Jack Halberstam - Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Guide to Gender Variance

NYU Florence - La Pietra Dialogues
Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Guide to Gender Variance
JACK HALBERSTAM
Professor of Gender Studies and English at Columbia University
In the past few months, not a day has gone by without some kind of news story on transgender people in bathrooms, in the military, in the law, in sports, in school, in fact and fiction and everything in between. [3] Transgender is the new gay, the new orange, the new reality show, the newest marker of exclusion and pathology to be seamlessly transitioned into a template for acceptance and tolerance. While we should undoubtedly celebrate recent attention to transgender rights, transgender visibility and transgender recognition, not to mention TG access to public facilities, we must also resist some of the streamlining effects of this recognition and ask about what price will be paid and by whom for this new visibility.

[@pricklypear300]

Thank you for uploading this!😊👏

[@ApparentlyHuman]

So thankful that someone introduced me to this speaker. I find it sad how negative some of the trans community can be towards those who are trans but don’t want to transition for whatever reason (by choice or not). We are who we are 💙

[@ritasasaki9625]

If you dont feel confortable answering no problem, and im sorry of i offend you, But may i ask whether you mean social or medical transition?

[@janewrin1830]

@@ritasasaki9625 Interesting question.

[@tracybachman2519]

CLOSE CAPTIONING WOULD HELP

[@louisesumrell6331]

I transitioned, m to f, in 1993 San Diego. I've lived as a man, then as a woman, then as a man again, a woman again, and now, at 65 years old, I'm nonbinary...and tired...😉 (oh, definitely lesbian) 🙏💜🙏 -weezi 🙏💖🙏💜🙏 "WeesiSbaby"

[@caromikalef4602]

what an amazing talk, so grateful you made this available, so inmensly grateful to Jack

[@PalsWalkthroughs]

This needs subtitles.

[@rainarasofiaanjos193]

About transgender representation and the kids situation off taking hormones before puberty leads me into Euphoria, the episode that Jules talks about her experience and the possibility of her stop taking the hormones now just suits perfect with your topic

[@louisesumrell6331]

I knew that I should have been a girl in the early 1960s.

[@jessicafelizardo9914]

Legenda em português espanhol/francês por favoooor

[@matissedupont5224]

[@TropikSchmitt]

27:08 describes the case of JK Rowling perfectly

[@clemdane]

Rowling is absolutely right.

[@robokill387]

@Clemdane no she isn't. She's hanging out with literal nazi sympathisers and anti feminists just because they also hate trans people.

[@hiwetberhe3001]

How do kids understand gender. Insane.

[@janewrin1830]

I know an odd questions: why does he sound English? I only ask as I have never heard an American sound so English. Meanwhile, I am dipping my toe into all sorts of waters in an attempt to understand why there is so much anger and division, lack of debate and general misogyny in this subject. Unpick that!

[@emilymaddox9300]

he is Englsh ;)

[@janewrin1830]

@@emilymaddox9300 Ha. I can't remember why I was surprised now, but that would certainly explain it! lol

[@andreal.1035]

50:59

new found love

[@kkhushkkhush9892]

All white, green, and pink people loving Diversity and Inclusion. Look at the audience.

[@louisesumrell6331]

But I don't insist on certain pronouns. She/He/They/Them, I don't care, just don't call me late for supper 😅

[@pricklypear300]

Your latin variant of language system of gendering can be overly binding yeah. I don't want to care either. For me I don't want the implications that follow each gendered pronouns. I wouldn't mind being seen as one in real life but I just avoid he/him used on me in online spaces because it carries things that i don't like.

[@clemdane]

The whole "pharmacology conspiracy" makes me wonder if he's a Scientologist

[@tiffanyhardy6965]

The insanity!

[@kabardinka1]

I think Halberstam has a very naive view of "The Crying Game" which, at the time, is almost solely remembered for perpetrating yet another sensationalistic "reveal" scene. Endless jokes and ridicule about trans women were the result. This concept was even used as a routine defense for the murder of trans women. Perhaps Halberstam doesn't have enough perspective about that from the actual community which was being ridiculed and made horrific.

[@allan2468]

You're the one with the bad memory. It was (and is) a love story, and revolutionary: Two straight men fall for a transwoman who is loyal and a great role model. Far from jokes and ridicule the film takes the relationship seriously, as did the audience after the initial shock. This film, like M. Butterfly and Boys Don't Cry did much to humanize and create sympathy for the trans community. Gay/trans panic defense was a real thing but had been around long before this movie came out and has nothing to do with it.

[@benevans7564]

Super late comment, "that scene" was extensively parodied and talked about to the point where the average person was familiar with it in spite of not having seen the film, in part at least because of the marketing campaign. I think Dr. Halberstam is absolutely right to call it a breakthrough film in "western" media markets, it just may not have breaking through to a better place. It went into the same macho canon as deliverance, a horror film to express your disgust at the pub if any of these topics ever came up so that people knew you were on the right team.