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Trans Lives in a Global(izing) World
Rights, Identities, and Politics
J. Michael Ryan
Issues related to trans1 individuals (rights, identity, legal status) have become one of the “hot topics” in the social imagination in recent years. Whether it is debates over gender identity laws, anti-trans discrimination policies, or bathroom bills, celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Andreja Pejic, April Ashley, and Ataru Nakamura, Emmy winning television series like Transparent, the Netflix hit Pose, or Oscar winning films like The Danish Girl, trans issues seem to have exploded into the popular imagination. Trans-related studies are also becoming an increasingly prominent feature of the academic discourse in fields ranging from sociology to women’s studies to philosophy to a growing number of specialized classes and entire departments dedicated specifically to trans studies. Some have even argued that we are now at a “transgender tipping point” highlighting the rapid growth in awareness of, and social advances made by, transgender people in many parts of the world (Steinmetz 2014).
Aside from simply popular culture and academic discourses, trans identities and rights have also become hot button political issues in a growing number of locales. Trans individuals are demanding, and gaining, their rights in a growing number of countries and jurisdictions around the world. And even where the battles are still ongoing (which is arguably everywhere), the debates themselves are bringing issues of trans lives to the forefront of politics and into social discussions in nearly every country in the world today. In addition, trans individuals themselves are gaining prominent political positions in countries around the world from New Zealand (Georgina Beyer) to Japan (Aya Kamikawa) to the United States (Amanda Simpson) to India (Shabnam Mausi) to Poland (Anna Grodzka). Trans issues have become global social issues, and ones that matter.
It is also difficult these days to make arguments about much of anything without considering a global perspective. Globalization has no doubt become one of the key buzzwords of our times and its impact can be felt in nearly every aspect of the daily lives of most people. More importantly, it is the phenomenon(a) that is influencing everything from fast food to popular and local cultures to individual rights and identities. Indeed, it is difficult to find a place, or a person, in the world today who has not been in some way affected by globalization or one its many flows and forces. Trans lives are no different. Where they are different, however, is in the nuances of the rights, identities, and politics that make up the varied spectrum of what has come to be included under the largely Western imposed label of “trans”. As Stryker and Aizura (2013) have noted, “All current transgender phenomena are thus local and national phenomena that encounter transnationalizing forces. This insight invites research agendas within transgender studies that span nations, languages, peoples, and periods” (8). This volume is an answer to that call for research and will seek to explore the contemporary status of trans lives in a world that is both global and globalizing.
Introduction to Terminology
It is difficult to pick up any work on trans issues and not immediately be confronted with the need to define what exactly is meant by trans. Various authors have defined transgender in different ways. As Stryker (2017) notes, “transgender is a word that has come into widespread use only in the past couple of decades, and its meanings are still under construction” (1). In my own dissertation work, I used the term trans “to refer to all members of what the hegemonic gendered order would consider gender non-conforming” (Ryan 2013). Xavier et. al. (2007) define transgender as, “an umbrella term used to describe gender variant people, who have identities, expressions or behaviors not traditionally associated with their physical sex or their birth sex” (47). Valentine (2007) defines it as “a collective category of identity which incorporates a diverse array of male- and female-bodied gender variant people who had previously been understood as distinct kinds of persons” (ital. in orig., 4). And Stryker (2017) uses the term to refer to, “the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen starting place, rather than any particular destination or mode of transition” (1). Much like terms such as “race”, “ethnicity”, and “identity”, the term “trans” and the range of people who might, or might not, be included under such a term, can be a difficult thing to pin down.
The terminology surrounding trans identity has shifted at rates that have often made it difficult for academics, and lay people alike, to keep up with. For example, Facebook, perhaps the unofficial heartbeat of popular culture for many in the technologically accessible world2, now offers more than 50 options for gender identity. Much of this vernacular explosion has been the result of individuals attempting to find words that better define their own lived experience. At the same time, there has been a push toward a narrowing single term to encompass the experiences of all people who fall outside the hegemonic sex/gender binary. Shifting from a domination of “transgender” “transsexual” and “transvestite”, recent decades have seen the popularity of “transgender” as a larger umbrella term, and while that term has continued to shift to “trans”, “trans*”, and no doubt by the time this volume comes to publication some new term yet again, the goal has been simultaneously to find increasingly nuanced terms and at the same time to find a better suited single term to encompass the growing range of such nuances. In fact, Halberstam (2018) has made a compelling argument for using trans* (with an asterisk) arguing that it “can be a name for expansive forms of difference, haptic relations to knowing, uncertain modes of being, and the disaggregation of identity politics predicated upon the separating out of many kinds of experience that actually blend together, intersect, and mix” (5).
It is worth noting that many of the terms in use today in trans studies have a particular Western, and equally as important, English language origin. This is important. Other languages have specific terms – like “kathoey”, “travesti”, “hijra”, or “berdache” – that are often mistranslated as “trans” in English.3 This not only loses their linguistic clarity but also their conceptual significance. Although work in this volume will be using different culturally specific terminology where appropriate, it is unfortunately unavoidable that certain meanings and cultural constructs are likely to be lost in translation. This is an issue that effects not just work related to trans issues, but work related to any issue where author and audience do not share a common language. That said, this work will be particularly cognizant of mitigating this issue in an effort to bring to light “trans” issues in a global context, however “trans” might be defined or conceptualized.
It is also worth noting that many contemporary attempts to identify what is meant by “trans”, and further, who is worthy of inclusion under such an umbrella term, have relied on a wide range of factors from self-identification to biological status to legal standing. The method used to determine “transness” has often depended on who is doing the determining and for what purpose they are doing so. Medical practitioners, for example, are more prone to rely on biological status, the courts often rely only on legal standing, and survey researchers are more likely to rely on self-identification. The above discussion in place, this volume will rely on individual authors to define what it is they mean by trans. No doubt the definitions will vary for the purposes at hand but rather than impose a consistent definition through the work (something that would itself be antithetical to the idea of trans studies), “trans”, or some variation thereof, will be allowed to function as the linguistic signifier that each author feels most appropriate for their topic at hand.
What is a “Trans Life”?
This volume proposes to tackle questions surrounding trans lives in a global(izing) world – but what exactly is a “trans life”? And, as with definitions of the term itself, how do we define who is trans in the first place to have such a life? Is it about identity? Biology? Legal status? When we speak about trans lives, who exactly are we speaking about? As Halberstam (1999) has famously argued, “The breakdown of genders and sexualities into identities is in many ways, therefore, an endless project, and it is perhaps preferable therefore to acknowledge that gender is defined by its transitivity, that sexuality manifests as multiple sexualities, and that therefore we are all transsexuals. There are no transsexuals” (132). While this is an interesting point theoretically, it is also important to consider the embodied lived realities of trans individuals and the effects that increasingly interconnected global structures have on these individual lived experiences.
If trans is, as many argue, a social construct that itself emerges from other social constructs – namely sex, gender, and sexuality – then it makes a good deal of sense that as the understandings of those things shift so too will the understanding of what it means to be trans. The point – a “violation” of gender norms is not so simple a thing to define. It depends on the when, the where, the who, and the larger social context in which such “violations” are taking place. There is nothing which has been read as masculine, nor feminine, in all times, in all places, for all peoples. As Combs (2014) has noted, “definitions of gender also differ widely across geographic locations because atypical gender presentations are interpreted through the lens of cultural norms” (232). Thus, violations of such social rules must also always be considered in flux and properly situated in historical, social, and cultural context.
Some might argue that there is a clearly identified irony in talking about a “trans” experience that runs counter to the very nature of what many in trans studies are trying to accomplish, among other things the delegitimization of hegemonic monolithic constructs. There is no common experience of being trans. No easy way to identify who should, and should not, be included under such a theoretically and politically ambitious term. Instead, the experience rests on the intersectional experience of individuals (perhaps one reason why the field began with autobiographical accounts and, to this day, arguably continues to value such narratives to a greater degree than most academic fields of study). There is a diverse range of experience from being a legally imposed transsexual in Iran to a transgender student in Cairo to a self-proclaimed gender queer in New York City. And even discounting geography, the experiences of trans people in any location today is notably different than the likely experiences of trans people 30 years ago, or 100, or 300. And what of the experience of being trans for Muslims? Asians? The differently abled? Trans lives, like all lives, are contingent on the geography, culture, and historical period in which they are situated.
Based on the above arguments, we could properly conclude that trans lives are as varied as those of “everyone else” and that there is no defensible reason to ever speak of “trans lives” as a distinct category. I would agree that that is true….to some extent. The limits of that extent lie where we could make defensible reasons as to the boundaries of “trans lives”. There are, for example, no doubt certain factors that do unite the experiences of the vast majority of trans individuals in unique and distinctive ways – a general feeling that one’s material body and socially assigned gender role do not “align”, challenges of legal and social oppression, and often questions of incongruence between one’s personal and legal identities. Trans lives also challenge all of us to re-examine many of the issues that are often seen as foundational to our contemporary social order – the socially imposed obligations and personal rights and freedoms of individuals over their own bodies, battles for gender and sexual equality, and the possibilities offered by medical and technological advances to name just a few.
As with definitions of trans itself, I will not impose any monolithic constant definition for what qualifies as a “trans life” for use throughout this volume. On the contrary, each author will explore and define trans lives from a different perspective and in doing so will help to further define what is meant by a “trans life” and the ways in which they are “just like everybody else” and the ways in which they are distinct. The placement of such analysis within the context of a global(izing) world will also help to highlight the commonalities and nuances of what it means to be trans in the contemporary global age.
The Growing Attention to Trans Lives
While the definition of trans, and what exactly is a trans life, are questions that can are open to debate, the fact that trans lives have been receiving increasing attention around the world in recent years most certainly is not.4 The growing fascination with trans lives can be found in everything from popular culture to politics to the academy. And this attention seems to only be growing. In fact, it is difficult to pick up the newspaper, turn on the television, listen to a political debate, or check the movie listings, in many parts of the world these days without some mention of trans lives.
Perhaps the area with the most visible growth in attention to trans lives is the world of popular culture. Although Christine Jorgensen was what Joanne Meyerowitz (2015) has referred to as “America’s first transgender celebrity”, and arguably perhaps the first global trans celebrity, many have since followed in her footsteps including, most recently, most notably, and most controversially, Caitlyn Jenner. But transness in popular culture has extended far beyond individual trans celebrities themselves. Contemporary global superstars like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have made gender play a routine part of their performances. Television shows like Family Guy have added trans characters to their routine lineup and Emmy award winning Transparent has become what is arguably the first mainstream successful show focused primarily around trans lives and issues. And Hollywood, never to be left behind, has helped to bring trans lives into the popular imagination through Oscar winning movies like Dallas Buyers Club and The Danish Girl while superstar directors the Wachowski sisters have proven their talent no matter their gender identification. And although Western popular culture tends to dominate the global scene, trans presence in popular culture also has standing in other parts of the world with figures like Turkish superstar Bulent Ersoy, Angola’s multi-talented Titica, or Thailand’s famous kickboxer Parinya Charoenphol.
The political world has also seen a rapid increase in trans issues with everything from increasingly heated debates about bathroom bills, to global discussions about Trump rescinding a range of protections for trans people in the United States, to the rise of trans politicians (such as Anna Grodzka in Poland or Carla Antonelli in Spain) to the spread of increasingly humane gender identity laws (those of Malta and Argentina provide especially good examples – see Ryan 2018). And this political discourse is not just happening in the so-called Western world. Instead, one can find trans political issues at the foreground of politics in places as diverse as Argentina, Nepal, Australia, Lebanon, and Kenya. As just one example, gender identity laws, loosely defined, now exist in over two dozen countries and on every continent and debates about their enactment, and reform, are ongoing in dozens of others.
Trans lives are increasingly becoming not just the objects of media fascination and political debate, but also of critical academic inquiry. There has been a rapid growth of new journals (Transgender Studies Quarterly), special issues (Measuring LGBT populations in The Journal of Official Statistics), specialized conferences (Gender Spectrum), compendiums (The Transgender Studies Reader 2), and even entire academic departments (as at Arizona State University) focused on trans issues. There is also a growing budget directed at academic inquiries into trans (like “Pregnant Men: An international exploration of trans male practices of reproduction” led by Dr. Sally Hines and funded by the UK Economic and Research Council). This explosion will no doubt continue for some time as the prominence of trans lives continues to strengthen its foothold in the social, political, and academic worlds.
One of the more notable aspects of the growing attention to trans lives is the extent to which trans people themselves have been in the lead of growing awareness. Celebrities like Laverne Cox, Harisu, and Jin Xing have won over the hearts of people around the world. Conchita Wurst became a household name throughout much of Europe after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014. Political figures like Mara Perez Reynoso in Argentina have continued to showcase ...
