Towards a queer sociology of transgender: implications for (trans)gender theory

Conceptually, this book has mapped out a queer sociological approach to transgender. A queer sociology of transgender sits on the intersections of deconstructive analyses and empirical sociological studies of identity formations and practices. The theoretical starting point of the book was a critique of medical perspectives on transgender. Over the last century, medical perspectives have occupied a dominant position that has significantly affected how transgender is viewed and experienced within contemporary Western society. Although contemporary medical approaches represent a more complex understanding of transgender practices than was previously offered, I have argued that there remain serious problems in the correlation of transgender and biological and/or psychological pathology. A medical model remains tied to a binary understanding of gender that fails to take account of the many gender identity positions that fall between or beyond the categories of male/female. Moreover, medical approaches to transgender continue, in the main, to work within a heteronormative framework that is unable to account for the complexities of transgender sexualities. A range of alternative theoretical perspectives – ethnomethodology; historical and anthropological studies; radical, pluralist, poststructuralist and postmodern feminism; queer theory; and transgender studies – were drawn upon to explore the varied ways in which social and cultural theory has critiqued medical discourse on transgender.

From this diverse body of work, I identified pluralist, poststructuralist, and postmodern feminist approaches, queer theory and transgender studies as significant for the development of a queer sociological analysis of transgender. Pluralist feminist approaches offer a theoretical framework of gender and sexuality that is able to account for nonnormative identities and practices, enabling an analysis of divergent gender expressions that are unfixed to the ‘sexed’ body. Importantly, poststructuralist and postmodern feminism emphasises the discursive formation of gender and sexuality, bringing an understanding of gender as distinct from biological ‘sex’. In bringing attention to ‘difference’, these perspectives encourage feminism to move beyond a singular and an essential conceptualisation of ‘woman’. I have argued, however, that some strands of poststructuralism and postmodern thinking are problematic for a sociological theory of transgender as they neglect the role of embodiment within gender identities and expressions and fail to account for material conditions.