Trans/forming Feminisms

This anthology is a good introduction to the emerging convergences between transgender studies and feminisms. Providing an overview of the turf wars in this history. Scott-Dixon locates the potential for transgressive movement in embracing multiplicity in contrast to the rigid definitions surrounding trans people frequently enforced by medical and psychotherapeutic models.

Interestingly, Scott-Dixon does not incorporate a lot of queer theory into her introduction. This may have been a conscious choice, as the intersections between transgender studies and feminisms are explicitly at the centre of inquiry in the collection. Framing the collection in this manner is interesting; it presents questions from a slightly different angle than the dominant theoretical approaches offer. However, as this text may best serve as an entry point into these rich debates for some readers, the omission of queer theories seems problematic when so much care has been taken by Scott-Dixon to explain trans histories and terminologies. Though Scott-Dixon motions primarily in the direction of generating more theory, many of her contributors seek to expand how feminist and trans theories (co)exist in the actual lived experience of trans people.

The consensus seems to be that the relationships forged between feminist and trans voices are incredibly complicated. Though this conclusion is not surprising, the depth of some of these ambitious essays, probably largel constrained by length, makes this conclusion unsatisfying. Despite the fact that some contributors tried to tackle more than they could successfully deliver, I found the shorter length of the majority of the papers (approximately 5 pages) advantageous. This makes the essays accessible and allows for the inclusion of more perspectives than would have been possible with fewer, longer pieces. This anthology adds to the growing theories about trans people by trans people, itself demonstrating some of the movements outlined in the introduction. Though this volume includes contributors from the United States and Europe, it also brings into focus the rich contributions Canadian trans theorists are adding to these discussions.

Krista Scott-Dixon's collection, blending gender theory and a remarkable range of personal narratives, provides a powerful, complex and deeply moving introduction to a relatively neglected and misunderstood area of feminist study: the experiences, gendered multiplicity, personal and social struggles, and the touching humanity of people identified better term of gender, reviews research into the 'constructedness' of our gendered identities and demonstrates dramatically some of the diverse ways in which gender is made manifest. This book, carefully produced and edited, ought to be snatched up by women's and gender studies instructors terrific addition to introductory classes, but it should also resonate with all of those who are willing to entertain the idea that the human world is not divided tidily into female and male.

Like many scholars who see critical theory as a central part of their professional mission, the editor invokes bell hooks' understanding of theory as a 'location for healing.' To theorize trans identity and experience is to take steps towards challenging oppression, towards understanding and complicating a central part of our identities. She rejects a facile embrace of trans identity among non-trans sympathizers ('it's hip to be trans; maybe I'm trans, too'), and the narratives are as painful as they are celebratory.

The legal and ethical issues the book raises such as events and organizations with "womyn-born womyn only" policies or "no penis" policies similarly resist easy answers or sloganeering, but reveal the complex and uncertain alliance between self-described feminists and trans people. Just how inclusive have feminist organizations been? Can exclusivity be a legitimate strategy?

The terms used to categorize different identities, different understandings of sexual selves, are messy, overlapping, ambiguous—an indication that the theory is new, and that exploration of trans experience is still in its formative stages. While metaphors such as gender-bending or a gendered continuum have been useful constructs, names for the wide variety of gendered expression can be baffling: genderqueers, birls, FTMs and MTFs—the categorical language seems inadequate. And yet labels, however damaging they can be in one sense, afford a kind of group identity and can have explanatory and healing power. Dixon’s book might be the most accessible and potentially influential treatment this subject has yet received.