GENDYS 2K Conference. 2000

Speakers and their topics

Although there is an ever-increasing flow of information about Gender Dysphoria, it is unclear what happens in the sexual relationships of post operative subjects. I am concerned to develop a deeper understanding of the sexual issues which face those who make the change.

Our conventional discourses and practices of sex and gender do not allow for the possibility of transgenderism as a legitimate and valued experience of the self. Families with a transgendered child may feel they are managing an experience that can barely be spoken about. In this paper I describe the personal accounts of a group of parents with transgendered adolescents, and how they try to build an intelligible story about the young person's gender identity and how this story shapes their coping strategies.

Sex reassignment surgery has been available to gender dysphoric individuals for several decades now. A wide variety of follow up studies have been conducted and generally the result of these studies have been positive. However, problems in the interpretation of post-operative follow-up studies exist. Several reasons for believing such studies are compromised have been proposed by long standing researchers in the field. 

Traditionally transsexualism has been theorised as part of the broader task of formulating notions of sex, gender and sexuality. Within this framework transsexual subjectivity - the accounts of those who actually experience cross-gender identifications - are often overlooked. We are witnessing the beginnings of a new discipline, transgender studies, where theorists have sought to rectify this omission by focusing on the experience of being either transsexual or transgendered.

Dr McCloud, a psychiatrist, talks about the problems of practising in a profession that deeply stigmatises transgender issues, and how she has sought to overcome such stigmatisation. She found historical precedents, in the medical professions' attitudes towards women and ethnic minorities. She discusses whether such ideas are meaningful to the transgender community in pursuit of their rights and empowerment.

Transbeautiful is something that we are ready for - more than that, it is something we most desperately need. If we refuse to see ourselves as being able to have pride in our own physical selves, how can be expect others to respect us holistically? Transfat, transugly, transdecrepit, trans-selfdefeating are all myths we create for ourselves and are allowing others to foist upon us. Health, wealth and happiness will come much more easily to those transpeople who work on themselves, physically, mentally and spiritually to create and embrace an image of being Trans body fantastic.

Although we are assured by the ancient Greeks in the third century BC that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," most of us would agree that some women appear beautiful to most of us. And if we perceive ourselves as more attractive, then we gain in confidence, and then we pass more successfully. I personally believe confidence is a major factor in 'passing'.

Copyright GENDYS Network. 06.11.01 Last amended 07.01.04, 08.03.05, 04.07.06, 11.02,11