David Valentine Transgender Studies Summary

Within the fields of academic studies, the diverse array of narratives by transgender individuals are more often than not erased or reduced to fit within the framework of cisnormative and western/euro-centric beliefs. There are many factors that contribute to the misappropriation of transgender narratives and studies, some of which derive from the method by which academics research and record transgender studies. This critical analysis will explore this problematic framework in David Valentines article and will further investigate the negative implications of umbrella terms in academia, such as the “third gender” in Towle and Morgan’s article.

In his article, David Valentine investigates the field of transgender studies in an attempt to understand, “the complexities, contradictions, and confluences that have enabled it’s emergence” (Valentine 144). First, he looks at the set of social practices that create an understanding of the field, second he examines the cross-disciplinary fields such as “women’s studies”, “LGBT studies”, and “gender studies” and how they intersect within the field of transgender studies, and thirdly Valentine examines the juxtaposition between female and male-bodied subjects

Valentine argues that, “Transgender studies is an emergent field of knowledge that while impacted by feminism [cross disciplinary fields from theme one] is being institutionalized through an understanding of “gender” that sees it primarily as a social difference, that flows more from the history of sex, and the concerns of MTF people than from feminism and the concerns of FTMs” (Valentine 171). Valentine argues that this framing of gender and sexuality overlooks the complexities of lived experiences, social practices, historical/ linguistic context, and therefore true and varied narratives of transgender