1. Papers by Natacha Kennedy
Lambda Nordica, 2023
This paper sets out to theorise one possible origin of transphobia in relation to the current rou... more This paper sets out to theorise one possible origin of transphobia in relation to the current round of increasingly politically driven attacks on trans people's human rights. To do this, it attempts - drawing on sections of the US television series Pose - to establish a new characterisation of the sociocultural and affective roots of transphobia. I argue that to understand some forms of transphobia, we need to conceptualise identification as a process rather than identity as a substantive and understand how this process leads to trans people exposing the fragilities in some cis people's identities, producing an irrational transphobic hatred. The argument developed here represents an attempt to deploy social activity method in a specifically queer sociological approach, creating a "deformance" of the data relating to identification processes and the implications and consequences of this analysis.
Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 2021
This paper proposes a new conceptualisation of learning in the age of the
internet, increasing sy... more This paper proposes a new conceptualisation of learning in the age of the
internet, increasing systemic rigidity of formal education system and
intensified media manipulation and partiality. Using empirical data and
drawing on Social Activity Method, it elaborates some of the different
strategies young trans people recruit in their learning and contends that these may constitute a type of learning where the control of the pedagogic, the learning environment and the subject matter lies to a significant extent, with the learner, taking place in spaces free from the influence of hegemonic transphobia. This type of learning appears to constitute an effective but complex one. As, in this instance the learning is taking place in a cultural environment where the subject matter is often suppressed and subject to ideological misrepresentation by hegemonic control of the public sphere, this study suggests that learning by providing learners
Journal of LGBT Youth, 2020
This paper presents data characterising young trans people's experience during the period prior t... more This paper presents data characterising young trans people's experience during the period prior to coming out to parents as transgender. By analysing data obtained directly from young trans and non-binary people it produces a sociological characterisation of this period overall as the 'Deferral' period. The Deferral Period is further characterised as consisting of two parts; a 'Tacit Deferral' period, prior to epiphany as trans, and subsequent 'Discursive Deferral' period. The data indicate that both these deferral periods vary in length quite considerably but usually seem to be measurable in months and years. In particular these data contest the validity of concept of 'rapid-onset gender dysphoria' and the way young trans people are positioned by 'passive victim' narratives in many academic and media accounts. The analysis of the different ways young trans people construct their identities, prior to and after epiphany produces a 'Timeline of revelation'. The data suggest many commonalities of experience among young trans people, and well as some differences and in particular the data exemplify how, young trans and non-binary people's own agency is key in negotiating barriers to transition.
The Emergence of Trans: Cultures, Politics and Everyday Lives, 2020
This study constitutes a sociological analysis of how trans people experience epiphany stemming f... more This study constitutes a sociological analysis of how trans people experience epiphany stemming from cultural processes present in most European-based cultures, and contrasts with psychological gazes of the process of epiphany as an individualized phenomenon. Although it is likely that some trans people never experience an epiphany-for example, very young children, and those who die before they become fully aware they are trans-most will have experienced an epiphany of some kind; indeed, it may be one of the few experiences most trans people have in common. 'Epiphany' here is characterised as the process of coming to identify as transgender, and in this context does not necessarily refer to a sudden personal revelation. In some instances epiphanies may take some considerable time and their durations measured in months or years rather than minutes or hours. This chapter examines data relating to the ways young trans people describe the experience of epiphany, suggesting that the processes by which trans people come to identify as transgender on a local or individual level are affected by obstacles to trans emergence on a general level, as well as resistance to these obstacles. Analysing data from a small-scale, in-depth qualitative study of 16 young trans people, relating to epiphany on an individual level provides evidence of the nature of the cultural processes constituting these impediments. The analysis draws on Social Activity Method (Dowling a new sociological method which constitutes a deductive and inductive dialogic interaction between empirical and theoretical fields, regarding the social as constituting the formation, maintenance and destabilizing of alliances and oppositions. A systematic mode of analyzing qualitative data, Social Activity Method focuses on constructing an organisational language with the aim of presenting constructive descriptions as opposed to 'forensics' in social research. Initially I present data to construct two axes of analysis to constitute a relational space with which to elucidate the processes involved and subsequently produce a constructive description of them. The relational space in Figure 3.1 consists of two axes and draws out the principal differences between the ways participants in this study experienced epiphany: modes of becoming and modes of identification. These are elaborated in the subsequent sections of this chapter.
Cultural Anthropology And Ethnosemiotics, 2020
Drawing on the different ways that different societies have constructed transgender people in the... more Drawing on the different ways that different societies have constructed transgender people in the past, with particular reference to the Ainu people of Northern Japan, this paper argues that different ways of understanding trans people in different societies evidenced through remaining cultural material today demonstrate a greater sophistication in terms of including trans people than in European-based societies historically as well as at present. Although these named groups represent the categories of trans people accepted in other cultures, it is argued that this probably conceals more gender diversity in these societies than it reveals, the diversity that was erased by colonial oppression. Consequently, it is argued that trans people need to be fully engaged in defining and encouraging the many different possibilities for gendered existence. The future must be lived now. Marquis Bey This paper explores how trans people come to identify and be identified in different cultural and historical contexts and how those need to inform our thinking about the future. In particular it draws on Akulov and Nonno (2015) evidencing the ways trans people in the indigenous cultures of northern Japan and the Kuril Islands identified and raises issues about the effects of colonialism and epistemic injustice in relation to trans people's processes of identification, especially in European-based/dominated cultural environments. Anzaldua (1987) described how people from her own ethnic group became able to identify, as a group, only as recently as the mid 1960s, despite having existed for generations in South Texas: Chicanos did not know we were a people until 1965 when Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers united and I am Joaquin was published and la Raza Unida party was formed in Texas. With that recognition, we became a distinct people. Something momentous happened to the Chicano soul-we became aware of our reality and acquired a name and a language (Chicano Spanish) that reflected that reality. Now that we had a name, some of the fragmented pieces began to fall together-who we were, what we were, how we had evolved. We began to get glimpses of what we might become (Anzaldua 1987: 85).
Still Here, 2019
An examination of the schools 'guidance' for trans children put out by the Times Educational Supp... more An examination of the schools 'guidance' for trans children put out by the Times Educational Supplement and Transgender Trend. A critique of its advice to teachers to deliberately misgender trans children.
Extended blog post.
British Psychological Association. Psychology of Women's Section Review, 2014
men and would be likely to marry European women. When an American servicewoman falls in love with... more men and would be likely to marry European women. When an American servicewoman falls in love with a French soldier her efforts to ensure he can accompany her to America result in a huge, and in this instance, quite comic struggle with both bureaucracy and cultural expectations. As an illustration of the nature of cultural cisgenderism, it illustrates a similar kind of problem but in terms of extent is not nearly an adequate metaphor, yet it does represent an illustration of the difficulties faced by transgender people in a culture simply not constituted to account for our existence. The consequences of the War Brides Act 1945 are not, however, even remotely comparable with the very serious, and sometimes deadly, consequences of cultural cisgenderism. Nonetheless, as a metaphor it is probably the closest available, a point that in itself suggests that cisgenderism is a concept that will not be easy for many to understand.
2. Archive A: Various media from elsewhere. by Natacha Kennedy
Open Democracy, 2022
Understanding the way anti-trans activists deploy Mirror Propaganda against trans people, not mer... more Understanding the way anti-trans activists deploy Mirror Propaganda against trans people, not merely as a silencing strategy in the media but from the perspective of women's rights, which are being sold out to people who would strip women, and others who can become pregnant, of their rights also.
Original article; https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/anti-trans-transphobia-gender-critical-mirror-propaganda/
Transactual, 2018
Created in collaboration with Chay Brown.
The core value underlying all transphobia is a rejecti... more Created in collaboration with Chay Brown.
The core value underlying all transphobia is a rejection of trans identity and a refusal to acknowledge that it could possibly be real or valid. Transphobia has no single, simple manifestation. It is complex and can include a range of behaviours and arguments. The consequence of transphobia is that trans people struggle to live openly and comfortably in society. An ultimate outcome may be the erasure of trans people as a viable class of people.
Information made available to me by whistleblowers last week, and now confirmed by other sources,... more Information made available to me by whistleblowers last week, and now confirmed by other sources, has cast doubt on the integrity of some of the Guardian's reporting, especially of issues that relate to trans people. Here I report and give my opinion of these revelations.
Early this summer Olson et al (2022) published a very significant longitudinal study of 317 trans... more Early this summer Olson et al (2022) published a very significant longitudinal study of 317 transgender children aged between 3 and 12 years of age who had socially transitioned. Social transition means that they were known by their preferred pronouns and chosen names and treated as their true genders, the genders with which they identify rather than the genders assigned to them at birth. The conclusion the study came to was emphatic; 94% of these children continued to identify as trans after five years. So why has the NHS decided, in its latest Service Specification for trans children and young people, to state the following…? "The clinical approach in regard to pre-pubertal children will reflect evidence that suggests that, while young people who are gender querying or who express gender incongruence may have started their journey as younger children, in most pre-pubertal children, gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence." This claim refers to a document called "Endocrine Society's Clinical Practice Guidelines" published in 2017, and specifically cites, uncontextualized, the following; "combining all outcome studies to date, the gender dysphoria / gender incongruence of a minority of prepubertal children appears to persist in adolescence."
Let's be clear, the outburst by a speaker at an anti-trans event on Wednesday, when she called tr... more Let's be clear, the outburst by a speaker at an anti-trans event on Wednesday, when she called trans people "parasites" demonstrates what trans people have been saying all along -that there is no debate about trans issues to be had. There never has been and never will be. Debating our existence or human rights with transphobes is a nonstarter. Especially after this. Any group claiming to want a "debate" is being profoundly dishonest when one party to that that debate perceives it as constituting what Carol Ridell described as "a threat to my living space".
Amid the torrent of fabrications, misleading interpretations, institutional dishonesty and outrig... more Amid the torrent of fabrications, misleading interpretations, institutional dishonesty and outright lies that the anti-trans fanatics and their friends on the extreme right and in the right-wing media have put about no-one seems to have noticed how these dishonest bigots have effectively disproved their own case.
Rowan Atkinson's Barclaycard advert Makes more sense than Women's Hour Reading the transcript of ... more Rowan Atkinson's Barclaycard advert Makes more sense than Women's Hour Reading the transcript of the Womans's Hour programme broadcast on BBC Radio on the 9th of March I couldn't help but be reminded of Rowan Atkinson's TV advert for Barclaycard. Broadcast many years ago, when I had time to watch telly, and paying the licence fee didn't mean supporting a racist political party, it consisted of Atkinson trying to buy a carpet in an Arab country. His character was under the impression that he spoke the same North African language as the merchant. In fact it turned out that Rowan Atkinson's character had to admit that he and the merchant were "both fluent, but sadly, in different languages". This is what struck me about the Woman's Hour attempt to set up a fight between a trans person who knows about trans children, and a Radical Feminist; they both spoke fluently but in distinctly different languages. Michelle Bridgeman expertly put the case for trans children to be given access to proper healthcare very well and Finn McKay argued that gender should not be policed in the way it is. Michelle was talking, in essence, about relieving the suffering of trans kids, and preventing suicide and self-harm. Finn wanted to change the gendered culture of our society which she maintains, is oppressive. They are actually two different things, like Rowan Atkinson and the carpet dealer's languages. Probably the moment that summed up Finn's position was when she said this; "if that starts from a position, from a baseline assumption about what is supposed normal and natural femininity and what is normal and natural masculinity, then that is nothing more than medicine based on stereotype and that is only gonna function to actually maintain this brutal gender regime that I think puts pressure on us all, and conveniently blame it on nature instead of blaming it on ourselves." (my italics). It is this suggestion that medical care for in this instance trans children "puts pressure on us all" which needs to be deconstructed. What sort of "pressure" is she referring to? Pressure to conform to gender stereotypes, I suspect. Her thesis appears to be that by allowing trans
In a few weeks time I will be publishing the first of a number of academic papers about what I ha... more In a few weeks time I will be publishing the first of a number of academic papers about what I have termed "cultural cisgenderism".
3. Archive B: Older material inc. research & media by Natacha Kennedy
Uploads
1. Papers by Natacha Kennedy
internet, increasing systemic rigidity of formal education system and
intensified media manipulation and partiality. Using empirical data and
drawing on Social Activity Method, it elaborates some of the different
strategies young trans people recruit in their learning and contends that these may constitute a type of learning where the control of the pedagogic, the learning environment and the subject matter lies to a significant extent, with the learner, taking place in spaces free from the influence of hegemonic transphobia. This type of learning appears to constitute an effective but complex one. As, in this instance the learning is taking place in a cultural environment where the subject matter is often suppressed and subject to ideological misrepresentation by hegemonic control of the public sphere, this study suggests that learning by providing learners
Extended blog post.
2. Archive A: Various media from elsewhere. by Natacha Kennedy
Original article; https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/anti-trans-transphobia-gender-critical-mirror-propaganda/
The core value underlying all transphobia is a rejection of trans identity and a refusal to acknowledge that it could possibly be real or valid. Transphobia has no single, simple manifestation. It is complex and can include a range of behaviours and arguments. The consequence of transphobia is that trans people struggle to live openly and comfortably in society. An ultimate outcome may be the erasure of trans people as a viable class of people.
3. Archive B: Older material inc. research & media by Natacha Kennedy
internet, increasing systemic rigidity of formal education system and
intensified media manipulation and partiality. Using empirical data and
drawing on Social Activity Method, it elaborates some of the different
strategies young trans people recruit in their learning and contends that these may constitute a type of learning where the control of the pedagogic, the learning environment and the subject matter lies to a significant extent, with the learner, taking place in spaces free from the influence of hegemonic transphobia. This type of learning appears to constitute an effective but complex one. As, in this instance the learning is taking place in a cultural environment where the subject matter is often suppressed and subject to ideological misrepresentation by hegemonic control of the public sphere, this study suggests that learning by providing learners
Extended blog post.
Original article; https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/anti-trans-transphobia-gender-critical-mirror-propaganda/
The core value underlying all transphobia is a rejection of trans identity and a refusal to acknowledge that it could possibly be real or valid. Transphobia has no single, simple manifestation. It is complex and can include a range of behaviours and arguments. The consequence of transphobia is that trans people struggle to live openly and comfortably in society. An ultimate outcome may be the erasure of trans people as a viable class of people.