Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category [Paperback]

David Valentine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is a paucity of ethnographically based work on transgender, and David Valentine's book is a major contribution not only ethnographically but also historically and theoretically. Valentine is concerned with a range of value and political questions, committed explicitly to humane positions without being ideological or propagandist."--Esther Newton, author of Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas "The definitive study that documents the rise and spread of 'transgender' as a category and a field of knowledge, activism, and power but also as a mechanism for disenfranchisement, discrimination, and violence. Deeply learned, wonderfully accessible, and ethnographically rich, this remarkable book sets a new benchmark not only for all future work on transgender but also for how we might think about gender, sexuality, identity, and politics more generally."--Don Kulick, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes "David Valentine had the good fortune to be conducting anthropological fieldwork in New York at the precise moment when a new term, 'transgender,' was first coming into widespread use. Now we have the good fortune of sharing his ethnographic insight into this new category's emergence. Imagining Transgender offers a provocative on-the-ground account of this important shift in Western notions of gender identity and sexuality. The book is sure to stir debate in the emerging field of transgender studies, as well as in other disciplines that concern themselves with this timely topic."--Susan Stryker, coeditor of The Transgender Studies Reader

Product Description

Imagining Transgender is an ethnography of the emergence and institutionalization of transgender as a category of collective identity and political activism. Embraced by activists in the early 1990s to advocate for gender-variant people, the category quickly gained momentum in public health, social service, scholarly, and legislative contexts. Working as a safer-sex activist in Manhattan during the late 1990s, David Valentine conducted ethnographic research among mostly male-to-female transgender-identified people at drag balls, support groups, cross-dresser organizations, clinics, bars, and clubs. However, he found that many of those labeled “transgender” by activists did not know the term or resisted its use. Instead, they self-identified as “gay,” a category of sexual rather than gendered identity and one rejected in turn by the activists who claimed these subjects as transgender. Valentine analyzes the reasons for and potential consequences of this difference, and how social theory is implicated in it.

Valentine argues that “transgender” has been adopted so rapidly in the contemporary United States because it clarifies a model of gender and sexuality that has been gaining traction within feminism, psychiatry, and mainstream gay and lesbian politics since the 1970s: a paradigm in which gender and sexuality are distinct arenas of human experience. This distinction and the identity categories based on it erase the experiences of some gender-variant people—particularly poor persons of color—who conceive of gender and sexuality in other terms. While recognizing the important advances transgender has facilitated, Valentine argues that a broad vision of social justice must include, simultaneously, an attentiveness to the politics of language and a recognition of how social theoretical models and broader political economies are embedded in the day-to-day politics of identity.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press (December 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822338696
• ISBN-13: 978-0822338697
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #9,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #58 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Anthropology > Cultural
  #2 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > Gay & Lesbian
  #1 in	Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Transgender

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astonishing and astute study, May 27, 2008

By	William O. Beeman "Professor and Chair, Depar... (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category (Paperback)

David Valentine has already won severa; prizes for this book, and no wonder. His book is an astonishing look at the idea of transgender--as a category. Smug Americans msy think they know what transgender is, but as Professor Valentine unpacks this concept, the reader is treated to a myriad of meanings and nuances that show the amazing variety to be found in human gender. In looking at transgender, Valentine forces all readers to consider what normal gender definitions are. This healthy self-reflective exercise should help everyone to broaden their minds--and their categories. It is beautifully written, and hard to lay down once started. Though I am a colleague of the author, I am no less impressed by this work.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The World of Transgender, May 17, 2009

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category (Paperback)

Valentine, David. "Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category", Duke University Press, 2007.

The World of Transgender

Amos Lassen

Transgender has now emerged as a category of both political activism and collective identity. This began in the 1990's and gained momentum in the fields of public health, social service, education and government. The book looks at the range of political and value questions. It chronicles and documents the transgender movement and as a category and field of knowledge, activism and power. It also makes us think about the ways we think about identity, gender, sexuality and politics.
David Valentine happened to be doing anthropological field work in New York when the term "transgender" first began to be widely used. Because of that we are now able to read his ethnographic insight into what transgender is and means. We are presently experiencing a shift in what the Western world views of gender and identity. Valentine conducted ethnographic research among mostly male-to-female "transgender identified people" at various venues--clubs, bars, organizations, support groups and the like and he found that many of the people who were labeled by activists as transgender were not familiar with the term and did not use it. Rather they self-identified as gay, a sexual category that does not include gender. He looks at the differences between the terms and what those differences could potentially mean and how social theory is involved.
Valentine claims that the term "transgender" came into use so quickly and it clarifies gender and not sexuality like the term "gay" does. We see a paradigm in which gender and sexuality are different and distinct and are considered differently by different groups of people. He advocates social justice which must include attentiveness to the politics of language as well as an understanding and recognition of how some social theoretical models and political economies function in daily politics.
The book is not only important ethnographically but theoretically and historically. His look at transgender as a category is both fascinating and astonishing. He dissects the concept and we get many meanings and nuances of the term, We are, in turn, forced to look at how we feel about gender. Valentine writes beautifully and his look at people and society and the creation and shaping of identity is a must-read. This is our world now and everyone is entitled to live in it.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different World, October 11, 2007

By	Alistair Boddy-Evans (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category (Paperback)

If you're intrigued about people and society, how different groups form, how identity is shaped and created, read this. Anthropology isn't just about societies in the so-called Third World; it's about the so-called civilized world too, as Dr Valentine shows. Read it and be intrigued.