Browsing by Subject "transgender"

The thesis concentrates on the visibility and the political recognition of transgender women (mak nyah) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Through the theories of recognition, concentrating on the questions of gender and recognition, the thesis looks into how the institutionalized transphobia, the criminalization of transgendered practices and the lack of gender recognition affect the transgender women/mak nyah, often referred to as the most visible part of the LGBT community in Malaysia. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Kuala Lumpur between April and August 2017. The study rests on participant observation – carried out in various LGBT spaces, events, and the facilities of a Non-Governmental Organization – and on semi-structured interviews with a core group of 17 participants, including 14 members of the mak nyah community and three current and former workers of three key organizations working with the issues of sexual and gender rights. Participants come from multi-ethnic and multi-religious backgrounds, of which the majority are Malay Muslims. Since the 1990s, emerging from Hegelian legacy, there has been a resurgent interest in the notion of recognition. Recently in the field of political recognition, after the recognition theorists Charles Taylor’s (1994) and Axel Honneth’s (1995) publications, the new questions concerning the relationship of identity, politics, and gender recognition have been studied by social theorists and scholars such as Paddy McQueen (2015) and Eric Plemons (2017). These scholars discuss how gender is recognized in various surroundings and fields, including legal. Furthermore, they pose important questions, such as what happens when an individual’s lived experience falls outside of society’s 'normative' gender ideal. Taken further, it permits a closer examination of the relationship between individual and society, enables the observation of gendered spaces and their meanings, and allows the scrutiny of the public discourse. Furthermore, like Nancy Fraser (1990) and Michael Warner (2002) have demonstrated, in environments where such subjectivities are oppressed or excluded from the public sphere and the institutional world, alternative discourses and discursive spaces are created, known as counterpublics, serving as social and political areas for the marginalized groups. In the past decades in Malaysia, there have been legal and political constructions toward the non-heteronormative subjectivities and groups. In Malaysia’s two-court system, ‘transgendered practices’ are criminalized by the section of religious (Syariah) law criminalizing “cross-dressing” of Malay-Muslim backgrounded citizens and by a section of the national law that has been used for the arbitrary arrests and raids of transgender-identified persons based on “indecent behavior.” Malaysia that was formerly known as a site of “considerable fluidity and permeability in gender roles” (Peletz 2009), has now taken a completely different political approach to its sexual and gender minorities. This is partly a result of nationalist “Asian values” discourse that took root in the 1990s in various Southeast Asian countries and that views the non-heteronormative genders and sexualities as un-Asian. The political identity struggles that are characteristic of the post-independent Malaysia have had an enormous impact on the gender and sexual minorities of Malaysia and manifested in stigma, discrimination, criminalization, and violence. The thesis demonstrates that while the moral policing has shown signs of acceleration, it has also opened up new channels for the marginalized groups to speak up for themselves and about their issues; thus, the public visibility of their issues has increased. As the term 'transgender' is neither ahistorical nor acultural, it requires closer examination. Through the theories of sex and gender, the thesis looks into how Malaysian mak nyah have absorbed the global word transgender. The thesis also examines the topic of institutionalized ‘erasure’ by emphasizing the interlocutor’s experiences of health care. Moreover, by conjoining the theories of recognition with the concept of gendered spaces, the thesis shows how the interlocutors are altering their subject positions and gendered performances according to the spaces of interaction. Furthermore, the thesis suggests that the lack of institutional care has created self-organizing forms of agency, where the members of the mak nyah community are answering their own needs, because the current institutional services do not. Moreover, access to the 'safe spaces,’ and other communal spaces offer vital breathing spaces for the members of the community and within these spaces, they negotiate their identities and self-organize their institutional needs. More general level, the thesis shows that in spite of the strained social change, the public visibility of the issues of transwomen has created new opportunities for trans-identified individuals, such as opportunities to alter their public image.

This research is focused on the schooling experiences of non-binary transgender people. The aim of the study is to produce information on how gender variation has been taken into consideration while the 1994 and 2004 reforms of the Finnish national core curriculums for basic education were in effect. Based on these data, the aim is to speculate how gender variation is considered in schools today. The analysis was focused on how interviewees created subjectivity in their narratives and how (gender normative forms of) the hidden curriculum appears in these narratives. The results can be used to help develop the school institution into a more sensitive direction, and to be aware of different genders and the dynamics between them. The theoretical base examines the concepts of non-binary transgender and gender variation. Secondly it provides an overview of the power of gender norms. Thirdly the theoretical base introduces some of the relevant topics of the Finnish national core curriculums for basic education established in the years 1994 and 2004. It then offers some information on the invisible power of the hidden curriculum. The final section of the theoreti-cal base addresses discourses, discursive practices and subjectivities, which are essential in the analysis of gender norms, the hidden curriculum and the interviews. The research was conducted by interviewing seven non-binary transgender adults. They had attended basic education while the 1994 and/or 2004 Finnish national core curriculums were in effect. The interviews were conducted using an adaptation of the autobiographical narrative interview method. The data were analyzed with a data-based discourse analysis. The results were construed using a critical feminist perspective. The analysis produced three hegemonic discourses: outsider, gender normative school, and non-normative gender. Based on these discourses, the results showed six strong subjectivity positions: an outsider and different, an illegitimate woman or a man, nonexistent, agender or feminine-masculine, an agonist against norms, and a victim. The presence of the (gender normative) hidden curriculum occurred especially when the interviewees spoke about the support and safety of school, school control and teaching/learning situations, students’ responsibilities, and school environmental issues. The findings of this research indicate that non-binary transgender people must form a self-image mostly with-out any existing discourses. They become positioned as oppressed or as agonists against oppression. The control of the hidden curriculum was proved strong and very gender normative. Based on that, there is a major paradox between actual school policies and the national core curriculums. The findings would imply that the situation may not be any better nowadays despite the core curriculum reforms. The knowledge of gender variations and gender sensitivity must increase in the future. It is also necessary to offer teachers support and information on how they should meet and treat students of any gender.

Britannian hallitus ilmoitti vuonna 2016 harkitsevansa sukupuolen juridista tunnustamista koskevan lain (the Gender Recognition Act 2004) uudistamista, minkä seurauksena julkinen keskustelu transihmisten oikeuksista on lisääntynyt mediassa. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tarkastellaan medianäkyvyyden, julkisen keskustelun ja transaktivismin kompleksista suhdetta. Tutkimuksen tavoite on tuoda esiin medianäkyvyyden ja julkisen keskustelun vaikutuksia transaktivismiin Britanniassa. Vaikka tutkielmassa tarkastellaan julkista keskustelua ja trans-narratiiveja mediassa, empiirinen tutkimus lähestyy aihetta transaktivistien näkökulmasta. Tutkielman teoreettinen viitekehys pohjautuu Emil Edenborgin (2017) kuulumisen politiikan (politics of belonging) ja näkyvyyden suhdetta käsittelevään teoriaan (the arrangements of visibility). Edenborgin mukaan hallitsevat toimijat pyrkivät joko hillitsemään tai vahvistamaan näkyvyyttä (containing and amplifying visibility), kun taas mahdollisuudet haastaa näkyvyyttä (contesting visibility) toteutuvat kontekstuaalisesti eri tavoin. Tutkimuksen lähtökohta on transihmisten olemassaolon sosiokulttuurinen näkymättömyys (Namaste, 2000), minkä seurauksena median trans-narratiivit, jotka tuovat esiin vain pienen osan transihmisten kokemuksista, johtaa trans-näkyvyyden paradoksiin (the paradox of trans visibility) (Berberick, 2018). Trans-näkyvyyden paradoksi luo pohjan tutkielman analyysille. Tutkimusaineisto on kerätty haastattelemalla viittä transaktivistia Britanniassa. Puolistrukturoitujen teemahaastattelujen tarkoitus oli tarkastella transaktivistien kokemuksia medianäkyvyydestä, julkisesta keskustelusta ja transaktivismista Britanniassa, sekä niiden merkityksiä. Tutkimuskysymys on, mitä haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia näkyvyydestä voi seurata transaktivismille? Aineisto on analysoitu teema-analyysin avulla. Analyyttiset teemat rakentuivat tutkielman teoreettisen perustan ympärille. Tutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat siihen, että kasvanut medianäkyvyys ja julkinen keskustelu on johtanut virheellisen tiedon lisääntymiseen sekä medianarratiiveihin, joissa transihmisten oikeudet kuvataan uutena yhteiskunnallisena uhkana. Haastateltavien mukaan harhaanjohtavaan mediaraportointiin puuttuminen, ilman vahvoja siteitä mediaan, on yksi transaktivismin suurimmista haasteista Britanniassa. Transfobian ja vihapuheen yleistyminen sosiaalisessa mediassa on myös suuri haaste aktivisteille. Harhaanjohtavat medianarratiivit, transfobia ja vihapuhe ovat johtaneet siihen, että monet haastateltavista eivät enää seuraa aktiivisesti mediaraportointia ja osallistuvat vain harkiten julkiseen keskusteluun transoikeuksista. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että vihamielisyydeltä suojautuminen voi johtaa transaktivistit vetäytymään julkisesta keskustelusta. Toisaalta kasvanut trans-näkyvyys voi myös mahdollistaa cissukupuolisten ihmisten kouluttamisen, antaa puitteet vertaistuelle ja transihmisten yhteisölliselle toiminnalle, sekä tarjota mahdollisuuksia haastaa hallitsevaa medianäkyvyyttä.

South Africa as a country has been portrayed as an exception when it comes to protecting LGBT rights in Africa. In previous research on South Africa, sexuality, gender and race have been found to be crucial components of oppressive structures. However, the discursive practices and sedimented orders governing queerness, a substructure of normative sexuality and gender, have not been thoroughly examined. In this thesis it was questioned, how queerness has been made governable in South Africa through time. An additional centre of interest was to examine, how an influential non-profit organisation Gender DynamiX has recently tried to these orders. The thesis contributes to the efforts of queering development. Informed by intersectional feminism, Africana womanism, queer theory, post-colonialism, as well as Critical Discourse Analysis and Qualitative Content Analysis, the orders of discourse governing South queerness, as well as Gender DynamiX’s dominant discursive practices to change these orders, were analysed. The material analysed in the thesis consisted mainly of academic literature, and publications that the organisation has produced independently or in co-operation with other actors It was found that the historically moulded orders of discourse governing the field of South African queerness, a discursive substructure addressing deviance from the hegemonic South African system of normative sexuality and gender, is being produced and reproduced in contemporary South African society. These discriminatory orders of discourse have been made to support the colonial enterprise, the white apartheid state, and more recently black and religious identity politics. Thus, various actors have discriminatorily used queerness in a utilitarian manner to demarcate a line between us and them, between natural and unnatural, godly and ungodly, and more contemporarily the ones who tolerate and ones to be tolerated. However, it was found that these orders of discourse have been under transformation since the end of apartheid and the birth of the democratic nation. The discursive practices of gay and lesbian activists were crucial in changing these orders of queerness, and there has been some success in institutionalising and popularising the rights of sexual minorities. However, the issue of trans and gender non-conforming rights remains largely neglected in these moderately changed orders of queerness. Additionally, in the case study it was found that Gender DynamiX has pursued to affect these orders of discourse with an attuned and innovative discursive practice. More concretely, it has pursued to present especially racialised queers as active knowing subjects in different ways. This innovative discursive practice has the potential in dismantling the racialised hierarchical system of orders of normative sexuality and gender and the utilitarian orders that govern queerness in South Africa. More research on the development of Gender Dynamix’s discursive practice and the orders of queerness in South Africa would be beneficial to conduct.