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Beyond Trans

Does Gender Matter?

#2 in series

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available


Goes beyond the category of transgender to question the need for gender classification

Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion? Heath Fogg Davis offers an impassioned call to rethink the usefulness of dividing the world into not just Male and Female categories but even additional categories of Transgender and gender fluid. Davis, himself a transgender man, explores the underlying gender-enforcing policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more, arguing that it is necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters.
He examines four areas where we need to re-think our sex-classification systems: sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses and passports; sex-segregated public restrooms; single-sex colleges; and sex-segregated sports. Speaking from his own experience and drawing upon major cases of sex discrimination in the news and in the courts, Davis presents a persuasive case for challenging how individuals are classified according to sex and offers concrete recommendations for alleviating sex identity discrimination and sex-based disadvantage.
For anyone in search of pragmatic ways to make our world more inclusive, Davis' recommendations provide much-needed practical guidance about how to work through this complex issue. A provocative call to action, Beyond Trans pushes us to think how we can work to make America truly inclusive of all people.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 3, 2017
      Davis (The Ethics of Transracial Adoption), a professor of political science at Temple University in Philadelphia, challenges readers to consider why binary sex identity categories are used so pervasively in our everyday lives, and whether such routine categorization is needed. Sex-identity discrimination, the author argues, happens to both transgender and cisgender individuals whose appearance is at odds with observers’ beliefs about how masculine and feminine people should look in public, and the routine sorting of individuals into sex identity categories invites discriminatory social and institutional policing of individuals’ sex identities. In four brief chapters, this work examines four common locations of sex-identity sorting: sex markers on identity documents, sex-segregated restrooms, single-sex colleges, and sex-segregated sports. Davis consistently pushes readers to consider whether the practice of sex sorting bears any rational relationship to the goals its proponents claim to further: fighting identity fraud, promoting personal health and safety, addressing sexism in higher education, and encouraging fair play in competitive sports. An appendix offers guidelines for conducting a “gender audit” of organizational policies and practices, encouraging critical self-assessment of everyday acts that unnecessarily invoke sex and gender classifications. The author, a transgender man of color, approaches this topic as both an expert scholar and an individual whose own identity has been subject to hostile scrutiny.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 1, 2017

      In 2014, Time magazine published the article, "Transgender Tipping Point," acknowledging the heightened visibility of the "T" within the LGBTQ population. Recently, that visibility has come to the fore in states' battles over who has access to which bathrooms. Davis (political science, Temple Univ., PA) covers that issue here in his cleverly named chapter "Bathroom Bouncers." But the author also does much more in his survey of the hot-button issues confronting transgender people navigating society's barriers. He explores the complex questions of identification and documentation, college admissions, and single-sex sports. The overarching question: To what extent are gender markers useful, accurate, and productive in these instances? The author not only challenges the status quo but, in the appendix, provides guidelines for organizations to perform a gender audit, which includes worksheets and policy guidelines based on Davis's consulting experience. VERDICT This highly recommended work offers clear, real-world discussions of issues facing transgender people, along with practical applications and solutions. It will be useful to academics, policymakers, and general readers.--David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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