By Gwendolyn Ann Smith
A few weeks ago, I saw that Loren Cameron, a transman, author, and photographer, was producing a new project focussing on gay and bisexual FTMs. In hearing about it – once I got past wondering why someone hasn't focused on this topic before – I realized an important fact of this and other transgender-based projects. They produce a truth that seems lacking in so many projects done by those outside of the transgender community.
Consider a couple of examples: In 1979, Janice Raymond published The Transsexual Empire, a book that set the stage for some of the issues still going on today with events like the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Her hypothesis seemed focused on transgender women as male usurpers of women's space, and her studies seemed designed to prove her point, excluding any information that would contradict it. From a very small pool of people, she formed a text that is still causing harm today.
Or consider J. Michael Bailey and the work he has produced based on Dr. Blanchard's "work" out of Canada. Blanchard – when he wasn't busy measuring the reactions of phallometers strapped to the penises of male to female transsexuals – came up with a concept called "Autogynephelia." This states that a MTF transsexual is not so much a woman with a body in need of correction, but rather that she is a male with a fetish for feminization. Bailey took this to a further step – based on Blanchard and his own badly-flawed research – stating in essence that all male to female transsexuals are "Autogynephiliacs" or are gay men who are somehow simply too gay to remain male.
Yes, that makes no sense to me, either.
What seems to be at fault is that these folks from outside the transgender community opt to study the group without really listening, and without truly trying to understand what they are hearing from us. We are viewed as being deceptive to these researchers when we given them an answer that does not fit their previously-crafted hypothesis.
Of course, when someone has these ingrained notions, they don't end up tossing out whatever doesn't fit their world view. This attitude is, naturally, antithetical to doing any real scientific study – akin to saying that the earth is flat because that's what you've always been told, then scoffing when a ship sinks below the horizon.
This is what excited me about Loren Cameron's project, as well as other community-driven projects. These are done by individuals who know the subject they are speaking of: they live it every day, and have a keen understanding of just what it means to be transgender to begin with. It becomes a lot harder for them to come into things with faulty notions – not impossible, just less likely – and can allow for a deeper understanding of a subject that those outside of a transgender experience can muster.
We live this life, so we would be the best people to tell about it, and to examine it. We don't have all the answers, but there are some things we know about living this life that would not be visible to an outside observer.
We simply deserve better than this, and given that the medical establishment seems set on failing us, we need to do it for ourselves.
There are so many things that would be great to know, like the subjects of Mr. Cameron's aforementioned work. Each of them is not likely to be approached by someone outside of a community space and would be very likely to be poorly studied if researched beyond the confines of a community voice.
Of course, the ability to get such research to happen is something unlikely to occur without people with a passion or those willing to underwrite such efforts. Nevertheless, it may be the way – the only way – we will get our voices heard. Sometimes we simply need to do things for ourselves in order to be heard.
