Professor Susan Stryker has written a heavily revised
version of her Transgender History. It is practically a new book. Just
released in November 2017, this volume is an up-to-date examination of
transgender/genderqueer history from its beginnings through the Trump election
and the “explicitly transgender inclusive and affirming” Women’s Marches that
occurred throughout the US on January 21, 2017 (Stryker, p. 235).
But this updated book is not just a history. It is also an
exploration of gender-nonconforming community and an invitation to those (who
are interested or isolated) to join. History is used as a way to both inform
about the past and inform about the culture. A group’s history is part of its
culture and this one has struggled against a great deal of prejudice. As a
result, Stryker presents, through successes and setbacks, a people, a heritage
and a set of individual activists, of whom a community member can be proud.
For all that is positive about this book, it does not begin
well. After a stirring introduction, the first chapter is designed to dampen
enthusiasm. It is entitled “Contexts, Concepts, and Terms,” and is a confusing
bombardment of definitions. Considering that her community has not yet settled
upon a definitive term of self-definition, this leaves the reader tangled in a
morass of words. Further confounding the issue is Stryker’s continuing use of
“Transgender” as an all-encompassing word. Stryker admits that, “in recent
years, some people have begun to use the term transgender to refer only to those who identify with a binary
gender other than the one they were assigned at birth” and that transgender is
a 1990s term “similar to what genderqueer,
gender-nonconforming and nonbinary mean now” (Stryker, p. 37). This
chapter functions as a wet washcloth on the first embers of anticipation. It
would have been better if the author had included some limited terminology in
her introduction; and reworked this chapter as a glossary appended to the end.
The book truly begins in Chapter Two: “A Hundred Plus Years
of Transgender History.” It portrays genderqueer history in the United States
from the 1800s to the 1960s. Chapter Three, on “Trans Liberation,” overlaps
slightly with the previous chapter, illustrating the rise of a human rights
ethos within the community and activism from the 1950s through the 1970s. The
last three chapters cover more contemporary developments in nonbinary history
and community from the 1970s through today.
Professor Stryker is not afraid of confrontation. She is
resolutely critical of prejudice from both the right and the left. While she
defines herself as “transfeminist,” Stryker is critical of feminists who
exclude transgender women from events that are for “women-born-women” only. She
also takes aim at lesbian and gay organizations that were late in their support
of gender-nonconforming people. But, as one might imagine, she is most expository
regarding oppression directed at her community from the larger society, a topic
faced throughout the narrative.
The last section in the book is particularly current. It is
called “Backlash, Survival, and Resistance.” Stryker begins this section by
reasoning that “it would be remarkable if all the historic changes in how
society understands and accepts trans and gender-nonconforming people failed to
produce a backlash among people hostile to changes” (Stryker, p. 226). She depicts
the trajectory of reaction against the Obama years and progressive political
gains for nonbinary and other minorities, which culminated in the Trump
presidency. But her analysis is hopeful. After describing the Women’s March and
the “trans inclusive” mass human rights work that produced it, she ends her
narrative by citing Martin Luther King’s revision of a Theodore Parker quote: “The
arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” As an activist,
Stryker is not one to depend on historical determinism to secure that justice.
She adds “we can do more than cross our fingers and hope for the best if we
ourselves work together to bend our little corner of the universe in that
direction” (Stryker, p. 236).
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. The Roots of Today’s
Revolution. New York: Seal Press, 2017.
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