Tell us about your recent research project.
My BA/Leverhulme project “Second wave trans feminisms in print” explored the engagements with feminism and the US women’s liberation movement taking place in trans community print culture from the 1970s. It explored the rich, yet largely overlooked, archive of independently produced newsletters and journals written by and for cross-dressers, transvestites and transsexuals in North America and Canada and considered the articulations of sex and gender contained therein.
I was interested in exploring two dimensions of trans feminism in particular: the first was the extent to which the discourses and promises of the women’s movement played a part in trans community politics. I found that it was often more liberal, middle-class and respectability-oriented trans organisations that aligned themselves most closely with the mainstream women’s liberation movement - a process I have termed “femonormativity”.
The second part of my enquiry was into the seemingly vernacular theorisations of sex and gender that were taking place in print. I found that many of these user-generated publications contained highly researched and carefully considered perspectives on sex and gender that constitute a distinct, and highly heterogenous, intellectual tradition of trans community theorising.
Why did you choose this area of study?
Second wave feminism and trans feminism are typically understood as separate movements. Histories of second wave feminism transmisogyny have been well documented, and today we see trans exclusionary feminists defining themselves as second wave feminists in order to gain credibility for their positions. I wanted to see if these historical givens were actually the case: was second wave feminism uniquely transphobic? And what, if any, engagements with feminist discourses were taking place within trans communities?
Whilst the stories of a few trans individuals in lesbian feminist organising have become fairly well known (e.g. Beth Elliot, Sandy Stone), the idea that there might be a distinct intellectual tradition of trans feminism in the 1970s remains an anathema to the dominant historical record. Yet if we presume that trans feminism was a 1990s invention, then decades of important contributions go unrecognised and trans exclusionary feminists gain control of the historical narrative.
Whilst it made sense to me that trans femme and trans masc individuals and communities, would be articulating sex/gender embodiments and politics in intellectually significant ways, and perhaps engaging with the concurrent liberation movements, I hadn’t anticipated the extent and variety of trans feminist theorising and organising that was taking place in the 1970s. There are varieties of what could be classified as liberal trans feminisms, lesbian trans femme-inisms, clinical transnormative movements and anti-carceral trans femme led politics in the archive - to name just a few.
What do you hope will be the impact of your research?
As I'm responding to you this the week the NHS England confirmed that it would no longer be prescribing puberty blockers at gender identity clinics. That feminists have provided the mouthpiece for one of the most vitriolic and retrograde political crusades isn’t new - it has its roots in imperial feminisms from the early 20th century and in feminism’s long standing love affair with carcerality.
The mobilisation of feminism as a justification for transphobia presently is nonetheless terrifying. I hope that by demonstrating long standing solidarities, alliances and overlaps between lesbian-trans-feminist communities, the authority of trans-exclusionary feminists can be challenged. I also aim to intervene at the epistemic level; exposing the fallaciousness of what Emma Heaney has productively called ideologies of cisness.
What's next for you and your research?
I’ve been working with my exceptionally talented friend and colleague Chris Pihlak, at the University of Toronto, on a series of articles which deep dive into historical and intellectual significance of 1970s trans community print culture, and the lifeworlds that were built in and around these publications.
I am working on my next book: Before trans feminism, the sex/gender politics of Virginia Prince. Combining archival research, oral history, biography, feminist philosophy – and an ever so slight amount of speculation – this book explores the highly ambivalent, complicated yet immensely significant intellectual, political and scientific contributions of ‘transgender pioneer’ Virginia Prince.
Why is Gender Stuides an important discipline to study and research?
This is going to sound trite, but I found myself saying it to a student who was enquiring about doing an MA in Gender Studies, and I think I stand by it: It makes you a nicer person. People often go into gender studies looking to understand themselves better, but in realising the violences that have been part of one’s own subject formation, it can give you a deep appreciation of and commitment to non-violent orientations at the most fundamental level.
Find out more about Emily's research.