Sarah Reasoner's Third Article Review

Sarah Reasoner          

WGST 202H

T/R 12:30-1:45

Professor Currans

Blog Topic: Transgender Movement

Article Review #3

Shapiro, Eve. “’Trans’cending Barriers: Transgender Organizing on the Internet” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 16.3-4 (2004): 165-179.

            Eve Shapiro’s article, “’Trans’cending Barriers: Transgender Organizing on the Internet” discusses the complicated relationship between the transgender rights movement and the internet. In this piece, Shapiro uses interviews and quotes from transgender activists to talk about the immensely positive impact that the internet has had on the transgender movement. She also critiques the internet, pointing out the problems that it does not fully help the movement to overcome. Overall, Shapiro argues that the internet’s wide use in the transgender movement is not without problems, but it has helped propel the movement forward in a powerful way.

            Shapiro first lays down a historical timeline that explains the different stages of the transgender movement. Through this description, the readers can understand where exactly the internet started being used by organizations in the movement. Shapiro identifies “three overlapping waves of organizing which moved the community from a support focus, to an educational one, and finally toward political organizing and activism” (168). She says that the internet was one big factor in helping the transgender movement shift from helping people survive and providing information to a movement that is trying to achieve social justice. During this political wave, there was a lot of direct action, such as protests, which, “allowed for a visible transgender presence” (168). During this wave, activists were also able to push the trans-rights movement forward by information exchange and organizing on the internet. Use of the internet in this way created widespread effects which reached further than any physical organizing could.

            The internet helped to overcome many issues that were faced by the trans-rights movement during the first two waves. For instance, before the internet, a transgender or non-gender conforming individual might not have known anyone like him or herself. The internet provides a space where trans-individuals can communicate safely with people who feel the same way they do.  This allows trans-individuals to educate themselves and get involved in support groups in ways that they never could before. Because of this, the internet fostered the communication and collective identity that the movement needed to grow. Furthermore, before the internet, medical organizations that performed gender-reassignment surgeries encouraged those who had undergone the surgery to try and hide their identity or past life. The internet overcame this problem by providing anonymity to those who are afraid to ‘come out’ as a trans-individual and also provides a space for activists to challenge the medical community’s notions about transsexuality. In this way, the internet has completely changed how the trans-rights movement is able to organize. It provides information about transsexuality to anyone who has access to a computer all across the world. People who are embarrassed or confused about their feelings of gender dysphoria can search for information on the internet in private, rather than having to look up information in a library or send a letter to a trans-rights organization requesting information. The distribution of information in this way had grown the movement astronomically. The internet has also helped to overcome the lack of funding that the trans-rights movement has. According to Shapiro, “(W)ith the Internet limited resources can now be better utilized. Whereas ten years ago the largest transgender support organization (…) almost closed its doors due to financial trouble, transgender organizations now can and do function with much smaller budgets,” (170). Shapiro explains that the internet allows organizations to be run from activist’s homes and eliminates the need to pay expenses like upkeep costs for an organization’s headquarters, which can help to expand the movement in spite of its limited budget. Despite all these upsides, however, the internet is not without flaws.

            One of the biggest challenges the trans-rights movement faces is their need to reach their most marginalized populations. For instance, many trans-individuals are homeless, having lost their jobs or homes because of their identity. These individuals oftentimes do not have access to the information or resources that the internet can provide them with because they do not have a computer or internet. In other words, the poorest and most disregarded trans-individuals are still being left behind as the movement relocates to the internet. Furthermore, the internet does not always reach members outside of the community. For instance, bystanders would have to move through a picket line during a trans-rights protest, directly exposing them to problems faced by trans-individuals, but those bystanders on the internet who are not involved in the movement can avoid ever seeing or reading such content about the trans-rights movement. This prevents the movement from expanding to include cisgender allies.  Finally, the use of the internet in the trans-rights movement is often criticized for having created, “a false sense of movement size and safety,” (174). Shapiro explains this by pointing out that trans-individuals might better be able to figure out their identity through information on the internet, but that “Basically, society is still limping along trying to understand what has happened and how should/do they respond,” (175). In this way, the internet does not fully help society as a whole understand the movement and be able to react to it appropriately, but it often creates a false sense that the movement is far-reaching when, in reality, there is a lot more work that needs to be done. Overall, these problems are still being addressed by leaders of the movement, but continue to operate through the internet.

            This article, like “Stepping Back, Looking Outward: Situating Transgender Activism and Transgender Studies- Kris Hayashi, Matt Richardson, and Susan Stryker Frame the Movement,” helps to develop my blog topic of the Transgender Rights Movement by addressing positive influences in the movement and offering a critique of how this could be better improved. Both “Transcending Barriers” and “Stepping Back, Looking Outward” emphasize the necessity to reach the most marginalized people within the trans-rights movement and both articles offer critiques about how the movement can better accomplish this. In both articles, the information that the authors use to frame the movement is based on quotes and interviews from activists and leaders within the movement, making both articles excellent examples of pieces that frame the movement in new and thought-provoking ways.  “Stepping Back, Looking Outward” described ways that direct action, education, and organization worked to help raise awareness for the trans-rights movement and “Transcending Barriers” added to these ideas by describing how the internet has served as a powerful tool for trans-rights activists.  Although I wish “Transcending Barriers” had done a better job offering solutions to the problems the movement still faces even with the internet, I would still recommend this article to people who are interested in seeing the positive changes and victories of the transgender movement in the past few decades.