionally transwomen and transmen replaces the terms male

to female (mtf/m2f) and female to male (ftm/f2m) respectively because of the

negative connotations inherent in their relationship to the medical discourses

of being trans that focus on transpeople adhering to normative gender per-

formance (MacDonald 2013). The terms transsexual and transvestite are only

used when directly quoting from academic articles as these terms have be-

come contested, due to their association to diagnostic guidelines which have

effected some transpeople’s ability to transition. Transition is the process of

changing gender and includes surgery, living in one’s social gender or taking

hormones The term genderqueer is used to describe those that often cross the

male and female gender binary. Non-trans people are described by the terms

cisgender which defines someone who identifies with the gender they are as-

signed as at birth, it was coined by trans activists to pathologise normative

gender performance, just as trans gender performance is pathologised (Schilt

and Westbrook 2009; Serano 2007). Moreover the terms faab (female assigned

at birth) or maab (male assigned at birth), are the result of how an individual’s

genitalia were perceived by the attending physician. Originally from the in-

tersex community these terms have been adopted by the trans community as

a political statement against the hegemony of gender binary. The terms male

and female refer to the biological signifiers of individual assigned sex. There

is a glossary in the front of this dissertation to explain these and other relevant

terms used in this dissertation.

14

A day, a year, a life it is: Self-reflexivity and locating the researcher

According to Giddens, “self-identity is a reflexive enterprise sustained

by a person’s capacity ‘to keep a particular narrative going’” (1991; cited in

Brooks and Wee 2008, 504). Within the context of this work, the particular

narrative that I seek to sustain is that I am a bisexual transwoman who identi-

fies within the butch/femme spectrum. I began my transition process in 2008,

after years of struggle and confusion, and have from 2009 been and continue

to be involved in the trans community in New Zealand. Since coming out as

trans, I have met the criteria within the Standards of Care in the World Profes-

sional Association of Transgender Health to live full time as a woman (Meyer

III et al 2000). I have gone through a number of stages associated with the

transition process; I legally changed my name in May 2009, and in October

2010 I changed the sex designation on my birth certificate and passport. In

December 2010 I underwent sex reassignment surgery, which included the

construction of a vagina and breast implants, in Phuket Thailand. I am an

insider within a highly complex community which struggles with social inclu-

sion and exclusion. Based on my personal observations of the lesbian, gay

and bisexual community and the genderqueer/transfeminine/transmasculine

community, I have become aware of the difficulties that butch transwomen

often experience because they frequently fall between the cracks that exist

within the communities they are involved in. It is these difficulties that have

prompted my dissertation research.

Methodological statement

During the course of researching this dissertation, I gathered my data in

a variety of ways. A significant portion is drawn from secondary data gath-

15

ered from internet sources, blog posts, anthologies and books and YouTube

channels. These secondary sources have provided data that has enabled me to

garner some understanding of the issues faced by butch transwomen. Addi-

tionally these secondary sources have augmented my own autoethnographic

knowledge, gathered from participant observation as a member of the trans

community. Indeed since late 2008, I have been and remain an active mem-

ber of the Auckland, New Zealand trans community, as the Secretary/Treas-

urer and Vice-Chairperson of GenderBridge, a transgender support group.

While this participant observation is unofficial (without any formal research

questions or ethical approval), is the result of my impressions and feelings I

experienced while observing the trans community, nonetheless my observa-

tion frames my research and interest in the trans community. I have witnessed

first hand the diversity that exists within the trans community, which has been

largely ignored by sociologists. My insights as a member of the Auckland

trans community and as a student at the University of Auckland, have enabled

me to cross the boundaries between the academic community and the trans

community.

Subsequent chapters

The following chapters will focus on how butch transwomen are posi-

tioned within the trans community, through a critical examination of existing

academic and popular presentations about them.

The first chapter, “Rainy days and Mondays,” will provide an in-depth

literature review of research on transwomen and the lived realities of butch

transwomen.

The second chapter, “Modern Woman,” will examine the four narratives

16

that exist within the trans community: (1) The general trans narrative, which

views transpeople as being born in the wrong body; (2) the genderqueer nar-

rative, which frames being trans as challenging the gender binary and as such

the only true presentation of being trans; (3) the transsexual separatist nar-

rative that presupposes that transsexuals do not belong in the trans commu-

nity; (4) the narratives that both divide and unite lesbian transwomen and

cisgender lesbians. These narratives set the scene for the complex relation

that butch transwomen have both as women and as transpeople.

The third chapter “She’s always a woman,” will examine how butch trans-

women are subjected to the narratives discussed in chapter 2. This chapter

will look at the gender performance of butch transwomen in relation to the

trans community and communal social spaces within the trans community.

These communal social spaces include trans support groups, the transwom-

en and cisgender lesbian groups, and the wider queer/rainbow community

spaces. Moreover the dissertation will explore the concepts of butch and fem-

mephobia among transwomen, through a critical examination of data drawn

from blogs, zines, and youtube clips.

17

“Talkin’ to myself and feeling old.Sometimes I’d like to quit;Nothing ever seems to fit;

Hangin’ around, nothing to do but frown;Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”

The CarpentersRainy Days and Mondays

This literature review is part of an au-toethnographic study on butch transwomen, focusing on socio-cultural as-

pects of their community. It will explore research on how transwomen and

butch women portray their gender and transgress gender norms. Research

into people who transgress gender norms shows that effeminate looking men

and masculine women are more likely to suffer discrimination and violence

than those who comply with these norms (Herek et al 1999; Hiestand and

Levitt 2005). This societal reaction to those who challenge gender norms,

results in associating gender performance with one’s sexual orientation and

consequently shapes the lives of transpeople along with lesbian, gay and bi-

sexual people within the heteronormative world. This chapter will be divided

into three sections: the first section will focus on research about transpeople

and transwomen from a diverse field of academic disciplines, with a particu-

18

lar focus on sociological research; the second section will provide a general

review of the research on butch gender performance and identities as they

relate to the lesbian and trans communities; the third section will examine the

intersections between trans and butch gender performance.

The research on transpeople

There is a long history of academic research about transpeople, starting

from the 1960s onwards, which has created a complex and academically di-

verse picture of transpeople. This varied array of literature generally seeks to

answer the questions of why transpeople exist, why transpeople engage in gen-

der transition and how they participate in the wider cisgender world. Rob-

ert Stoller and Harold Garfinkel’s (1967) research on ‘Agnes,’ laid the ground

work for wider theories on the social construction of gender, especially per-

formance theories. They assert that we are required to perform gender, but

do not always perform our gender according to these norms, even as we are

still held to these norms (West and Zimmerman 1987). In the 1970s academic

research into transpeople tended to focus on how transwomen pass as women,

transwomen who identify as lesbians, and the morality of transwomen who

transition (Feinbloom et al 1976; Kando 1972; Raymond 19941). As a result

this research tended to place transpeople within a framework of social devi-

ance, because they were perceived to be violating the natural attitude of gen-

der. By the 1980s, sociological research moved towards how transsexualism

was the result of social processes and a critical examination of the processes

transsexuals undertake to change gender (King 1987; Risman 1982). By the

end of the decade, West and Zimmerman’s (1987) ‘doing gender’ reframed

1 The transsexual empire (Raymond 1994) was originally published in 1979.

19

much of the research on transpeople, by focusing on the gender performance

of transpeople and recognising that gender is a social construction.

The 1990s brought about a sea change to both transpeople and aca-

demics. Transpeople began to define themselves in terms of their own narra-

tives, while academics responded in the way they researched transpeople and

how they were presented within this research. Consequently transpeople be-

came more confident in expressing their position on their gender identity and

gender performance. Sandy Stone’s (1992) work ‘The empire strikes back: A

posttranssexual manifesto’2 and Susan Stryker’s (1994/2006) article ‘My words

to Victor Frankenstein above the village of Chamounix’ served as the catalysts

for the development of transgender studies as an academic discipline. Dur-

ing the 1990s there was a considerable increase in the amount of sociological

research on transpeople, as sociology as a discipline came to see that transpeo-

ple could provide insight into a number of aspects of the social world, such as

the power structures operating in the lives of transpeople (Devor 1997; Ekins,

and King 1999; Elliot and Roen 1998; Gagné and Tewksbury 1998, 1999; Hal-

berstam 1998; Lewins 1995; MacDonald 1998; Mason-Schrock 1996; Shapiro

1991). The 1990s were significant, because of the increase of trans research

and the increased visibility of the trans community.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, sociology as a discipline has con-

tinued to become more engaged with trans narratives because, as Hird notes,

“sociology explicitly questions the relationship between sex and gender”

(2002, 578). In the process refining the sociological discussions on the gender

performance of transpeople. Recent sociological research on transpeople has

looked at a number of areas, such as: the retraining of a transperson’s body

2 Is a response to Raymond’s The transsexual empire: The making of a shemale (1979/1994)

20

in order to comply with traditional gender performances and pass as women

(Dozier 2005; Rubin 2003; Schrock, Reid and Boyd 2005); transpeople coming

out to their various social networks (Hines 2006; Schilt 2010); navigating the

medical-industrial complex in order to obtain surgery or medical/psychiatric

diagnosis or to access health care (Aizura 2013; Davy 2011; Speer and Parson

2006); exploring gender identity and community within the trans community

(Factor and Rothblum 2008).

The research previously cited tended to look at the social lives of trans-

people within the wider cisgender world and how they were perceived as men

and women. While butch transwomen may challenge heteronormative con-

cepts around how women perform their gender, they still want to be perceived

and accepted as women (Altadonna 2011). Hence the focus on how trans-

people meet the social obligations of performing a normative gender, rein-

forces heterogender power relations in understanding what it means to be a

transperson (Ingraham 1994). This research uses the social construction of

gender performance or performatativity of gender to understand transpeo-

ple sociologically (Butler 1990; Nicholson 1994; West and Zimmerman 1987).

West and Zimmerman (1987) and Butler (1990) provide valuable insights into

the way the gender binary operates as a hegemonic system of control, through

the use of transpeople’s stories to illustrate the social construction of gender.

As a consequence of this highly formative and well-presented sociologi-

cal research, a number of trans sociologists and academics have responded by

producing research from a trans perspective, about the lives and issues that

affect transpeople. This trans perspective research focuses on the violence and

transphobia directed at transpeople who do not pass as cisgender or who are

deemed to be deceiving cisgender men when transwomen have sex with them

21

(Bettcher 2007; Lombardi et al 2002; Lombardi 2009); the concerns transpeo-

ple have in accessing university as they transition or come out as trans3 (Bee-

myn 2005, 2012); the journeys transwomen undertake to access sex reassign-

ment surgery in Thailand and how they adopt Thai and Buddhist rituals to

celebrate their surgery (Aizura 2010); the use of autoenthnography by trans-

people as a tool to examine their lives in the wider cisgender world and the

ethical issues around researching transpeople (MacDonald 2013; Normarken

2014); how the question of sexual orientation applies to transpeople especially

when the distinction between sexual orientation and gender performance is

softened (Bettcher 2013); the problematic nature of the narrative of “being

born in the wrong body” for transpeople who do not adhere to this narra-

tive, with its association with the gender identity disorder diagnosis (Bettcher

2014). This body of research shows the growing ability of trans academics to

explore issues that are important to them. Consequently this body of research

provides opportunities for this dissertation to discuss how these issues affect

butch transwomen.

There is very virtually no research available on butch transwomen, al-

though there is some literature on transwomen who identify as lesbians (Fein-

bloom et al 1976; Tate 2012; Travers and Deri 2011). This literature itself is

limited, with the focus on transpeople interacting with the wider cisgender

world. Nevertheless the limited research into lesbian transwomen, provides

an opportunity to discuss butch transwomen, with many lesbian transwomen

identifying as butch (Haworth 2007; Hill-Meyer 2014a). The research avail-

able focuses on the following: the development of a lesbian identity as a valid

3 Universities are chosen as sites of research, for two reasons: firstly, there are increasing numbers of students who identify as trans coming out providing a significant population to research; secondly, the way universities are responding to the presence of gender minorities (Beemyn 2005).

22

response to academic and “popular literature that portrays transwomen as al-

ways heterosexual … and … endorsers of traditional sex roles” (Feinbloom et

al. 1976, 60); the sexual experiences of transpeople in relation to the concepts

of masculinity and femininity and their embodied subjectivity (Bento 2012;

Johnson 2007). Research looking at the interaction between transwomen and

the lesbian community, focuses on the inclusion of transwomen within les-

bian sports teams (Travers and Deri 2011) and whether transwomen can be

included as lesbians once they have transitioned (Tate 2012).

This the review of trans research shows that there is a diverse range of

research and that there has been a significant rise in the quantity and quality of

this research. Research in this field tends to focus on aspects of the transition

process, with a limited amount of research on the transwomen’s interaction

with the lesbian community. This review also shows that there is a very large

gap in the research on the diversity of and the operation of the trans commu-

nity, which this dissertation seeks to remedy.

A review of butch gender performance.

Following the earlier discussion of butch in the introduction, there is a

need to explore the concept of butch and how it relates to both the trans and

lesbian communities. Butch is commonly a term that refers to the concept

of having a masculine gender performance or gender identity, and it is often

associated with the lesbian and gay community. It is generally assumed that

the gender performance of lesbians falls into two categories: masculine, which

is described as butch; feminine, which is described as femme. These two cat-

egories serve as the way to define lesbian relationships within a butch-femme

binary (Bailey Kim, Hills, and Linsenmeier 1997; Eves 2004; Lehavot, Molina

23

and Simoni 2012; Luzzatta and Gvion 2004; Rasario, Scrimshaw and Hunter

2008; Rasario et al 2009; Walker et al 2012). Therefore this section will firstly

look at butch in relation to femme, secondly at performing butch in relation

to a butch identity.

Butch is traditionally seen as the opposite of femme gender identity/

performance and this opposition is often viewed as analogous to traditional

straight relationships of separate gender roles (Bailey et al 1997; Levitt, Puck-

ett, Ippolito, and Horne 2012). The terms “butch and femme refer to mascu-

line and feminine gender identities, respectively, within lesbian and bisexual

communities, where they have had long-standing cultural significance” (Le-

havot, Molina and Simoni 2012, 273). This long standing cultural significance

has its origins in the emergence of lesbian and homosexual identities in the

1890s. By the 1940s and 1950s a butch-femme identity in lesbian relationships

became popular in the lesbian community and echoed heterosexual gendered

relationships (Hiestand and Levitt 2005). The complex nature of this binary

has resulted in the butch/femme identities falling in and out of favour espe-

cially in the 1960s and 1970s, because to “many women who came to lesbian-

ism through feminism, butch/femme looked like nothing so much as a repeti-

tion of that which they left heterosexuality to avoid” (Faderman 1992, 580).

In the 1980s the resurgence of the butch/femme binary can be seen as part of

the desire to reclaim pleasure within the sexual arena of lesbian relationships

that seemed to be absent in the 1970s (Faderman 1992). Additionally during

the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a move among “many lesbians” that they

should have the “freedom of self-definition” (Faderman 1992, 588). In the

1980s butch moved from being slur among lesbians to a term that became a

source of pride and identity as well as interchangeable with dyke, within the

24

lesbian community.

As a result of the long standing cultural significance of butch and femme

in lesbian relationships, there has been significant academic debate on the

appropriateness of butch-femme relationships within the lesbian community.

According to Jeffreys (1993; 1998 quoted in Sullivan 2003), butch-femme re-

lationships are at their core a repetition of heterosexual relationships, because

of “the centrality of gender polarity, the responsibility of the ‘masculine’ part-

ner to sexually please the ‘feminine’ partner” (Sullivan 2004, 28). Conversely

Kennedy and Davis (1992 quoted in Sullivan 2003) view butch-femme rela-

tionships, despite sharing aspects of heterosexual sexual relationships, as still

being a challenge to heterosexual and heteronormative social norms through

their division of labour and their social interaction with each other. The

framing of lesbian butch-femme relationships as echoes of heterosexual rela-

tionships tends to focus on how they adhere to heteronormative discourses.

Being butch has been and continues to be framed as an identity most

associated with the lesbian community, and involves two particular aspects

“gender atypicality and a lesbian sexual orientation” (Hiestand and Levitt

2005, 75). The gender atypicality associated with butch women results in the

type of lesbian identity that is marginalized by homosexual and heterosexual

communities (Hiestand and Levitt 2005), because gender atypicality conflates

being butch with negative stereotypes about what it means to be a lesbian.

These negative stereotypes include among others that “lesbians all dress like

men” and “all butches have short hair and are overweight” and butch lesbians

are the dominant partner within lesbian relationships (Malia 2013; Walker et

al 2012). These stereotypes serve to frame butch gender performance with

a particular gender performance that maintains heteronormative notions of

25

lesbian relationships.

Since any gender transgression is assumed to be indicative of gender

identity disorder, this creates an interesting challenge as to when a particular

gender performance moves from being butch to being trans. According to

Hiestand and Levitt (2005) the atypicality of some girls gender performance,

is such that it would “fit the criteria for gender identity disorder (GID),” lead-

ing to the development of butch identity (77). Yet the gender performance of

butch women, while transgressing gender norms associated with heteronor-

mative femininity, is perceived as an acceptable, albeit an old fashioned per-

formance of gender for lesbian women.

Butch and trans

In examining the research on both trans and butch gender performance,

there are similarities between butch lesbians who live within the lesbian com-

munity and transmen who transition from female to male and who come out

of the lesbian community. This section will begin with an examination of the

research on transmen and their journeys to create a gender performance that

reflects their identity, followed by an examination of research on butch trans-

women.

The changes in the 1970s that marginalised butch and femme lesbians led

to a focus on an androgynous style for previously defined butch lesbians, lead-

ing to the creation of transmale communities (Stryker 2008, 100). Which is to

say, communities of transmen, who started by coming out as lesbians, identi-

fying as butch and being active in the lesbian community, who then went onto

transition and live their lives as transmen. This narrative like many others

associated with the trans community, presupposes an underlying heterosexual

26

narrative, where butch lesbians transition to be heterosexual transmen (Bee-

myn and Rankin 2011, 51-52). The association between butch lesbians and

transmen was solidified by Leslie Feinberg’s (1993) novel Stone Butch Blues,

which has become instrumental in the framing of a lesbian butch gender

performance as a stepping stone towards enacting a transmasculine gender

performance. The solidification of this concept of butch lesbians and trans-

men is reflected in the research on transpeople, who see being butch as part

of the transmale gender performance (Beemyn and Rankin 2011; MacDonald

2013; Schilt and Windsor 2014; Stein 2010; Valentine 2007). In the mid to late

1990s the FTM/Butch borderwars became a topic of concern among transmen

and butch lesbians, with so many butch lesbians transitioning from women

to men, that there was a significant fear that butch women would disappear

from lesbian communities (Halberstam 1998; Stein 2010). This led to a debate

as to what constitutes a transman and a butch lesbian and when does female

masculinity shift into being trans (Halberstam 1998). These debates have not

been significantly resolved as they continue to serve as sources of contention

between the trans community and the wider lesbian, gay and bisexual com-

munity (Eisner 2013; Serano 2013).

Over the last fifty years there has been a considerable amount of research

on transpeople, mainly focusing on the transition process and how transpeo-

ple interact with the cisgender world. Despite this research there are consid-

erable gaps in research directed at the trans community. This lack of research

on the trans community provides an opportunity to delve into socio-cultural

aspects of the trans community through the lens of the gender performance

of butch transwomen. This dissertation will, in its own small way, seeks to fill

this lack of knowledge. By doing so this research will help in understanding

what it means to be a transperson in the 21st Century.

27

This chapter of Girl in the Kink’s Shirt looks at the relationships between transwomen within the trans community

and with the lesbian, gay and bisexual community. These relationships can

be complex and contradictory as many transwomen come from diverse back-

grounds, especially in regards to class and ethnicity, despite the perception of

most transwomen being white and middle class (Beemyn and Rankin 2011;

Grant 2011). There are a number of commonalties that exist for transpeople

based around: the transition process (accessing hormones, obtaining work

and dressing their social gender); the response from family and friends to

the transperson coming out as trans; and the way they access the wider trans

community through transgender support groups. The commonalties are fur-

ther supported by three overarching narratives that many transwomen adopt

to situate themselves: (1) The general trans narrative or commonly known

as born in the wrong body narrative, which attempts to provide a biological

reason for the existence of transpeople; (2) the genderqueer narrative, which

frames being trans as challenging the gender binary; (3) the transsexual sepa-

ratist narrative, which assumes that transsexual women have particular needs1

1 Transsexual separatists main desire is to ensure that those transwomen who desire sur-gery are able to access it through either the public health system or through health insur-ance cover.

28

around surgery which the separatists feel are being subverted towards other

areas of social activism, such as gaining access to toilets. These different nar-

ratives all share the same common thread, that transpeople want their gender

performance to be socially accepted, by their peers and the wider social world.

The trans community’s relationship to the lesbian, gay and bisexual com-

munity is shaped by three narratives: (1) the cisgender lesbians/transwomen

narrative , wherein transwomen are acknowledged as women, but nonetheless

but are nonetheless subjected to the cotton ceiling, a concept that sees trans-

women as being acceptable as friends but not as lovers (Rayne 2013b); (2) the

trans exclusionary radical lesbian/feminists (TERFs) narrative situates trans-

women as essentially men who invade women’s only spaces, as either as agents

of patriarchy or as potential sexual predators who have to be stopped (Jeffreys

2005); (3) the transwomen are really failed gay men narrative which positions

transwomen as being men who could not accept being gay and transition to

become women in order to hide this fact (Bailey and Triea 2007). These nar-

ratives create a hierarchy of legitimacy which places transwomen as either

insiders or outsiders within the wider lesbian, gay and bisexual community.

While these narratives are by no means the only narratives that exist within

the trans community, it has been my experience as an active member of both

the trans community and the lesbian, gay and bisexual community, that these

narratives are the most common and often based on an ideology that requires

a feminine gender performance, in order pass as cisgender and hide the fact

that they are transwomen.

To many transwomen, the trans community can be an alien and confus-

ing space, where they are exposed to a myriad of gender performances, narra-

tives, and social norms, about what it means to be a woman and a transperson.

29

While the trans community can be a vibrant community, at times it is, at times

it is conflictive, due in part to the competing groups within the community.

There are approximately four groups of transwomen within the trans com-

munity: (1) transwomen who come out as gay at a young age, then transition,

the majority of whom identify as heterosexual; (2) transwomen who come out

as trans rather than gay and join queer organisations and who may identify

along a spectrum of queer orientations; (3) older transwomen who have lived

outwardly successful lives as heterosexual men then come out as transwomen

and transition in their 40s and older, the majority of whom identify as lesbi-

ans or bisexual; (4) transwomen who transition in their 20s and 30s, who feel

they will have better lives as women. Many older transwomen, who have little

or no experience with the wider lesbian, gay and bisexual community, often

struggle with homophobic and transphobic attitudes, in the process compli-

cating their relationship with the trans and queer community.

These narratives and subgroups within the trans community explain how

transwomen frame themselves within their own lived experience. Due to the

social processes of transition many transwomen are exposed to the concept of

gender as a social construction. Many transwomen this concept as troubling

because they see gender performance as separate from gender identity (The

Queer Avengers 2013). This misreading of the social construction of gender

is the result of the power that the ‘being born in the wrong body’ narrative has

on the formation of trans identities (Bettcher 2014; Haworth 2007). The ‘be-

ing born in the wrong body’ narrative offers an explanation to themselves and

cisgender people to explain the reasons for their transition (Bettcher 2014).

Moreover the trans community often frames being trans as innate because it

offers a sense of legitimacy and is similar to the arguments used by lesbian, gay

30

and bisexual people to explain the origins of their homosexuality. In placing

being trans in an innate discourse, it allows transpeople to be placed within

a hierarchy of legitimacy, within the trans community, that privileges passing

transwomen as the social ideal.

The trans community operates under a hierarchy of legitimacy which has

a number of axes of power which divide the community along ideological lines

and in relation to diverse gender performances, leading many transwomen to

have complicated relationships with the wider queer and trans communities.

This chapter will explore these axes of power, through the lens West and Zim-

merman (1987) ‘doing gender’ in order to get a clearer understanding of how

the performance of gender operates and who is privileged by it. Firstly, this

chapter will look at the trans narratives around age and gender performance.

Secondly, I will discuss the positions of transsexual separatist and transgender

umbrella narratives. Thirdly, I will discuss the relationship between cisgender

lesbians and lesbian transwomen, including the issues around trans exclusion-

ary radical feminists and the trans community. Fourthly, I will discuss the

concept of transwomen as failed gay men, which posits that transwomen tran-

sition in order to hide the fact that they are gay.

Under the stiffest of belts: Axes of power in the trans community

As with any social group, the trans community struggles with hierarchies

of power and privilege that manifest as hierarchies of legitimacy and are based

on one’s age and style of gender performance. These hierarchies are often

imposed upon individuals through their interaction with other members

of the trans community by framing particular individuals as the ‘other,’ be-

cause of their failure to meet the gendered norms within the trans community

31

(Hardie 2006, 124). These gendered norms generally operate according to

an internal hierarchy of legitimacy, with passing transsexuals including non-

operative transsexuals at the top, followed by those transsexuals deemed to be

most passable to least passable, to crossdressers including those who are pass-

ing and non-passing, with ‘shemales’ and sex workers at the bottom, (Hardie

2006, 124). The passing transsexual is the archetype that all transwomen are

expected to aspire to in order to hide their transition. In turn having mascu-

line features such as a masculine voice, facial hair or wearing men’s clothing

exposes not only the failing transperson but other transpeople to violence and

ridicule (Hardie 2006).

Privilege within the trans community is based on one’s ability to pass

as cisgender and be accepted by other transpeople as someone who passes.

Yet the contextual nature of passing means that “privilege within trans com-

munities is tenuous at best,” as it primarily exists within the support group

environment, while outside the trans community transwomen are often seen

as men in dresses, thus not real women (Hardie 2006, 127). Moreover a num-

ber of sociologists and partners of transpeople support the idea that privilege

for transpeople is related to their ability to pass (Case et al 2012). Passing

privilege within the trans community is often used as a tactic to silence those

transwomen who appear too masculine and encourage them to be “quiet and

unimposing” (Hill-Meyer 2008, 13).

Daring to pass as one of us

Passing as a cisgender women remains one of the primary modes through

which transwomen are assumed to lead successful and fulfilling lives. For

transwomen passing is the physical manifestation of the desire to belong and

32

be acknowledged as a women. In engaging with members of the trans com-

munity, transwomen are supported by the concepts of witnessing and mirror-

ing. According to Devor “each of us has a deep need to be witnessed by others

for whom we are. Each of us wants to see ourselves mirrored in others’ eyes

as we see ourselves” (2004, 46). This desire to be recognised as a women or a

man is profoundly significant for transpeople, as it constitutes an affirmation

of their identity and that the world truly sees them as the gender they present.

The irony of passing too well is that transpeople, particularly transwomen,

can be accused that they are engaging in deceptive behaviour or lying or that

they are maintaining hegemonic norms of presentation (Schilt and Westbrook

2009). This places transwomen in a double bind where they are faced with the

choice of “either being or not being visibly trans” (Bettcher 2007, 50). Such a

double bind encourages transwomen to pass, in order to be socially accept-

able.

The social acceptability of passing is supported by cisgender partners of

other transpeople, often pressuring transwomen to meet the social norms of

the community. Such legitimacy plays a major role in terms of acceptance and

having a successful transition for many transwomen, as this acceptance often

supports the formation of a trans identity. The high rate of marginalisation of

non-passing transwomen, within the trans community is reinforced by the

power of those transwomen who pass, who challenge the gender performance

of those who do not meet the feminine ideal (Roen 2002).

Transwomen receive a variety of help to become more proficient in gen-

der appropriate behaviours, with help from their friends and co-workers who

model appropriate gender performance and social media such as YouTube

channels that show passing transwomen (Kershaw 2014; Schilt 2010). Trans

33

support groups often serve as the first places where transpeople come out pub-

licly, as such they provide an opportunity for transpeople to develop a gender

performance (Serano 2013a). At the same time support groups often encour-

age participants to adheres to hegemonic gendered norms and excludes those

that do not meet these norms (Roen 2002, 505). Successfully passing as cis-

gender heterosexual women, involves engaging in a number of activities and

practices on the part of transwomen. These practices include altering one’s

body by taking female hormones, surgery (sex reassignment2, facial femini-

sation3 and breast augmentation and orchiectomy4), electrolysis or laser hair

removal to remove facial hair, voice retraining to sound more feminine and

the wearing of gender and age appropriate clothes. These processes are often

time consuming and expensive for transwomen to undertake, as most are not

covered by medical insurance or public health systems. While these activities

are expensive and impart the privilege of passing, they provide an opportunity

to no longer be marked as the ‘other.’

Like Hardie (2006)5, I am reasonably blessed by genetics, that for the

most part means that in the cisgender world I pass, although there are times

when I do not, as my voice is problematic – it is rather deep and gets confused

with a man’s voice, especially on the telephone. Despite this, I experience the

unearned privileges of passing: I am not stopped by the police; people do not

2 Sex reassignment surgery or vaginoplasty is the creation of a neo-vagina, by removing the penis, inverting it and using the penis to line the cavity that has been created. 3 Facial feminisation surgery can include reshaping the skull, resizing the nose and short-ening the philtrum, the gap between nose and top lip. 4 Orchiectomy is the removal of the testes, to reduce the production of testosterone and is commonly used as an intermediate stage for transwomen if they cannot afford full sex reassignment surgery. 5 Alaina Hardie describes herself as “five foot five” with well-endowed breasts, with the ability to “afford a fabulous hairdresser and a nice wardrobe. I don’t need to work very hard to pass these days, though the beginning of my transition was different story” (Hardie 2006, 126).

34

insult me or attack me when I am walking down the street; nor do people as-

sume that I am a guy in a dress. Even though I am subject to the unearned

privileges of passing, like Hardie (2006) I have experienced that “once people

discover I am trans then that’s all they can see for days, weeks or months …

maybe even for the rest of their lives” (126). This results in transwomen being

defined by their past status as someone who has changed gender no matter

what they do.

Even with the privilege of passing as cisgender, transwomen face four

types of consequences for violating the natural attitude of gender: “(1) living

in constant fear of exposure, extreme violence, and death; (2) disclosure as

a deceiver or liar (possibly through forced genital exposure); (3) being the

subject of violence and even murder; and (4) being held responsible for this

violence” (Bettcher 2007, 50). These consequences are used by the perpetra-

tors of violence directed at transwomen as justified because transwomen have

intentionally deceived their attackers (Bettcher 2007). The violation of the

natural attitude of gender by transwomen is often framed “in terms of a con-

trast between gender presentation (appearance) and genital status (reality)”

(Bettcher 2007, 49-50). This contrast is also applied to post-surgery trans-

women, because even with a neo-vagina, they are still perceived as the male

sex they were assigned at birth, reinforcing the dominance of the natural at-

titude of gender.

The issue of ageism among transwomen

While passing is a dominant axis of power, there are other axes of power

operating within the trans community revolving around sexual orientation

and ageism. These axes of power create social divisions within the trans com-

35

munity, marginalising transwomen based on ageism and sexual orientation.

In the process creating debates within the trans community, around what it

means to be a transwoman.

Ageism within the trans community is seldom talked about,6 despite the

active opposition towards sexism, racism and privilege, because older trans-

people are assumed by younger transpeople to hold old fashioned views about

what it means to be trans. The old fashioned views that older transwomen

have is based on a generational divide that exists within the trans community

and rests on the belief that the prevalence of transpeople remains unchanging

and the issues younger people have in relation to transition do not compare

to those of earlier generations. Younger transpeople often view over 40 trans-

people as being inflexible about the changing nature of the trans community.

This causes younger transpeople to dismiss older transpeople as being irrel-

evant members of the trans community. Ageism in the trans community is

seen as a tolerable exclusion, because it will protect more vulnerable com-

munity members from the predations of older transwomen who often divulge

sensitive and personal information around the status of genitals and sex reas-

signment surgery.

The status of one’s genitals and the age of one’s transition play a role in

adopting appropriate gender performance, with older transwomen often be-

ing more likely to adopt a feminine appearance than younger people, in order

to be recognised as women. Even as transwomen are expected to be feminine,

once they have had genital surgery they are encouraged to disappear from the

support group environment, to live in perpetual stealth7 (Bolin 1988; Lewins

6 Among the more interesting and seldom discussed topics within the trans community is how tedious dilation (the process of inserting a plastic dildo to maintain the vagina) is. 7 Living a stealth life has been a major discourse among transwomen. Originally developed by medical professionals it required transwomen to sever all relations with their pre-tran-sition lives so they seamlessly merge into the cisgender world, with no one knowing they

36

1995). This notion of disappearing into the cisgender world has a long history

within the trans community, stretching from the beginning of medicalised

transition, where transwomen were assumed to stop being trans when surgery

was done (Denny 2006; Lewins 1995; Stryker 2008). Even as transwomen

are encouraged to disappear, a number of post-surgical trans activists seek to

challenge the existing notions of stealth, see the transition process as ongoing

and are out of the closet about their being trans.

Transsexual separatists and transgender umbrella

Of the ongoing axes of power that exist in the trans community the

one between transsexual separatists and the transgender umbrella advocates,

who seek to define what it means to be a transperson who undergoes a medi-

cal transition, show the political and social divide that operates in the trans

community. The essence of the transsexual separatist position is that they are

objecting “both to transgender theory as a critique of sex and gender ideolo-

gies and, relatedly, to transgender as a site of identity mobilization” (David-

son 2007, 64). This is because transsexual separatists wish to be recognised

as having a legitimate medical condition (McGonigal 2013). Conversely the

transgender umbrella group, is seen by transgender people as trying to accom-

modate not just transsexuals but also other gender diverse people in the wider

trans community (Bornstein and Bergman 2010; Factor and Rothblum 2007).

The divide between these two subgroups is based on a mixture of sexual orien-

tation and gender performance with a number of transsexual separatists often

at the lower end of Hardies’ (2006) hierarchy of legitimacy, because they often

engage in sex work.

For many transsexual separatists, issues around accessing affordable sex re-

were trans (Denny 2006; Hardie 2006; Lewins 1995).

37

assignment services is their primary concern, as they see their male genitalia

as a birth defect and therefore see “the transgender political agenda as putting”

their “rights in jeopardy” (Taylor 2013). The transgender political agenda

works to increase the legal protections afforded to transpeople who have not

undergone sex reassignment surgery and seeks to oppose the pathologisation

of gender performance of transpeople (Davidson 2007). These legal protec-

tions include accessing public toilets, changing legal documents (birth cer-

tificates and passports), and ensuring that gender identity of a transperson is

acknowledged despite the status of their genitals. For transsexual separatists,

transgender activism reinforces the idea among cisgender people that trans-

people are social deviants seeking extra rights, by advocating for transwomen

who have not had surgery, to have access to women’s toilets (McGonigal 2013).

Transsexual separatists take their ideological position a step further in

opposing the trangender political agenda by supporting trans exclusionary

radical feminists in trying to stop transgender people from getting the same

human rights as cisgender people (Taylor 2013). It must be acknowledged that

some transwomen join the transsexual separatist movement, not for ideologi-

cal reasons, but because they seek a community that will accept them as they

are (Taylor 2013). Yet these transwomen may leave such a movement based on

moral objections to or disagreement with the exclusionary practices being ad-

vocated. The response by the transgender umbrella, because it accepts gender

diversity, is to try to accommodate the concerns of transsexual separatists, yet

at the same time keep them at distance. The reasons for this fall into two main

categories: the need to maintain safe spaces for vulnerable transpeople in the

transition process; and not necessarily agreeing with the ideology espoused

by transsexual separatists, they are nonetheless raising important issues that

38

need to be addressed.

Transsexual separatists are engaged in an ideological battle about who is

a real woman, based on adhering to the social script that requires transsexu-

als to be and appear feminine. The need to adhere to this definition of gender

performance provides a certain amount of protection from the violence and

discrimination transwomen experience. According to Grant et al (2011), a

survey of 6,450 transgender and gender non-conforming people about the

types of discrimination that they experience, found that a significant majority

“had experienced a serious act of discrimination” which had a serious impact

on their lives. Hence the desire to be seen as real women, carries more than

just ideology, as it is the product of gender as regulatory system that holds

transpeople to account for daring to try to pass as cisgender.

Crazy little thing called love - Lesbians and Transwomen and sexual orientation

The relationship between transwomen and cisgender lesbians is compli-

cated and influenced by liberal and radical feminism, creating a minefield of

contradictory discourses. These discourses range from the exotic other that

accepts transwomen as women and as members of the lesbian community, to

the dangerous other which defines transwomen as men and as agent provo-

cateur of patriarchy in order to subvert women as a social class (Jeffreys 2005;

Broad 2002). Yet for many transwomen who identify as lesbian or bisexual,

being part of the lesbian community validates their gender performance and

their social identity. This section of the dissertation will examine these dis-

courses in terms of transwomen accessing the lesbian community.

As the gender performance among transpeople varies so does sexual ori-

entation. According to the Grant et al (2011) a significant portion of trans-

39

women identify as either lesbian or bisexual.

Table 1: Sexual orientation of MTF respondents (Grant et al 2011, 28)Gay/lesbian/same gender 28%

Bisexual 31%

Queer 7%

Heterosexual 29%

Asexual 7%

Other 2%

The existence of same gender or bisexual transwomen is a source of con-

cern for a number of psychologists, because same gender attraction has been

conceived as a way to hide a misdirected sex drive or a paraphilia (Bailey and

Triea 2007; Blanchard 2005). This paraphilia is known as autogynephilia (to

love oneself as a woman) and has been applied to transwomen who are attract-

ed to cisgender women and transwomen, (Wylie et al 2008). Autogynephilia is

seen by many transwomen as pathologising and demeaning of their identities,

because it assumes that older transwomen transition because they are aroused

by the idea of becoming women (Serano 2010b; Veale et al 2012).

The Exotic Other and the Cotton Ceiling

The sexualisation of the bodies of transwomen by heterosexual men and

by lesbians and bisexual women has framed transwomen as the exotic other.

These narratives simultaneously mix the femininity and masculinity of trans-

women to frame them as strange sexual creatures, who are capable of caus-

ing mental illness among those attracted to them8. Heterosexual discourses

on transwomen are heavily influenced by she-male pornography and focuses

on the genitalia9 and breasts of the pornographic performers (Serano 2007).

8 A psychologist named Ray Blanchard has described the sexual attraction to transwomen as gynaandromorphilia, which pathologises such an attraction as a mental illness (Serano 2013b). 9 Transwomen involved in transgender pornography are expected to get erections (despite the effects of hormones) while still looking like women.

40

Moreover lesbian and bisexual women also conflate transwomen with their

genitals, and often experience the so called “cis dyke ‘freak out’” upon discov-

ering the person they are talking to is a transwoman which rivals the “reac-

tions of straight people” (Serano 2013, 77).

It is into these experiences that the cotton ceiling has entered the lexi-

con of lesbian/transwomen discussions around having transwomen as sexual

partners or lovers. The cotton ceiling was first articulated by porn actress

Drew DeVaux as a social comment on why cisgender lesbians will be friends

with transwomen but do not have them as girlfriends, lovers or long term

partners (Faucette 2012). The cotton ceiling has become a focal point about

the general inclusion of transwomen in lesbian and bisexual sexual commu-

nities, with lesbians and transwomen discussing how to include transwomen

in these communities (Davies 2012; Faucette 2012; Savannah 2013a, 2013b).

The cotton ceiling is further complicated by Trans Exclusionary Radical Femi-

nist (TERF) —a term coined by trans activists to describe radical feminists

that oppose the existence and participation of transwomen in women only

spaces, reaction to it, since TERFs view the cotton ceiling as implying that

transwomen want to have “sex with cis women without their consent,” there

by perpetuating the existing rape culture, (Faucette 2012, n.p.; Rayne 2013b).

Despite the existence of a cotton ceiling a number of cisgender lesbians

and bisexual women have relationships with transwomen, although such re-

lationships raise questions around their sexual orientation and gender iden-

tity. Within the trans community there is some interesting anecdotal evidence

about how these relationships are viewed, especially in terms of sexual orien-

tation, with transwomen and their lesbian partners often being perceived as

heterosexual irrespective of how they name themselves (Serano 2013a; 2013b;

41

Thompson 2013). This raises issues on what constitutes sexual orientation

for both the transwomen and lesbian partner, since the idea of transwomen

having a relationship is troubling for those outside the relationship (Raskoff

2014). With the natural attitude of gender tied to genitals, it dominates many

discussions about the relationships transwomen have, since they are still seen

as biologically male. While the lesbian partners of transwomen, typically see

them as women, both parties are subject to discourses that question their

choices in partnering (Thompson 2013). This situates transwomen within a

narrative that, despite having relationships with women and their transition

from male to female, still frames transwomen as failed gay men. This is be-

cause transwomen have given up the perceived benefits of being men to take

on a lesser social position of being women.10

The Dangerous Other

Defining transwomen as the dangerous other has long been a factor that

has worked to marginalise transwomen from participating in lesbian and/or

feminist community organisations. Since the 1970s radical feminists have

marginalised transwomen from lesbian and women only spaces by expelling

transwomen from lesbian and feminist community organisations11; by not

permitting transwomen to march in gay pride parades12; and the publication

of such works as Raymond’s (1979) The transsexual empire: The making of the

she-male. In 1991 Nancy Burkholder was expelled from the Michigan Wo-

10 When Dierdre McCloskey announced her gender transition, it was joked that her transi-tion would mean a pay cut (Schilt and Wisnell 2008, 1).11 In 1973 Beth Elliott was expelled from the Daughters of Bilitis (a lesbian social organi-sation); In 1977 Sandy Stone was forced to resign from Olivia Records. Both women were targeted because they were trans. (Stryker 2008, 102-105). 12 Two pride events (one organised by Reverend Raymond Broshears and another organ-ised gays and lesbians) in 1973 opposed drag queens and expressly forbade transpeople from participating (Stryker 2008, 102).

42

myn’s Music Festival or Michfest because as a transwoman, she did not adhere

to the “womyn born womyn” policy of the festival (Stryker 2008, 140). The

expulsion of Nancy Burkholder turned Michfest into a cause celebre for the

inclusion of transwomen in women only spaces. This lead to the creation of

‘Camp Trans’13 turning Michfest into an “important touchstone in evolving

queer, feminist and trans discussions” about the legitimacy of transwomen

and the spaces they can enter (Stryker 2008, 140; Serano 2013a). The “womyn

born womyn” policy ensures that the attendees to Michfest are only women

who have been raised as women. Additionally the “womyn born womyn” pol-

icy also frames transwomen potential perpetrators of violence towards wom-

en and having of male energy, by having flesh and blood penises14 (Browne

2009).

The narratives that portray transwomen as dangerous are often espoused

by TERFs, such as Sheila Jeffreys, Cathy Brennan and Janice Raymond (Rayne

2013a). The essence of the TERF argument is that transwomen are engaging

in a harmful cultural practice by undergoing surgery, a practice that supports

the maintenance of existing heteronormative sexual relationships. These nar-

ratives view gender transition and the associated sex reassignment surgery

as a harmful cultural practice that should be banned because it entails the

mutilation of a healthy body. Such a cultural practice is linked to the way

transwomen are “recreating archaic sex roles that were the obstacle to women’s

equality rather than constituting a revolutionary way to ‘transgress gender’”

(Jeffreys 2008, 330). By doing so, transwomen are perceived as supporters of

13 Camp Trans was organised “to offer ongoing protest” and raise awareness of transpho-bia in MichFest (Stryker 2008, 140; Serano 2013a). 14 A by-product of this policy is that transmen are allowed at attend because they were born “womyn.” Also many of the participants bring significant of penis shaped dildos (Sera-no 2013a).

43

the gender binary.

TERFs also view transpeople as suffering from a mental illness, echoing

the work of Blanchard (2005) and Bailey and Triea (2007) who view trans-

women as suffering from a misdirected sex drive. Jeffreys (1997) posits that

the reason for transwomen facing discrimination, suffering from suicide idea-

tion and having less fulfilling sexual relationships is the result of them acting

on their mental illness. Additionally TERFs view the medical professionals

who support the transition process as performing a human rights violation

(Jeffreys 1997; 2008). Since there is no biological cause for the existence of

transpeople, TERFs believe that transwomen should stop being trans and re-

turn to being men. Thus it is incumbent on TERFs to prevent the continu-

ation of the medical transition process for transpeople in general and trans-

women in particular.

TERFs, through the use of radical feminism view women as a subjugated

class and see any attempt to join this class or participate in this class by a

biological male as an attack on womanhood. For TERFs the notion of being

women is directly related to a woman’s ability to reproduce, having a vagina

and being socialised as women, therefore transwomen cannot become wom-

en. TERFs view sex and gender as being biologically determined whereas

femininity is enforced upon women and reinforces the subordinate status of

women (Jeffreys 2005; Rayne 2013a). The works of Janice Raymond (1979)

and Sheila Jeffreys (2005), provide a lens through which trans gender perfor-

mance is defined. Indeed Jeffreys (2005) sees transwomen as replacing “one

stereotype for another and thus reinforces the sexist fabric of society” (47).

This criticism of lesbian transwomen is based on the natural attitude of

gender, that transwomen’s birth genitals are the sole decider of sex, and that

44

the socialisation experienced by males means that transwomen are incapable

of changing gender. TERF activists have taken the work of Judith Butler on

the social construction of gender and suggested “that what trans people feel

about what their gender is, and should be, is itself ‘constructed’ and, therefore,

not real” (Williams 2014, n.p.). This interpretation by the TERFs of Butler’s

theory about the lived experiences of transwomen, can be considered “to be

a false, misleading, and oppressive use of the theory” (Williams 2014, n.p.).

This creates an ideology that advocates for the halting of gender transition of

transwomen (Jeffreys 2005). For TERFs, transwomen represent the power

of patriarchy, which seeks to undermine the hard won gains of the women’s

movement and keep the current patriarchal system in place. Thus it is en-

tirely appropriate to exclude transwomen from women only spaces. Yet for

transwomen this exclusion adds to the extensive discrimination they already

experience.

Gay men, bisexuality and transwomen

Within the wide field that encompasses the study of transwomen, the

concept of transwomen being failed gay men is one of the most fascinating.

This concept has its origins in the belief that transwomen transition in order

to escape the stigmatisation of being gay and is based on the assumption that

a trans identity is more socially acceptable than being gay (Serano 2009). The

research into the professed changes of sexual orientation, complicates how

sexual orientation of transwomen is understood, because it is believed that

sexual orientation is fixed (Daskalos 1998). Such changes in sexual orienta-

tion are viewed with suspicion as sexual orientation is viewed as innate or

that “such self-reports may be conscious deceptions, designed to increase

45

the likelihood that the transsexual will qualify for sex reassignment surgery”

(Lawrence 1999, 581). Despite the belief that transwomen are engaged in a

conscious deception, this positioning of transwomen as either homosexual or

heterosexual ignores the possibility that many transwomen may well be bi-

sexual or pansexual. The opposition to bisexuality is common both within the

lesbian and gay community, as well as the heterosexual community, and it is

often seen as “a way not to identify as gay or lesbian” (Bailey et al 1997; Eisner

2013, 242). Such opposition is further supported by research by Blanchard

(2005) and Bailey and Triea (2007) who seek to frame transwomen as either

homosexual or heterosexual transsexuals, while encouraging them to adhere

to a feminine social script. Sexual orientation for transwomen is based on the

sex assigned at birth or the gender in which they are brought up, is not neces-

sarily maintained during the transition process.

Within the lesbian, gay and bisexual community there is a certain amount

of transphobia, while the trans community can be biphobic and homophobic

(Eisner 2013). Thus lesbian and bisexual transwomen can feel marginalised

from the lesbian, gay and bisexual community because they are made to feel

that they do not belong (Serano 2013a). This is because transwoman are still

framed within a discourse of the natural attitude of gender that associates sex

assigned at birth with their gender performance.

Living a better life

Even as transwomen are subjected to a number of narratives around

sexual orientation, partner choice and relationships, in the end, the reason

for the transition process is that it will lead to a better life. Although trans-

women are subjected to significant discrimination and violence, this need for

46

a life made better by transition is little understood. The ongoing medicaliza-

tion of trans lives, does not see transition as resulting in living better lives for

both transwomen and transmen. Transwomen fall into the common narrative

that views becoming or being a woman as a lesser status (Atladonna 2011;

Quon 2011). According to Grant et al (2011) despite many transwomen being

highly educated, they are often underemployed or unemployed. In embarking

on the transition process, transwomen take on new social mores that refine

or cement their social position within the communities they operate within.

Additionally the relationships between transwomen and their partners are

subjected to a number of discourses that attempt to define the acceptability of

their relationships. Therefore how do butch transwomen operate within these

complex and contradictory discourses?

47

This chapter of Girl in the Kink’s Shirt will

examine the lived experiences of butch transwomen, in relation to the narra-

tives that have been discussed in the “Modern Woman” chapter. This exami-

nation is based on secondary data books, web articles, tumblr websites, blogs,

zines, YouTube, Vimeo channels and documentary films within the public do-

main created by butch transwomen and their partners. In the previous chap-

ter the trans community has been described as a highly diverse and complex

community, which struggles with difference in gender performance. To that

end, I will discuss the number of axes of power and difference that operate

within the trans and lesbian, gay and bisexual communities, which serve to

define and control the gender performance of butch transwomen. Even as

transwomen run the gambit of gender performances, there are many aspects

of the trans community overlooked for investigation, with butch transwomen

being particularly ignored. This is in part due to the requirement within and

beyond the trans community that a transition will enact a feminine gender

performance. Yet the belief that butch transwomen are failing to fully transi-

tion, is itself a failure to understand the transition process. As Tobi Hill-Meyer

(2014a, 2014c) notes, being butch does not negate her transition or her gender

48

performance, rather being butch is a descriptor of her doing gender, including

wearing skirts or any other traditionally feminine activities. Despite the pref-

erence towards a feminine gender performance in sociological research , there

is virtually no research into existing diversity of non-traditional gender per-

formances within the trans community. Linked to the gender performance of

butch transwomen is the intersection between gender performance and sexu-

ality with many butch transwomen openly identifying as lesbians or bisexual

women (Haworth 2007; Hill-Meyer 2008).

The gender performance of butch transwomen is both a site of resistance

and a way to adhere to the social norms of western society. Thus this chapter

will: firstly, discuss the current normative discourses within the trans commu-

nity on gender performance; secondly, examine butch and genderqueer gen-

der performances of transwomen as both sites of resistance and as descriptors

of doing gender; thirdly, explore the relationship between being butch and the

experience of transmisogyny, transphobia and femmephobia.

Discourses on gender performance

The way transpeople do gender, as this dissertation, discussed earlier, has

become the primary way to engage with them, in the process resulting in a

number of narratives concerning the gender performance of transwomen.

The gender performance of transwomen range from narratives that encour-

age hyperfemininity of the 1950s, which is advocated by medical professionals

and adopted by some members of the trans community (Brown and Rounsley

1996; Hill-Meyer 2014a); to the growing rise of transpeople who engage in

an agender gender performance (Garrett 2014).1 These discourses point to

evolving possibilities for gender performance and distancing from heteronor-

1 Agender is a gender performance by individuals who identify as neither men nor women.

49

mative concepts of what is an appropriate gender performance which domi-

nate many discussions within the trans community.

Since gender is seen as a product of social interaction and subject to so-

cial mediation, then how butch transwomen ‘do gender’ reflects how their

status as women and their ability to pass as cisgender is interpreted. The gen-

der performance of the participants of the butch transwomen panel in the

Butch Voices conference (2011), participants frame their gender performance

as challenging preconceived ideas of what it means to be a transwoman, as

their performance as women is not limited by being butch; they tend to view

being butch as a descriptor of what they do as opposed to what they do not

do (Hill-Meyer 2014a). The use of transwomen in West and Zimmerman’s

(1987) ‘doing gender,’ in codifying the passing of as cisgender as a social norm

(Connell 2009), then the gender performance of butch transwomen both suc-

ceeds and fails in meeting this social norm. Success is traditionally defined

by disappearing among the cisgender population and while failure is seen by

remaining as visible transwomen (Denny 2006). Hill-Meyer (2014c, 2014d)

has noted the language associated with passing revolves around transwomen

appearing and doing gender that supports the position that transwomen meet

cisgender norms. The participants in the Butch voices panel (2011) see pass-

ing as cisgender as conferring a sense of privilege, while hiding the fact that

as transwomen, they will always be seen as gender variant in a number of

wider social contexts. Many of these wider social contexts tend to assume

that all transpeople are transwomen, often ignoring the existence of transmen2

(Serano 2007). Such assumptions reflect a bias that focuses on the visibility

2 Serano uses the anecdote about Jamison Green (a transman), who wrote a report for the City of San Francisco and the media assumed the report was written by a transwoman (2007, 46).

50

of such transwomen as Carmen Carrera, Laverne Cox and Janet Mock3, who

are physically attractive and very feminine, reinforcing the social script that all

transwomen should be hyperfeminine. Thus showing a lack of understanding

by the cisgender world of the diversity that exists within the trans community

and how that community should be portrayed.

Even as gender performance dominates, academic understandings of

what it means to be trans, within the trans community, discussions about be-

ing trans are held in trans support groups. Trans support groups, in the United

Kingdom and New Zealand, “engage in a whole range of activism and cultural

work” that support individual members in their transition (Davy 2011, 146;

Roen 2002). During the course of my involvement in trans support groups

in Auckland New Zealand, I have experienced, through participant observa-

tion, of the support they have provided. Yet I have also experienced the pres-

sure applied to transwomen by peers and medical professionals to adhere to

the ideal hyperfeminine. My personal experience has involved being told by

another transwomen not to wear particular clothes and by a medical profes-

sional to appear more feminine by the next appointment if I wanted to con-

tinue my transition. Psychiatric professionals approach to adhering to gender

norms tends to focus on how transwomen are performing as women and not

just on their appearance (Lewins 1995). The desire to have a feminine gender

performance is designed to reinforce gender as a regulatory construct that

privileges and “naturalises heterosexuality” (Jagose 1996, 84). Butch trans-

women, by their very performance as women, challenge the heteronormative

discourses that operate to frame many of the discussions about what consti-

tutes a proper transwoman, since there is an expectation that they “will always

3 Carmen Carrera was on RuPaul’s Drag Race and subsequently transitioned and is now an actress/model (Richards 2014); Laverne Cox is an actress on the NetFlix series “Orange is the New Black” and she was recently on the cover of Time magazine (Richards and D’orsay 2013); Janet Mock is a trans activist and author (Richards and D’orsay 2013).

51

transition toward normative [hetero]genders” (MacDonald 2013, 136). Since

normative heterogenders are assumed to be “outside of social production, it

does not require explanation,” thus making the gender performance of trans-

women even more bound to feminine gender performance (Ingraham 1994,

209). Yet the expectation to conform to heterogender norms, leads many

transwomen to experiment with being highly feminine, with differing levels

of success (Brown and Rounsley 1996; Haworth 2007; Pusch 2003). For butch

transwomen, their gender performance as women, is a form of female mascu-

linity, similar to the performance butch cisgender women enact (Halberstam

1998). While in the trans community, the norm is to appear as a high femme,

there is growing sense of diversity in gender performance which challenges

this norm (Hill-Meyer 2008). The need to define transpeople in relation to the

normative notions of gender overlooks the disruption transpeople do these

normative perceptions of gender in everyday life.

While a feminine gender performance forms the dominant narrative for

transwomen, nonetheless it is challenged by gender performance that is nei-

ther masculine nor feminine, which crosses the boundaries of the privileged

heterogender performance. In crossing these boundaries, gender diverse peo-

ple are still subjected to social sanction, whether it is the occasional verbal

attack, physical attack, or murder (Lombardi et al 2002). The power of the

hegemonic norms around gender is such that cisgender people demand that

gender variant people also adhere to these norms, even as gender variant chal-

lenge them. The emergence of agender gender performance, which is an as-

pect of being genderqueer, is more likely to be subject to discrimination and

violence, as in one particular case of an agender person being set on fire for

wearing a skirt (Garrett 2014; Grant et al 2011; Whittle et al 2007). Indeed

52

among the trans community because there is a wide variation in gender per-

formance, it is commonly assumed all transpeople are challenging the gender

binary. In having an intentional gender performance, a gender performance

that complies with heterogender performance, transwomen are still challeng-

ing the hyperfemininine narratives even as they are subject to these narratives.

Gender performance by genderqueer people and transwomen

For both genderqueer and transwomen, doing gender remains a compli-

cated and difficult activity, because of the demands enforced upon them by

heteronormative narratives and the way gender performance of transpeople is

viewed as transgressive. As transpeople transition, they are subjected to he-

gemonic “white, capitalist, hetero-patriarchal criteria” that defines any trans-

gressive gender performance as deviant (MacDonald 2013, 136). In defining

transgressive gender performance by transpeople as deviant or engaging in

delusional behaviour, some social commentators seeks to return transpeople

to the sex they were assigned at birth (Williamson 2014). Such notions frame

the gender performance of transpeople from with in the natural attitude of

gender, which associates genitals as the sole decider of gender. By being read

as their birth sex, transwomen are subjected to heteronormative narratives

about their gender performance, which seeks to frame transwomen as men

(Doan 2010). Therefore this part of the chapter will examine aspects of non-

traditional gender performance by: firstly exploring the gender performance

of genderqueer people as a gender performance that slips between being femi-

nine and masculine; secondly investigating the gender performance of butch

transwomen.

53

The genderqueer gender performance

Genderqueer is one of the newer types of gender performance and

certainly the most all-encompassing, covering a wide range of gender pres-

entations and expressions and commonly found among young transpeople

in their teens, twenties and thirties (Beemyn and Rankin 2011; Grant et al

2011). Being genderqueer is framed as a generational change where gender-

queer people “identify and express themselves in ways that challenge conven-

tional static, binary constructions of gender” (Beemyn and Rankin 2011, 147).

The idea of challenging the gender binary serves as an opportunity to confront

the existing hegemonic power systems that invade everyday lives of people.

In taking on the gender binary, genderqueer people seek to redefine what it

means to be a man or woman, by widening the definitions of both in men

being more feminine, and women in being more masculine. It is in a space

‘in between’ being women and men that the “public gender categorizations

are temporarily and spatially suspended” (Wilson 2002, 435). In suspending

gender categories genderqueer people try to enact the social construction of

gender that is free from having to adhere to gendered norms.

Gender norms are a complex social artefact, which all people have to

manage, yet like many in the wider trans community, many genderqueer peo-

ple have similar life experiences, such as confusion around whether they see

themselves as men or women, in the processes of understanding why they

are gender variant (Beemyn and Rankin 2011). Genderqueer life experiences

include being able to engage in other modes of expression as children, act-

ing feminine or masculine, but not identifying as female or male, where not

required to adhere to a “narrow range of gender roles” (Beemyn and Rankin

2011, 148). In being able to develop a gender performance that crosses the

54

boundaries of accepted gender norms, genderqueer people in a sense become

liminal, neither masculine or feminine.

Genderqueer people and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community

The belief by many, that genderqueer people are liminal, in between

being men or women, reflecting an understanding of gender that assumes

one can only do gender in relation to masculine and feminine gender per-

formance. Even though genderqueer people see their gender performance as

in opposition to, or a protest of, the gender binary, they are still subjected to

the power relations the binary imposes, with the wider social world seeking

to frame their gender performance as masculine. With research into gender-

queer people, showing that the majority of them are female assigned at birth

(faab)4 they are nonetheless assumed to be presenting as masculine (Beemyn

and Rankin 2011; Seth 2009). The power of the gender binary influences

the lesbian, gay and bisexual and trans communities response to genderqueer

people with many genderqueer people encountering opposition from these

communities about their status as a gender variant person, with some gender-

queer people being accused of being straight people masquerading as trans

or queer (Eisner 2013). With gender variant people experiencing significant

hostility and punishment, it is more likely to be directed at male assigned at

birth (maab) genderqueer people than female assigned at birth (faab) gender-

queer people (Grant et al 2011). As Messerschmidt (2000) discusses, viola-

tions of male masculinity are more severely policed.

Among the various sections of the community, genderqueer people are

4 While faab and maab are usually associated with intersex people, these terms have been adopted by the trans community, as a political act, in order to recognise that the sex as-signed at birth does not constitute ones destiny.

55

seen as troubling, because they do not adhere to or maintain the social norms

that are expected of being trans or gay, lesbian or bisexual. This violation of

gendered norms of behaviour and dress often results in the verbal sanction by

other members of the trans community (Roen 2002). In the trans community

genderqueer people are often viewed as not transgender enough, because they

have not taken the steps to transition properly or because they appear androg-

ynous (Beemyn and Rankin 2011; Roen 2002). Conversely, genderqueer peo-

ple view transpeople as reinforcing the gender binary by performing gender as

either women or men (Beemyn and Rankin 2011). The two positions held by

transpeople and genderqueer people show the ideological gap that has arisen

between the two groups. In my participant observation of the trans commu-

nity, I know several genderqueer people, who view my transition and the tran-

sition of other transpeople with suspicion because we consciously perform

feminine gender, rather than challenge the gender binary. Like transwomen,

for many genderqueer people, passing is something that they struggle with as

passing is associated with meeting the gendered norms of society (Seth 2009).

Even as they wish to remain separate from being assigned male or female,

nonetheless passing can serve as both a method of protection from those who

struggle with the gender variance and also stifle gender performance that

crosses the masculine and feminine gender boundaries (Seth 2009).

Heteronormativity and genderqueer people

At the core of being genderqueer is the need to challenge the accepted

understanding of heteronormative gender performance. Genderqueer people

even as they challenge the gender binary and have issues with the trans com-

munity, are as much a part of the wider trans community including trans-

56

people who have undergone a gender transition (Bornstein 1994; Bornstein

and Bergman 2010; MacDonald 2013; Normarken 2014). These narratives on

gender performance provide an insight into the way gender is seen by trans-

people, genderqueer and gender variant people, which is different from the

way cisgender people situate the gender performance of gender variant peo-

ple. According to Serano (2010a), the gender performance of transpeople and

genderqueer people is routinely viewed as either a real or a fake performance,

depending on whether it meets heterogendered norms. For many transpeo-

ple and genderqueer people, gender has many more meanings than those as-

signed to it by the cisgender world. Indeed “Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of

habitus” can be used to frame gender as not just a performance, but a real

tangible artefact that is made more real by the transition process (Schilt and

Windsor 2014, 3). In seeing gender as habitus, where the relationship to the

physical changes wrought by transition defines one’s internal gender identity

and conveys a transwomen’s social gender (Schilt and Windsor 2014).

The gender performance of butch transwomen

The gender performance of butch transwomen is perhaps the most con-

tradictory version of trans gender performance, because they have significant

parallels with genderqueer people, cisgender butch lesbians and femme trans-

men, in the way their gender is perceived and recognised. Butch transwomen,

femme transmen and cisgender lesbians challenge the traditional norms of

masculinity by performing it in ways that “is generally received by hetero-

and homo- normative cultures as a pathological sign of misidentification and

maladjustment” (Halberstam 1998, 9). Both butch transwomen and femme

transmen are known to wear jeans, boots and have short to long hair, facial

57

hair and wear skirts or dresses and high heels (Haworth 2007; Hill-Meyer

2014a; MacDonald 2013). The traditional understanding associated with the

gender performance of transwomen assumes that they will adhere to a social

script that advocates for a form of 1950s femininity, where the transwomen is

heterosexual, dresses in stereotypical feminine clothes including dresses and

make-up, and hides the fact they were or are trans (Hardie 2006; Hill-Meyer

2014a; Serano 2007). Within transgender support groups the dominance of

this social script is such that many of the discussions are around how trans-

women comply with this trope (Davy 2011; Roen 2002). The traditional read-

ing of gender, links gender with one’s birth sex, which assumes that gender

corresponds with one’s genitalia, which for many transpeople, does not apply

as many live their lives without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, due to

the costs of sex reassignment surgery.5

Through the lens of West and Zimmerman (1987), one can argue that

butch transwomen both do and undo the hegemonic concepts of traditional

gender performance, through their interaction with the wider social world.

Since transpeople both do and undo gender, they often framed as decon-

structing sex and gender, which according to Hird (2002), creates the issue of

whether “performing or ‘doing’ gender seems to principally consist in com-

bining or parodying existing gender practices” (589). Within this field the

gender performance of butch transwomen creates a fascinating interpretation

of female masculinity (Halberstam 1998), where butch transwomen are read

as pretransition transmen. This is because butch transwomen pass successful-

ly as butch ciswomen, leading some medical professionals to assume that they

are pretransition transmen who want to be prescribed testosterone (Hill-Mey-

er 2014c). This exemplifies the way cisgender notions of gender performance

5 My surgery cost me over US$25,000 including airfares to Thailand, hospital care and recovery time after surgery.

58

are undone by the gender performance of butch transwomen. Thus showing

that cisgenderism (Ansara and Hegarty 2011), “problematises” the ideology

held by medical professionals, who insist on alignment between sexed bod-

ies, gender performance and sexuality, reinforcing the dominant narratives on

what constitutes an appropriate gender performance, for butch transwomen

when they ‘do gender.’

The lack of research on the component parts of the trans community tend

to show a preoccupation with the causes of being trans and tends to see sur-

gery as the primary reason transpeople undertake a gender transition. As

Siebler (2010), notes documentaries like Transgeneration (Simmons 2005)

portray transpeople holding onto the “belief that there is only one way to be in

the world: a masculine male and a feminine female” thus reinforcing the idea

that they are “soldiers of the gender system” (323-324). The focus on surgical

and medical transition, ignores the existence of those transpeople who are ei-

ther ‘no-ho’s’, or ‘no-op.’6 In the process, this itself reinforces the binary nature

of the gender system. This position also reinforces the trope that transpeople,

by engaging in an intentional gender performance, are responsible for how the

gender system operates, even as cisgender people, while they can be held to

similar standards experienced by transpeople, are not deemed to perpetuate

the system of hegemonic control that the gender binary enacts.

The participants of the butch transwomen panel at the Butch voices con-

ference (2011) see their gender performance as sites of resistance to the wider

hegemonic discourse of the gender system. This resistance takes the form of

performing gender associated with cisgender butch lesbians or femme trans-

men. Within the discipline of sociology the contestation of gender is a col-

6 ‘No-ho’s’ refers to transpeople who do not take hormones but live socially in the opposite gender. ‘No-op’ are transpeople who do not wish undergo sex reassignment surgery (Sie-bler 2010).

59

lective process and individual resistance to gender is not easily recognised

(Connell 2009). The participants of the butch transwomen panel (Hill-Meyer

2014a-f), discuss ways they resist gender norms, whether its binding their

chests as transmen7 do or letting facial hair grow.

Transphobia, trans-misogyny, femmephobia and the butch transwoman

The butch transwomen and femme transmen like many marginal groups

struggle to respond to transphobia, transmisogyny and femmephobia that ex-

ists within the trans community, the wider rainbow community and hetero-

sexual society. While these terms are similar they cover different forms of

prejudice towards transpeople and femme identified people. Transphobia is

defined as the fear of transpeople (Norton 1997; Weiss 2003); femmephobia

is the fear of femme women and all things feminine (Hill-Meyer 2008), while

“transmisogyny is the hatred of transwomen” (Eisner 2013, 180). These pho-

bias remain among of the most important issues that transwomen in general

and butch transwoman in particular engage with, because they shape the way

the wider social world and members of the trans community views transwom-

en.

Members of the trans community, often encourage other transwomen to

adhere to feminine dress, while admonishing those who do not (Davy 2011;

Roen 2002). This creates a double bind for transwomen: if they present as

typically feminine transwomen they are viewed by TERFs as “misogynistic”

parodies of women and even if transwomen do not present as feminine, they

are not really women (Taylor 2013). This double bind frames being trans, as

either trying to forget that they are trans or remain trans and being framed as

7 In order to pass as men, transmen use chest binders to flatten their chests and give the appearance of having a male chest. It is not unknown for some butch transwomen to do this also (Hill-Meyer 2014c).

60

the monstrous other demanding to be recognised as human (Stryker 2006).

Transwomen are often framed as monstrous, they are targeted for the way they

do femininity (Serano 2013a; Stryker 2006). Within the trans community, the

definition of being butch varies significantly from the typical butch transwom-

an, to those who identify as “femme dykes or femme tomboys” (Serano 2013a,

53). Although transwomen are encouraged to be feminine or femme in their

gender performance, both Hill-Meyer (2014f) and Serano (2013a) raise the

issue that when transwomen present as androgynous or even as masculine

they are listened to more readily in feminist and queer community events.

Many transwomen are marginalised by the “masculinism of the transgender

movement” which “consistently prefers masculine-spectrum viewpoints and

ideas, while marginalizing those of feminine-spectrum transpeople and gen-

derqueers” (Eisner 2011, n.p.). Thus doing gender is still framed by a script

that values the masculine over the feminine.

As butch transwomen cross the boundaries of gender performance tradi-

tionally associated with transwomen, they come to recognise the commonali-

ties between the treatment femme cisgender queer women and butch trans-

women experience in their communities. The butch transwomen panel (2011)

participants discussed the support they received against trans-misogyny and

transphobia from femme queer women, as well as they themselves provid-

ing support to femme queer women in regards to femmephobia (Hill-Meyer

2014f). Both trans-misogyny and transphobia are often used to marginalise

transwomen, by framing them as the sex they were assigned at birth. Con-

versely Serano (2013a) sees transwomen as being marginalised by femme

queer women to a point that they are not natural allies, but rather “potential

allies” (59). This marginalisation is especially pointed when ciswomen, dis-

61

cuss the lack of femininity some transwomen display. This leads to potential

conflict between transwomen and ciswomen, as transwomen are often viewed

as too loud (Hill-Meyer 2008). These tensions are seen as superficial by cis-

women, but loom large on transwomen’s understanding of what it means to

be a woman.

Transwomen and cisgender partners

There are complicated connections that occur when transpeople and cis-

gender people have or engage in relationships with each other, framed within

the gender performances of butch or femme transwomen. The very nature of

having a relationship exposes the cisgender partner to allegations from both

the trans community and the cisgender community; the trans community of-

ten views the cisgender partners of transpeople as either trans allies or ‘tranny

chasers’8. While the cisgender world views cisgender partners of transwomen

in particular as either being a closeted homosexual (if a heterosexual man)

or a closeted heterosexual (if a queer woman) (Serano 2013b). The way re-

lationships are framed between transwomen and cisgender men and women

show how such relationships are viewed, with many cisgender people, finding

their identity and sexual orientation is called into question. In either case the

cisgender partners are often accused of engaging in or perpetuating cisgender

privilege by members of the trans community.

The debates over sexual orientation places both the transwoman and her

cisgender partner into a fascinating position around what constitutes a heter-

osexual or a homosexual relationship. Raskoff (2014, n.p.) writes that “sexual

orientation as a concept is not useful when applied to various trans* catego-

8 The term “tranny chaser” usually refers to cisgender men, although can include ciswom-en, who have sexual relationships with transwomen but do not want to be seen in public with transwomen.

62

ries. If someone is born with a body categorized as male yet identifies as a fe-

male woman and lives her life as a woman, is she a lesbian if she loves another

woman? Is she gay if she loves a man? If she has sex reassignment surgery,

does that change anything?” Raskoff ’s questions contends that the liminality

of trans gender performance challenges the assigning of sexual orientations.

The reason remains debatable, although Eisner (2013) contends that the rea-

son is that transwomen are “considered unattractive because their bodies are

unintelligible in terms of sexual attraction” (250). This position fails to take

into account how sexual orientation within the wider lesbian, gay, bisexual

community can be confusing, especially with the existence of the alphabet

soup of sexual orientations and identities9. Yet for a number of transpeople,

whether transfeminine or transmasculine, sexual orientation is important and

serves as a way to define who they are attracted to and who they want to have

sexual intercourse with (Eisner 2013; Serano 2013a). Yet through my partici-

pant observation of the Auckland trans community, it became apparent the

notion that transwomen could or should have a sexual orientation or for that

matter a sex life is difficult to comprehend for some allies of the trans com-

munity, resulting in questioning their support for transpeople.

Beyond the concept of a sexual orientation, the way cisgender partners

interact with the trans community, is a minefield of contradictory positions,

as cisgender partners can be seen as either valuable allies of the trans com-

munity or as “tranny chasers” or “admirers.”10 This creates significant issues

for the trans partner, the cisgender partner and the wider trans community as

9 There a number of initials associated with the queer community: firstly the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, intersex, asexual +); secondly the BMNOPPQ (Bisexual, multisexual, no label, omnisexual, pansexual, polysexual and experientially bi-sexual who primarily identify as queer (arranged alphabetically)) (Serano 2013, 83). 10 The term ‘admirers’ is a polite way of saying tranny chaser

63

all three have particular positions on what constitutes an ally or a chaser or a

significant other. Some cisgender partners in their blogs raise concerns about

being classified as the “bad partner/chaser” especially when they have been

involved in the trans and queer communities (Thompson 2013). While other

cisgender partners of transpeople blog about being framed as fair weather al-

lies and partners who are only around when times are good and will disappear

during the bad times (Tashlin 2013)11. The authors of these two blog posts

raise issues around the experiences they had in the trans community, which

in turn raises issues of marginalisation and expectation of belonging within

the trans community. The concerns some transwomen have with cisgender

partners of transpeople, is that they are often involved in the policing of the

boundaries of the trans community. This policing, which involves the exclu-

sion of non-partnered transwomen from community spaces and events. In

my participant observation of the Auckland trans community, I observed bi-

sexual transwomen being treated as pariahs because they expressed their de-

sire to find a partner. Biphobia within trans community is such that bisexual

transwomen are “simply assumed to be straight” (Eisner 2013. 254). These

assumptions around sexual orientation and partner choice plays an active part

in the social exclusion of non-partnered transwomen. In my personal nar-

rative, I rarely disclose the fact that I am bisexual or that have I may or may

not have a partner, because I have experienced cisgender partners of other

transpeople actively warn potential partners not to be involved with me. This

intervention influences my participant with community events that include

cisgender partners.

11 The issues Tashlin (2013) describes are similar to interfaith relationships among Jews and Christians, that the non-Jewish partner does not understand the cultural effect of an-ti-semitism on the Jewish partner (Winter 2002).

64

Changing gender in a binary world.

Throughout this chapter, there has been a concerted effort to discuss the

issues that play a role in the evaluation and treatment of butch transwomen.

These issues have created a number of narratives that have impacted and con-

tinue to impact on the lives of butch transwomen. Throughout there are dif-

fering views on what constitutes a butch or a femme transwoman within the

trans community. The common stereotype views all transwomen as feminine

and consequently has entered the dominant discourse.

While the diversity of gender performance is routinely acknowledged

within the trans community, cisgender communities struggle to recognise

or acknowledge these differences. A transwomen performing a gender that

differs from the sex assigned at birth does take some comprehending, with

sex is often located within the natural attitude of gender. The interaction

between cisgender people and transwomen is invariably a mixture of respect

and distrust, which casts either party as the hero or villain. In the end, be-

ing trans consists of being a minority, often struggling to find a place within

a world that assumes everyone is heterosexual, cisgender and monosexual12

(Serano 2013a). Yet it is the very power of the hegemonic gender system that

is challenged by the gender diverse, as all hegemonic systems are challenged

by minorities. Since the gender performance of butch transwomen, is often

subjected to narratives that are centered around maintaining the gender bi-

nary, their gender performance nonetheless takes on these narratives in subtle

ways. This is especially so when butch transwomen are confused with butch

cisgender women at first meeting, thus showing that preconceived ideas about

transwomen are socially constructed.

12 Monosexual is “someone who is attracted to people of no more than one gender” (Eisner 2013, 17).

65

“My turn to decide:” A personal reflection of a femme/butch transwoman.

During the course of writing this dissertation I have learnt a great deal about my nar-

rative and my capacity to maintain it. What I have learnt is that gender performance is not

as simple as we often assume it to be; rather it is routinely refashioned to meet the narrative

we wish to portray, within a situational gender performance (West and Zimmerman 1987).

This creates opportunities to understand gender as a socially mediated activity and the com-

munities we create to support our gender performance.

The gender performance that I show to the world is a patchwork of gender performanc-

es, comprised of my personal tastes and the influence of my friends, who have encouraged

me to try new ways of doing my gender. My gender performance is often read by cisgender

people and other transwomen as traditionally feminine, yet it crosses the boundaries of being

butch and femme. Moreover the changes in my gender performance and body wrought by my

transition, mean that while I am more comfortable with my body and gender performance,

there are still times when I still feel my gender dysphoria. The affected by gender dysphoria

does not undermine my transition or my gender performance but rather my transition is an

ongoing process.

This dissertation has investigated butch trans-women and how they frame their identity within the wider trans and queer community.

In the course of researching this dissertation it has become apparent that there is virtually

66

no research available on the component parts of the trans community. Most sociological

research tends to focus on the transition process and how transpeople adhere to soci-

etal gender norms and navigate the medical processes of gender transition (Aizura 2013;

Davy 2011; Dozier 2005; Hines 2006; Schilt 2010; Schrock, Reid and Boyd 2005; Speer

and Parson 2006). Certainly once their transition is complete transpeople are expected

to cease being trans and engage in a life appropriate to their gender (Bolin 1988; Lewins

1995). Yet for an increasing number of transpeople there is a desire to maintain a dis-

tinctly trans identity even after a completed transition (Bornstein 1994; Ladin 2012; Quon

2011; Serano 2007, 2013; Richards and D’orsay. 2013; Richards 2014) . Additionally there

is a growing number of works that reflects the diversity of gender, sexuality and religious

performance within the trans community (Bornstein and Bergman 2010; Diamond 2011;

Dzmura 2010).

This project has engaged with the rich diversity that exists within the trans commu-

nity, by focusing on socio-cultural axes of differences that operate in the trans commu-

nity, allowing one to glimpse at the way transwomen in general and butch transwomen

in particular, engage with their community. A community that is complicated by a num-

ber of competing narratives that create ideological subgroups that seek to define what it

means to be trans. Into this maelstrom of narratives, there are commonalities concerning

the way gender performance is perceived and enacted. Additionally, cisgender partners

provide an insight to the changing dynamics that are in operation within the trans com-

munity, even as cisgender partners are sometimes viewed with suspicion and concern by

other transpeople (Thompson 2013). Yet for all the conflict that exists within the trans

community, this research suggests that the gender performance of transwomen is vibrant

and diverse.

The lived experiences of butch transwomen are subjected to a number of narratives

that reflect on their gender performance. It is suggestive that for most transwomen that

gender performance is strongly linked to meeting heterogender social norms. Thus Butch

transwomen are important in understanding an evolving community.

67

Limitations of this dissertation

This dissertation, by its very nature, is subject to a number limitations: firstly, there is

a lack of empirical research, due to having no human participants, limiting the researcher

in being able to interview butch transwomen and gain a clearer insight to their lived ex-

perience or gender performance; secondly, the data used has been gathered from the in-

ternet, and while they provide valuable insight into the lives of butch transwomen there

is little ability to engage with the authors or gather insights about their work; thirdly the

lack of empirical research means that there is no way to investigate how passing privilege

is seen by butch transwomen; fourthly the lack of human participants means that there is

little way to investigate how transwomen view cisgender partners of other transwomen or

how cisgender partners view other transwomen.

Opportunities for further research

This project is important in examining the lived experiences of butch transwomen,

but further research might explore: (1) the lived experiences of butch transwomen using

human participants. This would allow a clearer understanding of how butch transwomen

perform their gender; (2) the issue of age, ageism and older transwomen and transmen

within the trans and queer communities. With an aging trans population, the need for

this research is growing; (3) the way cisgender partners of transpeople and non-partnered

transpeople interact with each other and how they perceive each other. Research about

cisgender people and their partnering with transwomen tends to focus on their interac-

tion with each other (Brown 2009; Iantaffi and Bockting 2011).

68

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