Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
mutable - even when seemingly unproblematic references to 'nature', 'sex'
and other collateral terms are part of the justification for their relocation.
LEAKS AND TRANSGRESSIONS: RESISTING THE
COMPULSIONS OF 'EITHER/OR'
In the previous pages, I've explored two cases where well-resourced, influen-
tial or authoritative social actors try to 'fix' the location of the lines between
what's natural and what's not, as well (in the first case) as the 'internal
boundaries' of what's taken to be natural. I've looked both at non-human
nature but also at what's said to be 'normal' human behaviour and iden-
tity. I've looked also at who loses out, perhaps temporarily but possibly
in the long term, in these border- and boundary-fixing projects. In this
final section, I want to consider a case where those outside the cultural,
moral and political mainstream have attempted to publicly challenge the
discursive norms of society (unlike zoophiles, who remain largely invisi-
ble). In so doing they have - unusually and, for many, controversially and
confusingly - intentionally rendered
permeable
numerous taken-for-granted
distinctions, thus questioning the ontological security of phenomena nor-
mally perceived as beyond question. These transgressors have thus sought
to shine a positive light on ambiguity, ambivalence and contradiction rather
than see them as problematic aberrations from an otherwise orderly world.
For them, 'purity is the end of possibility' (Dodge, 2000: xx).
Beyond binaries in sex and gender: representing 'trans'
identities and politics
The negative reactions to bestiality in Washington State are just one of many
examples of how unwelcome transgressive ideas and actions usually are.
A battery of charged words attests to the moral opposition that transgressors
of all kinds face in society: think of 'perverts', 'outlaws', 'whores', 'faggots',
'monsters', 'criminals' and 'freaks', for example. However, even among indi-
viduals and groups whose words and deeds go against the social grain, the
normalising force of conventional distinctions can serve to stigmatise or
exclude others. Put differently, those who agitate to make their own trans-
gressions an accepted part of society can easily fail to understand or approve
of other transgressors. This can make them convention-enforcers despite
their erstwhile radicalism. The example I want to consider here relates to
how certain transsexual and transgender individuals have been understood
by some members of the feminist, gay and lesbian communities (never mind
the wider society).
The terms 'transsexual' and 'transgender' are both rather baggy ones that
refer to individuals with a wide range of somatic and subjective characteris-
tics. The first is the older of the two categories. It includes hermaphrodites
('inter-sex' persons born with reproductive organs that are neither strictly
