Critical Perspectives on Cisnormativity

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CISNORMATIVITY

Ohio State University, WGSS 5620,

Fall 2014

Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:55-5:15 p.m., Mendenhall Lab room 175

PROFESSOR

Erika Alm

308f Dulles Hall

614-292-2908

Office hours: Thursdays, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

WGSST 5620(3 credit hours) This course engages with norms on sex, gender and identity in relation to the pathologization of trans* and intersex peopleand the scholarly, activist and community work that has grown out of reactions to such pathologizations. As a class, we will explore temporally and geographically situated examples of cisnormativity, as articulated in medical and juridical contexts, but the main focus will be an engagement with the prolific academic and activist work related to trans* and intersex experiences.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Attendance and informed participation (10 %): Active participation is a critical part of the learning experience in this course. In order to make the most of our collective learning processesit is vital that we all come to class well prepared, having read the material for the session, and that we base our discussions on an engagement with the actual material and not soley on personal opinions on more general topics.

Entry ticket (10 %): For each class you will submit an entry ticket upon arrival in class. Entry tickets should contain your name and the date, as well as an analytic questionrelating to one or more of the texts for that session. You may include one or two sentences developing your question, but entry tickets should not be longer than a single, short paragraph. The focus of your question could, for example, be that of a theoretical concept or argument, the use of empirical materials, or an issue that arises to you when reading the text/s in the context of the rest of the course material. Think of the entry ticket as a way of engaging with the material at hand, and hence as a way of preparing for participation in class discussions. Make sure that you keep a copy of every entry ticket for your own reference, as submissions will not be returned. Late entry tickets are not accepted, and submission of an entry ticket does not make up for attendance.

Short essay (15 %): On October 14thyou will submit a short essay (4-5 pages, double spaced), focusing on the readings for one or two class session up until mid term.Your short essay may be based on entry ticket question/s for the class/es that you have chosen, but you may also formulate new questions to the material. The short essay should begin with a brief summary (no longer than 1/3 of the essay) of chosen texts, highlighting the main arguments. The remainder of the essay should comprise of an analytic exploration of those aspects of the reading you find most relevant and engaging within the terms of this course. Feel free to consult related sources, but cite them properly. The short essay will be graded on the level of critical engagement with the material chosen. Please note that critical engagement is not the same thing as being critical of the material, a critical engagement is an analytical dialogue with the material.

Class presentation (25 %): groups of 4-5 students sign up to present selected further reading for one of the thematic sections during the term (for example: one group presents a selection of the materials listed under “Further reading” for the sectionMedical Industrial Complex). Since the rest of the class most likely have not read the text/s that you are presenting you need to give a summary of the reading/s. You should be prepared to unpack the elements of the reading/sthat you find the most relevant to the thematic section and the issues that we have discussed during the section. Presentations should run no longer than 20 minutes, maximum.

Final essay (40 %): the final essay should engage in one of the case studies listed for the course and be an informed critic of said case studyby meansofmaterials that you gather yourself (there are tips on where to start off in this syllabus) and relevant course literature. You need to present the materials that you have gathered (this part of the essay should be brief, and run no longer than 3 pages) and then embark on an analysis. The assignment is to be reported in two steps:

a)Synopsis with sketching out of case study and preliminary bibliography (description of the materials gathered), due 11th of November(15 %); feed back will be given on this.The synopsis ought to be between 2-3 pages, double spaced.

b)Final essay due on the 12th of December (25 %), ought to be 10-12 pages, double spaced.

COURSE LITERATURE

Three anthologies are the basis of the course readings; these are available for purchase atStudent Book Exchange (

Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.) (2006),The transgender studies reader, London: Routledge.

Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.) (2013),The transgender studies reader 2, London: Routledge

Holmes, M. (ed.), (2009),Critical Intersex, Farnham: Ashgate.

In addition to chapters from above anthologies we will read selected research articles, reports, blog posts etc. If there is not a link to the text in syllabus, you should be able to find the text in our folder “Course literature” on Carmen.

IN PREPARATION FOR THE COURSE

To get an overview, and find tools to explore the addressed issues further, browse among the links to organizations, projects, individual activists, reports and journals on page 14 and onwards.

WGSS undergraduate study group

The department is sponsoring weekly study and discussion groups in the main office conference room, room 286,University Hall, Thursdays 10:00am – 2:00pm. Stop in for conversations with your peers, grad students, and faculty, or just to sit and study for a while.Faculty and/or graduate student WGSS members will be available to discuss from 12:00pm-2:00pm.

UNIVERSITY RESOURCES

The Writing Center: OSU provides writing resources with the Writing Center. At the Writing Center you to make appointments to get assistance from trained writing tutors. To utilize this service, contact the Writing Center at (614) 680-4291 or visit their website at

The Student Wellness Center: The Student Wellness Center works with students on emotional, career, social, spiritual, physical, financial, intellectual, creative, and environmental wellness. Find out more at

Counseling & Consultation:Provides counseling and consultation to currently enrolled undergraduate, graduate and professional students through individual and group counseling, psychiatrists, nutritional counseling, couples counseling, outreach, workshops, crisis debriefing, and community referrals.

COURSE POLICIES

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated and should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs. The Office for Disability Services is located in 150 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue; telephone 292-3307, TDD 292-0901;

We all come to learning with different needs and throughout the course there are elements that try to accommodate a variety of needs and learning styles. If you need accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss your needs.

Your Mental Health: A recent American College Health Survey found stress, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, interpersonal concerns, and alcohol use to be among the top ten health impediments to academic performance. Students experiencing personal problems or situational crises during the quarter are encouraged to contact the OSU Counseling and Consultation Services (contact information above). This service is free and confidential.

Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism: As defined in University Rule #3335-31-02, plagiarism is “the representation of another’s works or their ideas as one’s own; it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person’s work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person’s ideas.” It is the responsibility of the Committee on Academic Misconduct to investigate or establish procedures for the investigation of all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term “academic misconduct” includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed; illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations. Instructors shall report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee (Faculty Rule 3335-5-487). For additional information: Code of Student Conduct

Although the existence of the Internet makes it relatively easy to plagiarize, it also makes it even easier for instructors to find evidence of plagiarism. It is obvious to most teachers when a student turns in work that is not her or his own; plagiarism search engines makes documenting the offense very simple.A few basic tips:

Always cite your sources.
Always ask questions before you turn in your assignment if you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism.
Always see your TA or professor if you are having difficulty with an assignment.

SCHEDULE

28th of August:Course introduction

Setting the site for the class. Who are we, why are we in this class, what pronouns do we prefer people to use in referring to us?We will also go through the course assignments, required readings and schedule.

Hales, J. “Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing about Transsexuals, Transsexuality, Transsexualism, or Trans______”:

Koyama E. ”Suggested Guidelines for Non-Intersex Individuals Writing about Intersexuality and Intersex People”

OII (Organization International Intersex), ”Brief Guidelines for Intersex Allies: Information to help you spread awareness about intersex people”

Spade, D.(2011),“Some Very Basic Tips for Making Higher Education More Accessible to Trans Students and Rethinking How We Talk about Gendered Bodies” Radical Teacher 92(1), pp. 57-62.

Koyama, E. & Intersex Initiative Portland, (2004), Teaching Intersex Issues: A Guide for Teachers in Women’s, Gender & Queer Studies Second Edition

28th of August: Course tip!

Improving Transgender Healthcare: A Community Conversation, 6.00-8.00 p.m. at Columbus Public Health, 240 Parsons Avenue.

2nd of September

We work on establishing an understanding of some of the basic concepts for the course: cisgenderism and cisnormativity.

Kennedy, N. (2013), “Cultural Cisgenderism: Consequences of the Imperceptible” Psychology of Women Section Review 15(2)

Enke, A.F. (2013), “The Education of the Little Cis: Cisgender and the Discipline of Opposing Bodies”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 234-247.

Winter, S., Chalungsooth, P., Koon The, Y. et al. (2009) ”Transpeople, Transprejudice and Pathologization: A Seven-Country Factor Analytic Study”, International Journal of Sexual Health, 21(2): pp. 96-118.

1. WE ARE HERE: SUBJECTIVITY, IDENTITY, RESISTANCE AND ORGANIZATION

This section of the course grounds the further discussions and readings; we will read canonized pieces and recent debate pieces by trans and intersex scholars and activists as well as allies, on issues of subjectivity, identity, resistance and organization.

4th of September

Stone, S. (2006), “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 221-235.

Chase, C. (2006), ”Hermaphrodites With Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 300-314.

O’Brien, M. (2012), ”An Intersex Manifesto”

9th of September

Stryker, S. (2006), “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 244-256.

Viloria, H. (2014), ”What's in a Name: Intersex and Identity: Is Intersex an Identity or a Diagnosis?”

Biffra, T. (2014), “Tony Briffa writes on ’Disorders of Sex Development’”

Koyama, E. (2008), ”Frequently Asked Questions about the ’DSD’ Controversy”

11th of September

Towle, E.B. & Morgan, L.M. (2006), “Romancing the Transgender Native: Rethinking the Use of the ‘Third Gender’ Concept”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 666-684.

Spurgas, A. (2009), “(Un)Queering Identity: The Biosocial Production to Intersex/DSD”, Critical intersex Holmes, M. (ed.), Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 97-122.

Kaldera, R. ”Dangerous Intersections: Intersex and Transgender Differences”

OII Australia (2011), ”‘ISGD’ and the appropriation of intersex”

16th of September

Gan, J. (2013), “Still At the Back of the Bus: Sylvia Rivera’s Struggle” The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 291-301.

Morris, E. (2001), “The Missing Vagina Monologue and Beyond”

Claudia (2013), ”Claudia is Intersex, Let’s Talk About It”

At least two of the personal narratives told in Chrysalis Special Issue on Intersexuality

Alexander, T. (1997), “Silence = Death”

Coventry, M. (1997), “Finding the Words”

Devore, H. (1997), “Growing Up in the Surgical Maelstrom”

Holmes, M. (1997), “Is Growing Up in Silence Better Than Growing Up Different?”

Moreno, A. (1997), “In Amerika They Call Us Hermaphrodites”

18th of September

Spade, D. (2006), “Mutilating Gender”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 315-332.

Noble, B.J. (2013), “Our Bodies Are Not Ourselves: Tranny Guys and the Racialized Class Politics of Incoherence”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 248-258.

2. MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

This section of the course puts focus on the production of cisnormativity within the medical industrial complex, experiences of it, and reactions and resistance towards it as expressed by individuals and organizations alike. Among other things we will discuss experiences of pathologization and normative interventions, and strategies taken towards these, medicine and clinicians as gatekeepers and potential allies.

Case studies:

1. Fetaldex: the distribution of not yet approved pharmaceutics during pregnancy to reduce effects of CAH.[1]

2.WPATH ICD-11 Consensus Meeting: debates about diagnosis nomenclature and criteria relating to trans*.[2]

Youth’s access to trans* specific health care (the case of hormone blockers).[3]

23th of September

”The 2012 Helsinki Declaration Of The Right To Genital Autonomy”, 12th International Symposium On Law, Genital Autonomy & Children’s Rights Helsinki, Finland, 29th of September – 3rd of October 2012

Diamond, M. & Garland, J. (2014), ”Evidence Regarding Cosmetic and Medically Unnecessary Surgery on Infants” Journal of Pediatric Urology 10: pp. 2-7.

Roen, K. (2009), ”Clinical Intervention and Embodied Subjectivity: Atypically Sexed Children and Their Parents”, Critical intersex Holmes, M. (ed.), Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 15-40.

Gorton, R.N. (2013), “Transgender as Mental Illness: Nosology, Social Justice, and the Tarnished Golden Mean”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 644-652.

25th of September

Winter, S. (2009), ”Cultural Considerations for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care: The Asian Perspective”, International Journal of Transgenderism 11(1): 19-41.

Tamar-Mattis, A. (2013), ”Medical Treatment of People with Intersex Conditions As Torture And Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” Torture In Healthcare Settings: Reflections On The Special Rapporteur On Torture’s 2013 Thematic Report, pp.91-104

29th of September: Course tip!

Professor Ellen K. Feder of American University holds an open lecture.

Time: 4.30 p.m.

Location: to be announced.

30th of September

Nota bene time: 10.00-12.00 a.m.

Feder, E. (2014), Making Sense of Intersex: Changing Ethical Perspectives in Biomedicine Bloomington: Indiana University Press, chapter 1 and 3, pp.19-43, 65-87.

2nd of October

O’Brien, M. (2013), “Tracing This Body: Transsexuality, Pharmaceuticals, and Capitalism” The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 56-65.

Preciado, B. (2013), “The Pharmaco-Pornographic Regime: Sex, Gender, and Subjectivity in the Age of Punk Capitalism” The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 266-277.

Eckert, L. (2009), ”’Diagnosticism’: Three Cases of Medical Antrophological Research Into Intersexuality”, Critical intersex Holmes, M. (ed.), Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 41-71.

Carter, R. (1997), ”The Murk Manual: How to Understand Medical Writing on Intersex”, Chrysalis Special Issue on Intersexuality

7th of October

Aizura, A.Z. (2013), “The Romance of the Amazing Scalpel: ‘Race’, Labor, and Affect in Thai Gender Reassignment Clinics”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 496-511.

Reis, E. (2005), “Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1620-1960” The journal of American history (2005(92):2, pp. 411-441.

Van Heesch, M. (2009), “Do I Have XY Chromosomes?”, Critical intersex Holmes, M. (ed.), Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 123-145.

9th of October

Holmes, M. (2008), ”Mind the Gaps: Intersex and (Re-productive) Spaces in Disability Studies and Bioethics” Bioethical Inquiry 5: 169–181.

Clare, E. (2013), “Body Shame, Body Pride: Lessons From the Disability Rights Movement” The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 261-265.

14th of October

NO CLASS

16th of October

NO CLASS: Hand in of short essay:

21th of October

Choose two out of the following articles:

Roen, K. (2006), “Transgender Theory and Embodiment: The Risk of Racial Marginalization”, The transgender studies reader Stryker, S. & Whittle, S. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 656-665.

Lamble, S. (2013), “Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence: The Politics of Interlocking Oppressions in Transgender Day of Remembrance”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 30-45.

Snorton, C.R. & Haritaworn, J. (2013), “Trans Necropolitics: A Transnational Reflection on Violence, Death, and the Trans of Color Afterlife”, The transgender studies reader 2 Stryker, S. & Aizura, A.Z. (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 66-75.

3. JURIDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

During this section of the course we take departure in the production of cisnormativity in the juridical industrial complex, experiences of it, and reactions and resistance towards it as expressed by individuals and organizations alike. Among other things we will discuss experiences of discrimination and violations of human rights, normative, racist, sexist and abelist constructions of citizenship, and strategies taken in activist struggles for livablelives.

Case studies:

1. German law on gender assignment:a juridical category for cases of unsettled gender assignment in newborns.[4]

The case of M.C.: Suing the state for maltreatment (early genital surgery on intersex person)[5]

2. Trans*legislation in the U.S.: Right to have new birth certificate issued[6]

Discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender identity and gender expression in the EU[7]

23th of October

Agius, S. & Tobler, C. (2012), Trans and Intersex People: Discrimination on the Grounds of Sex, Gender Identity and Gender Expression, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union. An overview, browse the document.

Sood, N. (2009), Transgender People’s Access to Sexual Health and Rights: A Study of Law and Policy in 12 Asian Countries, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). An overview, browse the document.