Atkins, Dawn, editor. "One, Both, Neither."Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Communities. New York: Haworth Press, 1998.
| This section contains 10 short pieces around both lesbian and trans identities. Although none are especially new in concept, the valuable personal narrative reveals some changing senses about identity. | ||
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Bell, Jess. "FTM." Sojourner: The Women's Forum. February, 1996. p. 6.
Rubin, Henry S. "Do You Believe in Gender?" Sojourner: The Women's Forum. February, 1996. p. 7.
| I selected these two articles because they illustrate from the trans perspective the rift between lesbian and trans identities at this time. I discarded a number of articles by lesbians which had accusatory tones. Some lesbians feel that the woman/lesbian-only spaces they have labored for 30 years to construct are jeopardized by transgender and transsexual interlopers (as well as bisexuals and gender fucks). These two articles describe this antipathy’s affects on trans-people. At the moment, the anger and fear seem to be a two-way street. | ||
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Blackwood, Evelin, and Wieringa, Saskia E., editors. "Doing Masculinity: Butches, Female Bodies, and Transgendered Identities." Female Desires. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. pp. 179 - 252.
| This section of Female Desires gives a cross-cultural background, exploring butch and femme lesbian identities in Indonesia, Peru, and Tahiti. | ||
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Blessing, Jennifer. A Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography. New York: Guggemheim Museum Publications, 1997.
| I hope you can get a hold of this gorgeous museum catalog. Although not specific to female masculinity, this is an incredible collection of photos descriptive of gender performativity. It also includes an essay by Judith Halberstam about restroom fiascos. The contributors are top-notch, and the photographers represented include the likes of Claude Cahun and Man Ray, along with more contemporary folks such as Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie, and Del Grace | ||
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Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. New York: Routledge, 1994.
| Bornstein's book breaks with traditional transsexual narratives in that it does not parrot the ideology that sex reassignment surgery "cures" gender identity disorder. Like Feinberg, Bornstein denounces a bipolar gender system. | ||
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Boyd, Nan Alamilla. "The Materiality of Gender: Looking for Lesbian Bodies in Transgender History." Lesbian Sex Scandals: Sexual Practices, Identities, and Politics. Dawn Atkins, Editor. New York: The Haworth Press, 1999.
| An exploration of some lesbian claims, and the meaning thereof, to Babe Bean and other passing transmen. This seems to put the same challenge to lesbians as queers do to straights: you can't claim them all as de facto butches, some of them were likely transmen. Does the lesbian claim of famous passing men efface TG history? (Or can they be reconciled, is my own question?) | ||
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Burana, Lily, et al., eds. Dagger: On Butch Women. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1994.
| With photos, interviews, cartoons, essays, filmographies, and informal surveys, this is a rich source of information on butchness. Never intimidating, there's plenty of history and plenty of pop cultural resources. A variety of butch presentations and experiences are described in the photos and essays. There's also a section on FTM. | ||
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Butler, Judith. "Against Proper Objects."Feminism Meets Queer Theory. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997.
| This is a revised version of the essay, which appeared in another reader a year or so before. What is the "proper" object of study for feminists, for queer theorists, for trans theorists? | ||
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Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
| Write this annotation! | ||
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Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge, 1993.
| Annotation forthcoming. | ||
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Califia, Pat. Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1997.
| Califia is prominent in the SF scene and elsewhere, always coming up with new surprises. Sex Changes gives a history and an overview of the current issues in TG, including feminist resistance. Although Califia offers a needed critique of the use of the Native American "berdache" in queer theory, she commits the same transgression by claiming the figure for TG. Nevertheless, Sex Changes serves well as a primer on TG history while pushing more ambitious boundaries. | ||
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Cameron, Loren. Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. Pittsburg, PA: Cleis Press, 1996.
| It's almost a redundancy to add Cameron's masterful book of portraits to this list. His gorgeous prints and engaging interviews with other TG men provide dimentionality that isn't always seen in literature about FTMs. You can get a preview of the work via his website, which is listed in the links portion of this bibliography. But you will still want to see the book for the full effect. | ||
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Chin, Sarah E. "Gender Performativity."
Lesbian
and Gay Studies: A Critical Introduction. Andy Medhurst and
Sally R. Munt, Editors. London: Cassell,
1997.
| This gives an introduction to the concept of "Gender Performativity" and Butler's work. It also discusses Althusser, J. L. Austin, Derrida, and Foucault and their ideological foundation for Butler's writing. | ||
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Devor, Holly. FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997.
| This heavy tome gives an academic overview of FTM transgenderism within our culture. I haven't read it yet, but look forward to seeing the discussion it generates. The blurb on the back indicates that Devor takes a view that, to some degree, TG may be societally generated. Don't take it as such on my assessment; read it yourself and let me know what you think. This book is high on my list of books to read when I come up for air; look for a better annotation this fall. | ||
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Feinberg, Leslie. Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. Boston: Beacon, 1998.
| This short tome combines Feinberg's narratives of living in a constantly shifting space with short narratives of trans-folk. Feinberg evolves hir use of pronounces from "s/he" and "hir" to "sie" and "hir" in this work, which continues what was started in Transgender Warriors. | ||
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Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Boston: Beacon, 1996.
| This is a great, broad book, bringing Feinberg's practical Marxist perspective to the history of gender and transgender people. What are the roots of trans oppression? Feinberg tackles that while reviewing a history that shows that transfolk are nothing new. | ||
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Halberstam, Judith. Female Masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998.
| Halberstam makes a powerful foray into the wilderness between butch and FTM. Halberstam quotes herself in the preface, saying "'I am writing about women who feel themselves to be more masculine than feminine, and I am trying to explain why, as a culture, we seem to take so little interest in female masculinity and yet pay a considerable amount of attention to male femininity.'" People tend to nod and say, 'Yes, of course, female masculinity,' as if this is a concept they have grown up with and use every day. In actual fact, there is remarkably little written about masculinity in women, and this culture generally evinces considerable anxiety about even the prospect of a manly women. I hope that this book opens discussion on masculinity for women in such a way that masculine girls and women do not have to wear their masculinity as a stigma but can infuse it with a sense of pride and indeed power." As Esther Newton says on the back cover "Nothing like it exists, period." | ||
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Halberstam, Judith and Del LaGrace Volcano.The Drag King Book. London: Serpent's Tail, 1999.
| With photos by Del LaGrace and commentary by Judith Halberstam, The Drag King Book is a romp through the New York, London, and San Francisco drag king scenes. Easy on the eyes, the photographs provide inroads to Halberstam's text, which is more conversational and less academic than in Female Masculinity. Fun, sexy, and recommended. | ||
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Munt, Sally R, editor. Butch/Femme: Inside Lesbian Gender. London: Cassell, 1998.
| This is a gorgeous book. There is a wide range of intelligent essays and narratives, some humorous and some serious. There's also photos, which is a pleasant change from all this text. One narrative, Losing Sue chronicles a lesbian's reaction to her partner's transition. | ||
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Munt, Sally R. "The Butch Body." Heroic
Desire: Lesbian Identity and Cultural Space. London: Cassell, 1998.
pp. 54 - 94.
| Mixing personal narrative with scholarly analysis, Munt makes use of the lesbian cannon, including Well of Loneliness and Stone Butch Blues, as well as favored theorists, including Butler, Lacan, and Foucault. | ||
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Pratt, Minnie Bruce. S/HE. Ithaca: Firebrand Books, 1995.
| Pratt is a great elder of the lesbian community. S/HE is a volume of poetry and poetic prose, describing life as a femme, a lesbian, a mother, a race/class/sex/gender and transgender activist, and as partner to Leslie Feinberg. It also describes Feinberg and hir struggles as a transman. | ||
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Prosser, Jay. Second Skins. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
| This is a great academic exploration of some of the most recent work in queer theory, dissecting authors such as Leslie Feinberg and Judith Butler. It also explores current trans activism and the rift between lesbian and trans ideologies. | ||
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Prosser, Jay. "Transgender." Lesbian
and Gay Studies: A Critical Introduction. Andy Medhurst and Sally R. Munt, Editors. London: Cassell, 1997.
| This is an overview of key transgender topics and ideas, with an articulation of transgender studies as distinct from queer studies. | ||
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Rothblatt, Martine. The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender. New York: Crown, 1995.
| Eminently readable, Rothblatt explores the biology and ideologies of sex, sexual orientation, and gender, and ultimately explores a concept of gender that not only removes it from the bipolar schema, but disconnects it from linearity altogether by proposing a color-wheel system. | ||
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Scholinski, Daphne. The Last Time I Wore a Dress. New York:Riverhead Books, 1997.
| It was difficult to put down Scholinski's narrative of her time in a psychiatric facility to be treated for gender inappropriateness. It's hard for reasonable people to believe that psychiatric nightmares like this still happen for queers and gender non-conformists, but it's something that happens all the time. Scholinsky's chronicle of her treatment, both official and unofficial, is haunting. This is a book that I think will resonate beyond the audience of butches and TG men. | ||
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Stoltenberg, John. "How Men Have (a) Sex."
Refusing
to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice. Portland:
Breitenbush Books, 1989. pp. 25 - 39.
| A radical feminist, Stoltenberg speaks to men and the sexual practices which construct a masculine, homophobic, misogynist, and ultimately, pleasure inhibiting, identity. Stoltenberg's ideas are unparalled in their radicalism. | ||
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Sullivan, Lou. Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual. Seattle: Ingersoll Gender Center, 1990.
| This slim volume is packed with solid information on dressing and passing. Its outlook is welcoming both to FTMs and crossdressing men and butches. Highly recommended. | ||
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Wittig, Monique. "One is Not Born a Woman."
Lesbian
and Gay Studies Reader. New York, Routledge, 1993.
pp 103 - 109.
| Wittig's essay provides an important foundation to an exploration of the sex/gender schema as it applies to lesbians. Wittig maintains that lesbians are not women, because "a woman is a specific social relation to a man" and that the refusal to become heterosexual is a refusal to be a woman, consciously or not. | ||
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