GWSS 257 Chapter Notes - Chapter n/a: Body Modification, Sociality

• School: UW
• Department: Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
• Course: GWSS 257
• Professor: Ann E.Culligan

Document Summary

Reluctant gatekeepers: trans positive practitioners and the social construction of sex and. Focused on cases where practitioners declined clients access to body modifications for reasons related to gender identity based on their working understanding of the appropriate relationship between gendered identities and sexed bodies. The interviewed practitioners different in terms of their assumption that gender identity is a product of biological, spiritual, or social processes. Need a gid diagnosis to get srs or hormone therapy, which puts self-described trans positive therapeutic practitioners in uncomfortable position of gatekeeper". Must determine if client should undergo medical body modifications. Difficulty of this role is magnified by relative lack of consensus about how practitioners should make these decisions in a way that affirms clients self determination but also avoids potential irreversible or enegative effects of medical intervention. Most expressed faith in biological model of gender identityemphasized gender identity as immutable, binary and healthy when corresponds to sexed bodies.