#SayHerName: This philosopher’s reflections

Reflections
Written By Elaina Gauthier-Mamaril

Breonna Taylor

Toyin Salau

Sandra Bland Riah

Milton Rem’mie Fells

Atatianna Jefferson

Aiyana Jones

Korryn Gaines

Nina Pop

Na’kia Crawford

Tamla Horsford

Michelle Cusseaux

Mitrice Richardson

Natasha McKenna

Mya Hall

India Kager

Brayla Stone

Selena Reyes-Hernandez

Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells

Riah Milton

(By no means an exhaustive list)

#SayHerName was created and launched by Kimberlé Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum to bring attention to the black women murdered by police. Police violence is too often assumed to only be a problem for black cis men, but it affects an alarming number of black women, especially black trans women.

If they are not being completely ignored, slain trans women are repeatedly misgendered in the press and referred to by their dead names, erasing them all over again from our collective consciousness. Today, as Pride Month draws to an end, I am reflecting on what I will do about this moving forward.

In addition to being politically vocal and donating to trans-led organisations, I needed to find a way to not erase trans people from my main activity: philosophising.

I have not (knowingly) studied any trans philosopher or trans philosophy during my 1o+ years in formal higher education. Gender identification diversity is not the only blind spot for academic philosophy. I can count on one hand the number of philosophers of colour that were mentioned in class, and even fewer that were the main feature of a course. As an early career educator, I believe it is my responsibility to start closing this gap in my own knowledge so I don’t perpetuate systemic issues.

I am going to start by going through this Trans Philosophy Bibliography:

  • Ahmed, Sara. “An Affinity of Hammers.” TSQ 3, no. 1-2 (2016): 22-34.

  • Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.

  • Bailey, Cathryn. “Embracing the Icon: The Feminist Potential of the Trans Bodhisattva, Kuan Yin.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 178-196.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Appearance, Reality and Gender Deception: Reflection on Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Pretence.” In Violence, Victims, Justifications: Philosophical Approaches, edited by Felix Ó Murchadha, 174-200.  New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2006.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: On Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion.” Hypatia 22, no. 3 (2007): 43-65.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Full-Frontal Morality: The Naked Truth about Gender.” Hypatia 27, no. 2 (2012): 319-337.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Trans Women and the Meaning of ‘Woman’.” In The Philosophy of Sex, edited by Raja Halwani, Alan Soble Nicholas Power, 233-250. New York, NY: Littlefield Publishers, 2013.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 39, no. 2 (2014): 383-406.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “When Selves Have Sex: What The Phenomenology of Trans Sexuality Can Teach About Sexual Orientation.” Journal of Homosexuality 61, no. 5 (2014): 605-620.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Other ’Worldly’ Philosophy.” Philosopher. 2015.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Intersexuality, Transgender, and Transsexuality.” In Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory, edited by Lisa Disch and Mary Hawkesworth, 407-427. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Getting ‘Naked’ in The Colonial/Modern Gender System: A Preliminary Trans Feminist Analysis of Pornography.” In Beyond Speech: Pornography and Analytic Feminist Philosophy, edited by Mari Mikkola,157-176. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.

  • Bettcher, Talia Mae. “What is Trans Philosophy?” Hypatia (2019). Online September 12, 2019.

  • Bey, Marquis. “The Trans*-ness of Blackness, The Blackness of Trans*-ness.” TSQ 4, no. 2 (2017): 275-295.

  • Butler, Judith. “Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transexuality.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 7, no. 4 (2001): 621-636.

  • Cannon, Loren. “Firestonian Futures and Trans-Affirming Presents.” Hypatia 31.2 (2016): 229-244.

  • Cannon, Loren. “Trans-marriage and the Unacceptability of Same-sex Marriage Restrictions.” Social Philosophy Today 25 (2009): 75-89.

  • Colebrook, Claire. “What Is it Like to Be Human?” TSQ 2, no. 2 (2015): 227-243.

  • Connell, Raewyn. “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought: Toward New Understanding and New Politics.” Signs 37, no. 4 (2012): 857–881.

  • Crawford, Lucas Cassidy. “Transgender without Organs? Mobilizing a Geo-Affective Theory of Gender Modification.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, no. 3/4 (2008): 127-143.

  • Dalrymple-Fraser, C. “Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews C. Dalrymple-Fraser.” Dialogues on Disability. October 17, 2018.

  • Das Janssen, Ephraim. Phenomenal Gender: What Transgender Experience Discloses. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2017.

  • Dembroff, Robin. “He/She/They/Ze.” Ergo 5.14 (2016).

  • Dembroff, Robin. “Beyond Binary: Genderqueer as Critical Gender Kind.” Philosophers Imprint (forthcoming).

  • Draz, Marie. “The Stakes of the Real: Queer Feminism and the Challenge of Critical Trans Politics.” APA Newsletter 12, no. 2 (2013): 9-13.

  • Draz, Marie. “Burning It In? Nietzsche, Gender, and Externalized Memory.” Feminist Philosophical Quarterly 4.2 (2018).

  • Draz, Marie. “From Duration to Self-Identification?: The Temporal Politics of the California Gender Recognition Act.” TSQ 6, no. 4 (2019): 593-607.

  • Eickers, Gen. “Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Gen Eickers.” Dialogues on Disability. November 21, 2018.

  • Elliot, Patricia. Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites. New York, NY: Routledge, 2010.

  • Enke, A. Finn, ed. Transfeminist Perspectives In and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2012.

  • Espineira, Karine, and Marie-Hélène/Sam Bourcier. “Transfeminism: Something Else, Somewhere Else.” TSQ 3, no. 1-2 (2016): 84-94.

  • Feder, Ellen K. “Disciplining the Family: The Case of Gender Identity Disorder.” Philosophical Studies 85, no. 2 (1997): 195–211.

  • Gilbert, Miqqi Alicia. “Defeating Bigenderism: Changing Gender Assumptions in the Twenty-first Century.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 93-112.

  • Gill-Peterson, Julian. “The Technical Capacities of the Body: Assembling Race, Technology, and Transgender.” TSQ 1, no. 3 (2014): 402-418.

  • Gorman, August. “Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews August Gorman.” Dialogues on Disability. March 20, 2019.

  • Green, Kai M. ““Race and gender are not the same!” Is Not a Good Response to the “Transracial” / Transgender Question OR We Can and Must Do Better.” The Feminist Wire. June 14, 2015.

  • Halberstam, Jack. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2005.

  • Hale, C. Jacob. “Are Lesbians Women?” Hypatia 11, no. 2 (1996): 94-121.

  • Hale, C. Jacob. “Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing About Transsexuals, Transsexuailsm, Transsexuality, or Trans.” January 5, 1997.

  • Hale, C. Jacob. “Consuming the Living, Dis(re)membering the Dead in the Butch/FTM Borderlands.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 4, no. 2 (1998): 311–348.

  • Heyes, Cressida J. Self Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.

  • Hunt, Grayson. “Featured Philosopher: Grayson Hunt.” Philosopher Blog. June 2, 2017.

  • Kimoto, Tamsin. “Merleau-Ponty, Fanon, and Phenomenological Forays in Trans Life.” APA Newsletter on LGBTQ Issues in Philosophy 18.1 (2018): 16-21.

  • Krell, Elías Cosenza. “Is Transmisogyny Killing Trans Women of Color?: Black Trans Feminisms and the Exegencies of White Femininity.” TSQ 4, no. 2 (2017): 226-242.

  • Lugones, María. “Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System.” Hypatia 22 no. 1 (2007): 186-209.

  • Malatino, Hilary. “Pedagogies of Becoming: Trans Inclusivity and the Crafting of Being.” TSQ 2, no. 3 (2015): 395-410.

  • Malatino, Hilary. “Tough Breaks: Trans Rage and the Cultivation of Resilience.” Hypatia 34, no. 1 (2018): 121-140.

  • Marvin, Amy.  “Technology and Narratives of Continuity in Transgender Experiences.” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 1, no. 1 (2015): Article 6.

  • Marvin, Amy. “Groundwork for Transfeminist Care Ethics: Sara Ruddick, Trans Children, and Solidarity in Dependence.” Hypatia 31.4 (2018).

  • Marvin, Amy. “Transexuality, the Curio, and the Transgender Tipping-Point,” in Curiosity Studies: A New Ecology of Knowledge, eds. Perry Zurn and Arjun Shankar (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020).

  • McKinnon, Rachel. “Stereotype Threat and Attributional Ambiguity for Trans Women.” Hypatia 29, no. 4 (2014): 857-872.

  • McKinnon, Rachel.  “The Epistemology of Propaganda.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 96, no. 2 (2018): 483-489.

  • Namaste, Viviane. “Undoing Theory: The “Transgender Question” and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 11-32.

  • Pitts, Andrea. “Featured Philosopher: Andrea Pitts.” Philosopher Blog. February 19 2016.

  • Pitts, Andrea. “Embodied Thresholds of Sanctuary: Abolitionism and Trans Worldmaking.” APA Newsletter on LGBTQ Issues in Philosophy 18.1 (2018): 3-10.

  • Preciado, Paul B. “Pharmaco-pornographic Politics: Toward a New Gender Ecology.” Parallax 14, no. 1 (2008): 105-117.

  • Preciado, Paul B. Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and the Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era. New York, NY: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2013.

  • Prosser, Jay. Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998.

  • Roen, Katrina. “Transgender Theory and Embodiment: The Risk of Racial Marginalization.” Journal of Gender Studies 10, no. 3 (2001): 253-263.

  • Rubin, Henry S. “Phenomenology as Method in Trans Studies.” GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies 4, no. 2 (1998), 263–281.

  • Ruin. “Discussing Transnormativities Through Transfeminism: Fifth Note.” TSQ 3, no. 1-2 (2016): 202-211.

  • Salamon, Gayle. Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2010.

  • Salamon, Gayle. The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2018.

  • Scheman, Naomi. “Looking Back on “Queering the Center”.” TSQ 3, no. 1-2 (2016): 212-219.

  • Scheman, Naomi. “Queering the Center by Centering the Queer: Reflections on Transsexuals and Secular Jews.” In Feminist Rethinking the Self, edited by Diana Tietjens Meyers, 124-162. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.

  • Shotwell, Alexis. “Open Normativities: Gender, Disability, and Collective Political Change.” Signs 37, no. 4 (2012): 989–1016.

  • Shotwell, Alexis, and Trevor Sangrey. “Resisting Definition: Gendering through Interaction and Relational Selfhood.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 56-76.

  • Shrage, Laurie J., ed. “You’ve Changed”: Sex Reassignment and Personal Identity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  • simpkins, reese. “Trans*feminist Intersections.” TSQ 3, no. 1-2 (2016): 228-234.

  • Snorton, C. Riley. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press, 2017.

  • Snorton, C. Riley. “‘A New Hope:’ The Psychic Life of Passing.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 77-92.

  • Spade, Dean. “Resisting Medicine, Re/modeling Gender.” Berkeley Women’s Law Journal 18, no. 1 (2003): 15–37.

  • Stephano, Oli. “Irreducibility and (Trans)Sexual Difference.” Hypatia 34, no. 1 (2018): 141-154.

  • Stewart, Amy Ray. “Transgender Subjectivity in Revolt: Kristevan Psychoanalysis and the Intimate Politics of Rebirth.” TSQ 4, no. 3-4 (2017): 577-607.

  • Stryker, Susan. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein About the Village of Chamounix Performing Transgender Rage.” GLQ: A journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1, no. 3 (1994): 227-254.

  • Tinsley, Omise’eke Natasha. Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018.

  • Tinsley, Omise’eke Natasha. “Songs for Ezili: Vodou Epistemologies of (Trans) Gender.” Feminist Studies 37, no. 2 (2011): 417-436.

  • Valentine, David. “The Categories Themselves.” GLQ: Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies 10, no. 2 (2004): 215–220.

  • Valentine, David. “Sue E. Generous: Toward a Theory of Non-Transsexuality.” Feminist Studies 38, no. 1 (2012): 185–211.

  • Warren, Calvin. “Calling Into Being: Tranifestation, Black Trans, and the Problem of Ontology.” TSQ 4, no. 2 (2017): 266-274.

  • Zurn, Perry. “Puzzle Pieces: Shapes of Trans Curiosity.” APA Newsletter on LGBTQ Issues in Philosophy 18.1 (2018): 10-16.

  • Zurn, Perry. “Waste Culture and Isolation: Prisons, Toilets, and Gender Segregation.” Hypatia (2019). Online September 12, 2019.

[Source: Trans Philosophy Project]

 

Whether written by trans scholars or by cis thinkers who specialise in trans studies, trans philosophy is out there and it deserves to be heard. Let’s say it (and cite it) out loud together.

 

Elaina Gauthier-Mamaril http://www.elainaGauthierMamaril.com
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