So today is National Coming Out Day. I was going to write something about trans people and “stealth”, but with BristolCon less than 2 weeks away I’m rather busy so I’ll leave that for TDOR next month. In the meantime, here’s a bit of history.
My recent post about the Jess Nevins article on io9 revolved around the fact that ideas abut trans people have changed significantly since 1906. Indeed, the Western world had no such concept then (though many other cultures did). However, it turns out that there is a concept that fits the book that Jess reviewed quite well.
This morning I listened to an interesting podcast of a talk that Juliet Jacques gave to the Westminster Skeptics. It is called “Thinking critically about transgender issues”, which I think only works if you don’t know much about such things. Then again, that probably fits most of Juliet’s audience, and it will have done them some good. What the talk does provide, however, is a fascinating review of Western attitudes towards trans people from the 19th Century onwards.
The key piece of history, as far as Jess and the book The Anglo-American Alliance is concerned is the concept of “sexual inversion”. This was popularized by Henry Havelock Ellis, an early sexologist, via his book, Sexual Inversion, and later through Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, which uses similar terminology.
Havelock Ellis’s ideas conflate what we now consider to be separate phenomena: sexual preference, and gender identity. The character of Margaret in Gregory Casparian’s novel closely follows the character of the “invert” that Havelock Ellis describes.
Of course the interesting question here, and one which Juliet touches on, is whether our (still developing) ideas of trans people are just as much a product of our culture as the invert was of early 20th century society. However, even if they are, going round telling people that they are “doing trans wrong” is not terribly helpful.
On a related note, BBC1 is screening a documentary this evening called “Me, My Sex and I”. It is a look at what are unhelpfully called “Disorders of Sexual Development” and might more usefully be understood as natural variation in the development of sex organs. The blurb for the program estimates that almost 1 in 50 people are born with some sort of intersex condition.
(Oh, and the programme is not available in Wales or Scotland. *sigh* But it will be on the iPlayer.)
I thought this might interest you:
http://lobolance.livejournal.com/341154.html
Miss you and hope to see you soon.
Oh yes. That’s some really great work by my pals Masen and Kristina at the Transgender Law Center.
Wish I could have been in Wellington for the Wales-Ireland game. Will be glued to the TV this weekend too.