Transsexuella personer hör till de mest utsatta personer i världen. Deras rättigheter regleras och diskrimineras av statlig lagstiftning som strider mot de mänskliga rättigheterna och de utsätts för våld och diskriminering p.g.a. deras avvikande könsidentitet som överskrider existerande genusbarriärer eller för att de utmanar de dominerande uppfattningarna om genus roller. Uppsatsen belyser sambandet mellan transnationell aktivism och kroppspolitik, för att påvisa hur transsexuella rättigheter diskrimineras och hurkroppar ses som en statlig angelägenhet. Jag utgår ifrån ett genusperspektiv inom IR, för att hänvisa till ett genussystem som förklarar de ojämna maktrelationerna och vill därmed betona lagens roll inom beskrivningen av samhälle och i föreläggandet av förändring. Studien påvisar ett samband på individ, statlig och transnationell nivå, för att illustrera den komplexa relationen mellan den politiska och diskursiva möjligheten inom den transnationella aktivismen. Genom en jämförande fallstudie av Chile och Finland, påvisar jag likheter och olikheter som påverkar hur transnationell aktivism tas emot, och ifall den påverkatländernas interna lagstiftning för transsexuella rättigheter. Chile och Finland visade sig vara stater med mycket likheter, varav den oberoende variabel som skiljer dem åt är den religiösa aspekten. Chile påvisar den tydliga relation som finns mellan staten och den katolska kyrkan, medan Finland ses som en sekulär stat. / Transgender people belong to the most vulnerable people in the world. Their rights are regulated and discriminated by state laws that violate human rights, and are subjected to violence and discrimination because of their gender identity, which exceeds existing gender barriers or because they challenge dominant views on gender roles. The paper highlights the connection between transnational activism and body politics, to show how transsexual rights are discriminated and seen as an affair of the state. I assume a gender gender perspective within IR, referring to a gender system that explains the uneven power relations,and thus wish to emphasise the role of the law in description of society and in the description of change. The study provides an insight into a relationship at the individual, state and transnational level. Through a comparative case study of Chile and Finland, both of which are current about the issue of gender reassignment, I demonstrate how transnational activism is used and received, and if the transnational activism has effected the internal laws for transsexual rights. The countries showed to have a lot in common,whereby the independent variable that differs is the religious aspect. Chile shows the strong connection between the state and the catholic church, while Finland is seen as a secular state.

Sex is a biologically based classification, determining whether an individual is male or female. Comparatively, gender is a socially designed construct, which varies between cultures and prescribes what it means to be a man or a woman. Western culture suggests all individuals fall neatly into one of these two groups. Females are expected to display feminine characteristics such as being nurturers, while males are expected to display masculine characteristics such as being providers. There exists, however, a population of individuals who identify themselves as "transgender," meaning, they feel inconsistency between their internal sense of gender identity and their birth-assigned biological sex and/or assigned gender role. These individuals wish to separate from their birth-assigned gender role and express through physical modification their true gender identity. In the context of romantic relationships, it was once thought that disclosure of one partner's transgender identity meant inevitable demise of the relationship. Clinical guidelines offered advice to the transgender partner, suggesting they abandon their family, change their identity, and begin a new life elsewhere (Lev, 2004). More recently, however, clinical experiences suggest the possibility that many transgender people can maintain healthy and sustainable relationships. This study sought to understand the impact of gender transition on the sexual relationship and sexual orientation of female-to-male (FTM) transgender individuals and their cisgender female partners. / Master of Science

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This research employs qualitative methodology to analyze social change in business news articles of The New York Times. A random sample of 127 articles published between 1970 and 2000, discussing advertising news and containing one or more of the terms "Gay", "Lesbian", " Bisexual", "Transexual", "Transgendered" and "Queer" (GLBTQ), were selected. Feminist, Marxist, Postmodern, and critical theory is used to analyze social representation, cultural norms, stereotypes and levels of visibility. The "meta-theoretical" lens applied is a gendered postmodernism grounded in stratification theory that assuages the cultural-based critique of Marxism, overcomes the essentialist limitations of radical feminism, incorporates the pluralism of socialist feminism and delimits the relativist tendencies of a purer postmodernism. Quantitatively, gay men were found to achieve twice as much business news coverage as lesbians. Bisexuals, transsexuals, transgenders and queers were highly invisible. Overall, a change in the representation and depiction of corporate interest in gays and lesbians was manifested. This socio-historical analysis revealed a shift from deviantization and stigmatization of homosexuality to the commodification, and spectacularization of GLBTQs. GLBTQ invisibility is documented and the misconception of gay and lesbian wealth, created by market research, is addressed. Invisibility of GLBTQs is posited to be both an intentional and actively managed form of politics. Furthermore, business news reporting is argued to be less "objective" and more a political, social cultural and political activity where the media itself is a stage for the cultural contestation of social norms. This sociologically informed reading of business news articles details numerous case-specific instances where The New York Times contributed towards the proliferation of norms, values and beliefs characterizing GLBTQs. The New York Times is argued to be a contributor towards the creation of sexuality as a cultural product. Its representations of GLBTQs are seen as one manifestation of an institutionally created understanding of the "culture of homosexuality". / Ph. D.

The main interest of this interdisciplinary thesis (psychology-law) is the understanding of transphobia and discrimination against trans* people. I locate the problem of this type of discrimination in the social construction of ‘sex/gender’ categories. Particularly, I situate it in the definition of the norms that constitute ‘woman’ and ‘man’ as two essential and mutually exclusive categories that sustain the unequal binary organisation of society. People who transgress those norms have been labelled as ‘mentally ill’ by psychiatry and psychology since the end of the 19th century. The emergence of trans* activism from the 1960s and especially Trans Studies in the 1990s has allowed questioning those pathologising discourses. In the present context, we observe a tendency towards the depathologisation of trans* experiences and identities. Depathologisation is coupled with increased visibility of trans* people in the cultural domain and a more favourable public opinion towards them. However, trans* people still face serious discrimination and the norm that divides humankind into ‘women’ and ‘men’ is still very much present. Drawing on these premises I argue that the transgression of ‘sex/gender’ norms have been redefined nowadays so that the binary opposition between women and men is maintained as the norm. Thus, trans* people are still depicted as ‘abnormal’ although pathologising and psychiatric discourses are not necessarily employed today. The general objective of the thesis is to understand how this redefinition is carried out and the effects of it in two specific contexts: the legal certification of sex in the civil status of individuals in Belgium and the definition of the worker subject. The choice of these two cases responds to the fact that trans* people report facing many obstacles and discrimination in them. Based on the theoretical and methodological principles of discursive psychology and Perelmanian new rhetoric, I realised the discourse analysis of two corpora: a legislative corpus and a corpus of interviews. The legislative corpus comprises texts of Acts, bills, amendments, parliamentary debates and Circulars regulating the mention of sex in the civil status in Belgium. The second corpus includes the transcriptions of five group interviews with workers carried out with co-workers from five work organisations in Brussels. In both cases, the identification of discursive practices and their variability allowed me to elucidate the effects they produce. Specifically, it allowed me to show that, although the identified practices seem less stigmatising, they still depict trans* people as a ‘deviation from the norm’, thereby legitimising a different legal treatment towards them and justifying the discrimination and exclusion they endure at work. Moreover, the identified practices reproduce the binary organisation of society and justify discrimination against women in the workplace. The ultimate purpose of this thesis is to promote an informed critical attitude towards those discursive practices and, in this way, to contribute to the struggle against transphobia and sexism. / Dans cette thèse interdisciplinaire (psychologie-droit) je m’intéresse à la transphobie et la discrimination à l’égard des personnes trans*. Je situe ce problème de discrimination dans la construction sociale des catégories « sexe/genre », notamment dans la définition des normes qui constituent les catégories « femme » et « homme » comme deux catégories essentielles et mutuellement exclusives qui soutiennent l’organisation binaire et inégale de la société. Les personnes qui ont transgressé ces normes ont été étiquetées comme « malades mentales » par la psychiatrie et la psychologie depuis la fin du 19ème siècle. L’émergence de l’activisme trans* dans les années soixante et notamment des Trans Studies dans les années nonantes ont permis la remise en question de ces discours pathologisants. Dans le contexte actuel, on observe une tendance vers la dépathologisation des expériences et identités trans*, accompagnée d’une croissante visibilité des personnes trans* dans le domaine culturel et d’une opinion publique globalement plus favorable à leur égard. Par contre, les personnes trans* font encore l’objet de nombreuses discriminations et la norme qui divise l’humanité entre « femmes » et « hommes » est encore extrêmement présente. Sur la base de ces prémisses, je soutiens que la transgression des normes de « sexe/genre » a été actuellement redéfinie de façon à ce l’opposition binaire entre les femmes et les hommes est maintenue comme norme. Ainsi, les personnes trans* sont encore définies comme « anormales » alors que des discours pathologisants et psychiatrisants ne sont pas nécessairement mobilisés aujourd’hui. L’objectif général de la thèse est de comprendre comment cette redéfinition est faite et quels sont ses effets dans deux contextes spécifiques :la certification légal de la mention du sexe dans l’état civil en Belgique et la définition du sujet travailleur. Le choix de ces deux cas se justifie par le fait que ce sont deux domaines dans lesquels les personnes trans* signalent beaucoup d’obstacles et de discrimination. M’appuyant sur les principes théoriques et méthodologiques de la psychologie discursive et de la nouvelle rhétorique perelmanienne, j’ai effectué l’analyse du discours de deux corpus :un corpus législatif et un corpus d’entretiens. Le corpus législatif est composé de textes de loi, projets et propositions de loi, amendements, travaux parlementaires et circulaires régulant la mention du sexe dans l’état civil en Belgique. Le deuxième corpus inclut les transcriptions de cinq entretiens de groupe menés auprès de travailleuses et de travailleurs dans cinq organisations de Bruxelles. Dans les deux cas, l’identification des pratiques discursives et de leur variabilité m’a permis de dévoiler les effets qu’elles produisent. Spécifiquement, j’ai pu démontrer que, bien que ces pratiques semblent moins stigmatisantes aujourd’hui, elles continuent à définir les personnes trans* comme une « déviation de la norme », légitimant ainsi un traitement légal différent à leur égard et justifiant la discrimination et l’exclusion dont elles sont victimes au travail. En outre, ces pratiques discursives reproduisent l’organisation binaire de la société et la discrimination à l’égard des femmes au travail. Avec cette thèse j’espère contribuer à la promotion d’une attitude critique informée par rapport aux pratiques discursives identifiées et, par ce biais, à la lutte contre la transphobie et le sexisme. / Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of popular culture, especially prime-time television, on women learner-viewers’ identity development. More specifically, this study explores one specific television show, the 1962-64 Cathy Gale episodes of The Avengers as a portal to adult learning. It further explores the ways in which television, as a form of public pedagogy, can help facilitate the formation of a critical or feminist identity among adult learner viewers. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) How and what did women learn from watching The Avengers? 2) How did women incorporate that learning into their lives and into their identities? and 3) How did women interpret and accommodate the feminist example of Cathy Gale? Data for this study was collected over a two-and-a-half year period. Data consisted of interviews with contemporaneous viewers of the Cathy Gale Avengers episodes, interviews with scriptwriters and the actor who played Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, numerous documents from statistics obtained at the British Film Institute, fanzines, and newspaper articles of the period. Analysis revealed that in particular historical times and situations television viewing can become a form of public pedagogy, facilitating transformational learning in adult viewers that produces lasting, life-changing effects. The investigation revealed that not only did biologically-born women incorporate Cathy Gale’s feminist example into their identities and actions, but biologically born males whose core gender identity was female did also. This dissertation is written in article format. Each of the six sections has been designed as stand-alone pieces to aid accessibility and enhance readers’ engagement with the study.

Results of the three studies on the speech production of female-to-male transgender individuals (transmen) present phonetic evidence that speech produces the transmen by what I termed triple decoupling. Transmen successfully decouple gender from biological sex. The results of the longitudinal studies exemplified that speakers born and raised female do not necessarily need to have a female voicing source or filter function. Both qualitative changes can he achieved (to different degree) by bringing exogenous testosterone into the system that virilizes both source and filter over time. Moreover, the cross-sectional study showed that articulatory gestures can be modified to move the acoustic targets towards a gendered target one is striving to present. The acoustic manifestations of transmen with different partner attraction offers the next type of decoupling, that between sexual orientation and gender identity. The results of the cross-sectional study imply that female-born individuals attracted to men do not necessarily have to identify as women. They can opt out of this self-identification by selectively adopting features associated with the gay cismale speaking style. This is suggested by the fact that sexual orientation was found to have a significant effect on the durational and spectral quality of fricatives /s/ and /s/, formant values and sentential pitch range. Finally, the longitudinal studies provide evidence for the third type of decoupling, which comes in the form of gender breaking free from physiology. The recurring "reverse J-pattern" of both the transitioning source and filter, as well as the mean fundamental frequency raising above the pitch floor illustrate the fact that transmen do not feel obliged to sound as masculine (as low-pitched and "low-formanted") as testosterone enables them to. This final type of decoupling also serves to demonstrate that many transmen decidedly do not opt in to the binary system of sex / gender even though they are physiologically able to do so. Although LGB speaking styles have been investigated before, this dissertation is the first to discuss a number of acoustic descriptors specifically in transmen's speech and place them into the context of hormone treatment, sexual orientation and disclosure status.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of popular culture, especially prime-time television, on women learner-viewers’ identity development. More specifically, this study explores one specific television show, the 1962-64 Cathy Gale episodes of The Avengers as a portal to adult learning. It further explores the ways in which television, as a form of public pedagogy, can help facilitate the formation of a critical or feminist identity among adult learner viewers. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) How and what did women learn from watching The Avengers? 2) How did women incorporate that learning into their lives and into their identities? and 3) How did women interpret and accommodate the feminist example of Cathy Gale? Data for this study was collected over a two-and-a-half year period. Data consisted of interviews with contemporaneous viewers of the Cathy Gale Avengers episodes, interviews with scriptwriters and the actor who played Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, numerous documents from statistics obtained at the British Film Institute, fanzines, and newspaper articles of the period. Analysis revealed that in particular historical times and situations television viewing can become a form of public pedagogy, facilitating transformational learning in adult viewers that produces lasting, life-changing effects. The investigation revealed that not only did biologically-born women incorporate Cathy Gale’s feminist example into their identities and actions, but biologically born males whose core gender identity was female did also. This dissertation is written in article format. Each of the six sections has been designed as stand-alone pieces to aid accessibility and enhance readers’ engagement with the study.

American Jewish rappers have become an increasingly prevalent topic in Jewish popular and scholarly media, where critics and scholars seek to understand how hip-hop performance and consumption serves as a platform for exploring and articulating Jewish identity. This thesis explores the work of what I term “Jewish parody rappers”—rappers who foreground Jewishness while destabilizing normative American Jewish identity using humor or parody—in order to demonstrate how nuanced gender and ethnoracial identity performances can be found in an often overlooked segment of Jewish rap. Using Jamie Moshin’s concept of “New Jewishness,” I argue that Jewish parody rappers recontextualize tropes of Jewish masculinity through black hip-hop codes, evoking a long history of Jewish engagement with African-American performance. Through an examination of Jewish parody rappers and their performances—including the Beastie Boys, 2 Live Jews, Chutzpah, and Athens Boys Choir—I demonstrate how these New Jews destabilize, or queer, Jewish identity through hip-hop performance. The Beastie Boys’ parodic performances highlight Jewishness as a liminal identity as they use the malleable and performative markers of Jewish masculinity to foreground their whiteness in the black-dominated arena of hip-hop. 2 Live Jews and Chutzpah recuperate tropes of effeminate and impotent Jewish masculinity through their extended parodies. Harvey Katz of Athens Boys Choir plays with tropes of Jewish masculinity not only to queer Jewishness, like other Jewish parody rappers, but also to articulate an explicitly queer Jewish identity. Each of these core samples illuminates various ways in which Jewish parody rappers perform New Jewish identity; however, these rappers do not evade the specter of problematic racial appropriation as they articulate Jewishness through and against tropes of black hip-hop hypermasculinity. / text