Abstract
In “Gender Dissidence,” the author explores the features and constitutions of various non-conventional expressions of gender: the ‘feminine’ male, the ‘masculine’ female, as well as the transgender subject, reiterating his commitment to support for gender non-conformity. This exploration is undertaken in reference to cultural objects, both ‘popular’ and ‘avant-garde’ examples, as much as to scholarship.
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Notes
- 1.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFmc2ujYmPs (accessed 17 June 2017).
- 2.
See https://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/shows/orange-is-the-new-black/episodes/lesbian-request-denied/ (accessed 15 December 2017).
- 3.
Judith Halberstam also goes by the first name Jack, but I refer to her as Judith, the name on the 1998 text that I consider here. Halberstam’s position on the matter, which seems to have evolved over time, is flexible: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Halberstam#Early_life,_education_and_gender_identity (accessed 31 March 2019).
- 4.
The ‘invert,’ according to early sexologists such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis , was considered a woman trapped in a man’s body or vice versa (75–110).
- 5.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKDEil7m1j8 (accessed 31 March 2019).
- 6.
See https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/06/22/who-are-the-most-famous-lesbian-and-bisexual-celebrities/ (accessed 4 October 2018).
- 7.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Stewart#2013%E2%80%93present (accessed 4 October 2018).
- 8.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Tomlin (accessed 4 October 2018).
- 9.
See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/arts/television/ellen-degeneres.html (accessed 4 October 2018).
- 10.
For a sense of how DeGeneres the woman differs from this figure, see preceding note.
- 11.
See http://www.leadelaria.com (accessed 12 October 2018).
- 12.
See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100332/ and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293685/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 (accessed 31 March 2019).
- 13.
See, for example, https://quillette.com/2018/10/18/trans-activists-campaign-against-terfs-has-become-an-attack-on-science/ (accessed 9 January 2019).
- 14.
See https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/17/the-guardian-view-on-the-gender-recognition-act-where-rights-collide (accessed 9 January 2018).
- 15.
See https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0214157 (accessed 29 March 2019).
- 16.
She and some others I cite on this topic write from a UK perspective, but, from what I have read, similar conditions prevail in North America and various European countries as well.
- 17.
Consider, for example, the Wodaabe men of Niger: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12215138 (accessed 23 March 2019).
- 18.
There is much debate about when to commence this process, and very young children are engaging in social transition, a practice which the SOC writers note is controversial and not well studied. (17)
- 19.
By the way, it is most gratifying to watch Stella’s video “One Year off Testosterone” from 2017, in which she details all the positive psychic and physical changes she has experienced since she terminated hormone treatment. Clearly, for her transition was not the answer.
- 20.
The reader may wish to explore the phenomenon of the Hijra in India, as well as that of two-spirit people in various North American indigenous societies. For a list of research sources, please see WPATH, Standards of Care , 6.
- 21.
See, for example, an account of how trans actor Laverne Cox’s twin brother, who is not a professional actor, was hired to play her character before transition on Orange Is the New Black: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/orange-is-the-new-black-laverne-cox_n_3660712 (accessed 3 December 2018).
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Alexandrowicz, C. (2020). Gender Dissidence. In: Acting Queer. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29318-5_4
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