The aim of the first chapter of this book is to explore how transgender has been approached within different theoretical fields in order to foreground my discussions of gender diversity in subsequent chapters. I begin by engaging with medical models of transvestism and transsexuality. While transgender practices themselves stretch infinitely back in time, the study of transgender is relatively recent, emerging from medical studies around 100 years ago. Medical perspectives on transgender have, however, come to occupy a dominant position that has significantly affected how transgender is viewed and experienced within contemporary Western society. As Ekins and King argue: “[…] medical perspectives stand out as the culturally major lens through which gender blending may be viewed in our society. Other perspectives must take medical perspectives into account whether they ultimately incorporate, extend or reject them” (1996: 75).

The subsequent sections of the chapter are organised around critiques of medical discourse brought by varied strands of social and cultural theory. First I consider ethnomethodology, which provided an initial critique of medical perspectives on transgender practices. Importantly, ethnomethodological studies located gender at the level of the social and analysed how ‘common-sense’ methods of understanding gender are acted out in everyday exchanges. Yet ethnomethodology emphasises a binary model of gender in assuming that all individuals fall within either a male or a female gender category. The following two sections of the chapter address critiques of medical discourse brought by lesbian and gay studies, and feminism. As I will explore, however, many writers within these fields have reinforced the marginal position of the transgender individual.

The next section considers the ways in which other feminist writers have attempted to develop more progressive perspectives on gender and sexuality. Yet feminism remains problematic for a contemporary understanding of transgender. As Monro argues: “[…] feminism is problematic as a basis for analysing trans in that its locus rests on male–female categorisation” (2000:36). This critique can also be applied to lesbian and gay theory. As I move on to explore, poststructuralist and postmodernist feminist work and queer theory are more helpful for developing a contemporary understanding of transgender.