Transgender is a term whose exact meaning is still in dispute, and I consider that a very healthy sign. The most widely accepted definition is that transgender includes everything not covered by our culture's narrow terms "man" and "woman". A partial list of persons who might include themselves in such a definition includes transsexuals (pre, post, and no-op); transvestites; crossdressers; persons with ambiguous genitalia; persons who have chosen to perform ambiguous social genders; and persons who have chosen to perform no gender at all.

The idea that gender is something that is performed may initially seem strange. It is a fairly old idea in studies of gender and sexuality, perhaps best stated in Judith Butler's (rather theoretical) GENDER TROUBLE (Routledge 1991), and in Kate Bornstein's (terrifically readable) GENDER OUTLAW (Routledge 1995).

My work in transgender studies is based on the assumption that gender is a performance that we all learn to do from birth, and that by the time we are old enough to notice that we are performing, we have gotten the act down so well that its wholly artificial nature is invisible even to us. (Judith Butler has written along similar lines; her work is not undertaken from a specifically transgendered viewpoint.) However, be cautioned that the situation is somewhat more complex than this brief page permits.

There are four main threads in studies of gender and sexuality. These are categorized as follows:

* ESSENTIALIST *
Also sometimes called naturalist. Essentialists believe that sex and gender are the same thing, or at any rate inseparable. Both arise from "nature" or are "God-given". Chromosomal characteristics, visible sex markers (penis, vagina), and gender cannot be separated. Essentialists usually believe that there are only two genders; these are present at birth; remain unchanged for life; and there is no territory between. Behaviors or appearances that do not fit these assumptions are viewed as "perversions".

* SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST *
Social constructivists believe that both sex and gender arise in social interaction and have no existence independent of social interaction; i.e., they are not grounded in "nature", the meaning of which is itself socially determined. The "constructedness" of sex and gender is made invisible by the normal workings of social life, so that they appear natural rather than artificial. Recent constructivist theory also points out that the idea of two absolute chromosomal sexes is also a social construction. Recall the film Alien 3, in which the inhabitants of the prison colony are all double-Y chromosomal; thus although they possess many of the secondary sexual characteristics of males, genetically they are not male, nor are they any other category for which we currently have a socially understood name.

* PERFORMANCE *
Gender performance theorists believe that gender is performed like any theatre work, is independent of sex, and is best understood through performance studies. Performance has been seized on most productively by political activists to make visible the structure of the performance (body position, gesture, facial expression, proxemics, voice modulation, speech pattern, social space, markers of clothing, adornment and cosmetics) and to point up its artificial quality in direct ways.

* MEMORY AND LANGUAGE GENERATION *
In this thread the body is a central node and apparatus for meaning production in a complex system of symbols and their exchange that we commonly call language. However, rather than simply being a passage point for always-already socially understood symbols, the body is a source of new symbols which are taken up by social networks and incorporated into a larger cultural language which includes words and gestures but is not limited to them. The body is also linked to deeper knowledges which cannot be expressed through text or sound and that originate before the growing child learns to verbalize or to gesture.

Click on the following links to find more information on what Transgender is:

Introduction to Gender, Transgender, and Transphobia

Sexual Identity and Gender Identity Glossary

Gender Education & Advocacy

Transsexual, Transgender and Intersex History

Transgendered: A Comparative Study

Boys Will Be Boys... Or Not

PFLAG