Trans

Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Sociology
Cover of the book Trans by Rogers Brubaker, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rogers Brubaker ISBN: 9781400883233
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: September 20, 2016
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Rogers Brubaker
ISBN: 9781400883233
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: September 20, 2016
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

In the summer of 2015, shortly after Caitlyn Jenner came out as transgender, the NAACP official and political activist Rachel Dolezal was "outed" by her parents as white, touching off a heated debate in the media about the fluidity of gender and race. If Jenner could legitimately identify as a woman, could Dolezal legitimately identify as black?

Taking the controversial pairing of “transgender” and “transracial” as his starting point, Rogers Brubaker shows how gender and race, long understood as stable, inborn, and unambiguous, have in the past few decades opened up—in different ways and to different degrees—to the forces of change and choice. Transgender identities have moved from the margins to the mainstream with dizzying speed, and ethnoracial boundaries have blurred. Paradoxically, while sex has a much deeper biological basis than race, choosing or changing one's sex or gender is more widely accepted than choosing or changing one’s race. Yet while few accepted Dolezal’s claim to be black, racial identities are becoming more fluid as ancestry—increasingly understood as mixed—loses its authority over identity, and as race and ethnicity, like gender, come to be understood as something we do, not just something we have. By rethinking race and ethnicity through the multifaceted lens of the transgender experience—encompassing not just a movement from one category to another but positions between and beyond existing categories—Brubaker underscores the malleability, contingency, and arbitrariness of racial categories.

At a critical time when gender and race are being reimagined and reconstructed, Trans explores fruitful new paths for thinking about identity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the summer of 2015, shortly after Caitlyn Jenner came out as transgender, the NAACP official and political activist Rachel Dolezal was "outed" by her parents as white, touching off a heated debate in the media about the fluidity of gender and race. If Jenner could legitimately identify as a woman, could Dolezal legitimately identify as black?

Taking the controversial pairing of “transgender” and “transracial” as his starting point, Rogers Brubaker shows how gender and race, long understood as stable, inborn, and unambiguous, have in the past few decades opened up—in different ways and to different degrees—to the forces of change and choice. Transgender identities have moved from the margins to the mainstream with dizzying speed, and ethnoracial boundaries have blurred. Paradoxically, while sex has a much deeper biological basis than race, choosing or changing one's sex or gender is more widely accepted than choosing or changing one’s race. Yet while few accepted Dolezal’s claim to be black, racial identities are becoming more fluid as ancestry—increasingly understood as mixed—loses its authority over identity, and as race and ethnicity, like gender, come to be understood as something we do, not just something we have. By rethinking race and ethnicity through the multifaceted lens of the transgender experience—encompassing not just a movement from one category to another but positions between and beyond existing categories—Brubaker underscores the malleability, contingency, and arbitrariness of racial categories.

At a critical time when gender and race are being reimagined and reconstructed, Trans explores fruitful new paths for thinking about identity.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book The Secret Life of Science by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Sufism by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 13 by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Slaves Tell Tales by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book The Pocket Instructor: Literature by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Leaving the Jewish Fold by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Bipolar Expeditions by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book The Body Economic by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Universities in the Marketplace by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book The Undiscovered Self by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Tobacco Capitalism by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Partisan Publics by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Seeds of Amazonian Plants by Rogers Brubaker
Cover of the book Democratic Rights by Rogers Brubaker
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy