Books - Transgender Warriors Review

From a personal standpoint, I enjoyed Transgender Warriors very much. Transgender history is dreadfully neglected and uncovering it is an important tool of empowerment and change. It is culturally and personally harmful to transpeople to assume that we are only a product of a modern age of advanced medicine or liberal values. Transpeople have been around in myriad forms in many cultures since prehistory, and Feinberg gives some outstanding and fascinating examples of trans folks through time and across the world.

Academically, however, this book leaves a lot to be desired. The research that does exist is at times highly anecdotal, and the assumptions drawn from that research are sketchy at best. Archaeologists have a long history of making assumptions based on evidence that does not support assumptions one way or the other. Traditionally these unscientific errors tended toward presentism, or the imposition of modern lifeways on those of the past. For example, when an atlatl is found in the prehistoric grave with a male skeleton, it's a personal posession, but when an atlatl is found in the grave with a female skeleton, it's a ceremonial grave good. This book does the same thing in the opposite direction. Feinberg uses scanty archaeological and historical evidence to support their personal views of socialism and feminism to the detriment of their quality of scholarship. He links the oppression of transpeople to the development of hierarchical class structures and capitalism, but speaks as if this was a solid cultural development that occurred worldwide perhaps with the exclusion of Native American cultures.

It's frustrating that emotionally, this kind of wishful historicism is so very powerful. Scientifically, however, it bogs down this work and makes it inappropriate for the college classroom or as an academic reference.

Transgender 101

POP QUIZ!

What do you do when you meet someone whose gender your are unsure of?

A. Stammer and avoid eye contact at all costs.
B. Switch between masculine and feminine pronouns and watch for clues as to which is correct.
C. Say "Hey, I realize I don't know. What pronouns do you prefer?"
D. Run and hide.

Your grade depends on this. Did you guess C? Yes? Whew. I'm glad you've been paying attention. Questions are your friend when it comes to gender - as long as you keep it polite and respectful. Ask yourself, would you be uncomfortable if someone asked you this? If so, it's probably not a good idea to ask someone else, be they trans, cis, or otherwise. Inquiring about pronouns is not the same as inquiring about genital surgery - use common sense.

Additionally, it's always polite to respect people's chosen pronouns, be they masculine, feminine, or gender neutral, regardless of what you think you perceive their gender to be.

Books - Sexing The Body Review

Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling is one of the books that has had a profound impact on my academic worldview. Fausto-Sterling is a feminist, activist, and scholar, and her background in molecular and cell biology gives her tremendous insight and authority, which she applies to the nature of human sexuality and gender with great effect. Her research is just as thorough as one would expect from a peer-reviewed scientific journal article, and when combined with her cutting and direct writing style, makes for a truly stunning work of scholarship. This book, more than any work of postmodern philosophy, is a start in the direction that gender studies must go in the interest of paradigm evolution outside the academic community.

Topics tackled include the history of the medical industry's creation of sex differences, the sexing of the corpus callosum, the medical erasure of intersexuality, and the history of the so-called "sex hormones". For anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of the history of a medically based sexual and psychological human dimorphism, this book is essential.


In light of the American Anthropologist Association's recent ousting of science in the interest of "multivocal perspectives", it is particularly important to bring to attention the work of scholars such as Fausto-Sterling, who use science to achieve what the AAA rightly desires, but is taking the wrong path to achieve: anthropological activism. Science not only has a place at the table of anthropological activism, with Fausto-Sterling and others working towards equality and human rights, it can and should take the lead.