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" 'Not Just a Guy in a Dress': "
Vernon, Muriel
Garro, Linda C
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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898871
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TL2sz362kt
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| Main Entry
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Baumgarten, Max David
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| Title & Author
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'Not Just a Guy in a Dress':\ Vernon, MurielGarro, Linda C
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| Date
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2012
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2012
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| Abstract
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Genital Reassignment Surgery (GRS) is commonly recognized as the surgical alteration of genitalia to align transsexuals' bodies with their chosen gender identities in order to alleviate the persistent discomfort of Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Clinical and psychological evaluations of the outcomes of GRS have focused primarily on the individual benefits of the surgery and on the aesthetic or functional aspects of newly created genitalia. Left out of medical and social science research is attention to the patient's hopes for social gains and benefits following GRS. Critically assessing the current biomedical model of transsexualism and its treatment, this study considers not only the different meanings GRS holds for patients (contrasting life-world concerns with biomedical concerns), but also explores what GRS is expected to contribute to the everyday experiences of transsexuals. Through participant observation and person-centered interviews, I examine what patients expect to gain from GRS socially, what kinds of hopes they have invested in the surgery, how they intend to integrate their past and present gendered histories, and whether they feel that undergoing GRS will significantly improve their social status. This study thus offers a patient-centered perspective on the meaning of surgical intervention for a socially stigmatized condition. I find that while GRS can provide individual benefits for transsexuals through eliminating body dysphoric feelings through the surgical alignment of the mind with the body, the surgery does not, and cannot, eliminate their social history of transsexual embodiment. The socially liminal positions that many transsexuals experience prior to surgery are thus likely to remain unchanged as the main barrier to social acceptance or social equality lies primarily in the history of gendered embodiment and not in the bio-medical assumption of mind-body disjuncture.
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Vernon, Muriel
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UCLA
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