Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:07:55.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: On Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Talia Mae Bettcher
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines the stereotype that transgender people are “deceivers” and the stereotype's role in promoting and excusing transphobic violence. The stereotype derives from a contrast between gender presentation (appearance) and sexed body (concealed reality). Because gender presentation represents genital status, Bettcher argues, people who “misalign” the two are viewed as deceivers. The author shows how this system of gender presentation as genital representation is part of larger sexist and racist systems of violence and oppression.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , Summer 2007 , pp. 43 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2006. Appearance, reality, and gender deception: Reflections on transphobic violence and the politics of pretence. In Violence, victims, justifications: Philosophical approaches, ed. Ó, Felix. Murchadha. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bornstein, Kate. 1994. Gender outlaw: On men and women and the rest of us. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Calef, Zack. 2002. Double standard in reactions to rape. Iowa State Daily, October 24.Google Scholar
Clements, Kristen. 1999. The transgender community health project: Descriptive results. San Francisco: San Francisco Dept. of Public Health.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. 2nd ed. Routledge: New York.Google Scholar
Davis, Angela. 1981. Rape, racism, and the myth of the black rapist. In Women, race, and class. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Lisa, and Kuruvila, Matthai Chakko. 2002. Man says he didn't kill teen after learning of gender. Mercury News, October 24.Google Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. 1983. Oppression. In The politics of reality: Essays in feminist theory. New York: Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold. 1957. Studies in ethnomethodology. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hale, C. Jacob. 1996. Are lesbians women? Hypatia 11 (2): 94–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, C. Jacob. 1998a. Consuming the living, Dis(re)membering the dead in the butch/FTM borderlands. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 4 (2): 311–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, C. Jacob. 1998b. Tracing a ghostly memory in my throat. In Men doing feminism, ed. Digby, Tom. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hooks, Bell. 1992. Is Paris burning? In Black looks: Race and representation. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Hutchison, Sue. 2004. Deadlocked jury sent a message of hope. Mercury News, June 29.Google Scholar
Kessler, Suzanne J., and McKenna, Wendy. 1978. Gender: An ethnomethodological approach. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Kessler, Suzanne J., and McKenna, Wendy. 2000. Who put the “trans” in transgender? Gender theory and everyday life. International Journal of Transgenderism 4 (3). http://www.symposion.com/ijt/index.htm.Google Scholar
Lagos, Marisa. 2004. Mistrial declared in transgender murder. Los Angeles Times, June 22.Google Scholar
Lavin, Michael. 1987. Mutilation, deception, and sex changes. Journal of Medical Ethics 13: 86–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Locke, Michelle. 2004a. Defense lawyers claim heat of passion in transgender killing case. Associated Press, June 3.Google Scholar
Locke, Michelle. 2004b. Prosecutors to retry transgender slay case. Associated Press, June 23.Google Scholar
Lombardi, Emilia. Unpublished. Understanding genderism and transphobia.Google Scholar
Lombardi, Emilia, Wilchins, R., Preising, D., and Malouf, D. 2001. Gender violence: Transgender experiences with violence and discrimination. Journal of Homosexuality 42: 89–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuruvila, Matthai Chakko. 2003. Testimony in “Gwen” case. Mercury News, February 11.Google Scholar
Namaste, Viviane. 2000. Invisible lives: The erasure of transsexual and transgender people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Reback, Cathy J., Simon, P., Simon, Paul A., Bemis, Cathleen C., and Gatson, Bobby. 2001. The Los Angeles Health Study: Community Report. Los Angeles .Google Scholar
Raymond, Janice. 1979. The transsexual empire: The making of the she‐male. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Reiterman, Tim, Garrison, J., and Hanley, C. 2002. Trying to understand Eddie's life—and death. Los Angeles Times, October 20.Google Scholar
Roen, Katrina. Transgender theory and embodiment: The risk of racial marginalisation. Journal of Gender Studies 10 (3): 253–63.Google Scholar
St. John, Kelly. 2004. Defense in Araujo trial gives final argument. San Francisco Chronicle, June 3.Google Scholar
Vade, Dylan. 2004. No issue of sexual deception, Gwen Araujo was just who she was. San Francisco Chronicle, May 30.Google Scholar
Wronge, Yomi S. 2004. Reaction to mistrial in teenager's killing. Mercury News, June 23.Google Scholar