Cheer or Jeer?

In an Advocate interview (April 22, 2008) with Kimberly Peirce about her second film, Stop-Loss, interviewer Anne Stockwell turned the topic of conversation to masculinity, pointing to Peirce’s fascination with masculinity as an artist. (Considering Peirce’s debut directorial film, Boys Don’t Cry, Stockwell’s observation seems warranted.) After some insights by Peirce about the need for men—trans, biological, gay, and heterosexual alike—to work to perform, and moreover sustain, masculinity in a modern culture in which traditional, stoic masculinity is more and more often being considered insufficient, the conversation took what was for me, an unexpected turn.

Talking specifically about what she characterizes as queer culture’s concern about masculinity, Peirce then goes on to say “You have this whole thing where women who used to be butches now are becoming transsexuals or tranny fags. So a love of masculinity ultimately becomes a love of self becomes wanting to be two men together.”

That Peirce describes transmen as “women who used to be butches,” is slightly disturbing given the history of border wars between FTMs and butches (see Judith Halberstam’s chapter on this in Female Masculinity), and the way that her statement seems to feed into those battles. It’s also an unfortunate statement given the predominance of transmen who have been so adamant that though they may have been born in female bodies, they were never women. Clearly, not all transmen feel this way (I’m still struggling with this myself), and we need to hear more about such diversity within the trans community.

But, that nuanced acknowledgement of trans diversity isn’t what Peirce’s comment was getting at—instead, what she highlights is how transmen identify as gay men after transition because they love masculinity so much that not only do they seek it out for themselves in being men, but also want to partner with men. She never says it, but my impression was that she saw this as a narcissistic love of masculinity extended, and awry.

Are there tranny fags?
Hell yes.

Do some of them love masculinity so much that they not only want to be men, but they want to be with me?
Yes. And why are we so concerned about this? Isn’t this giving into the same oppressive forces that promote homophobia, of gay men and transexual women especially?

Are all transmen gay-identified?
No. So then why single-out gay-identified transmen for their sexuality?

Is a narcissistic love of masculinity the only reason that some trans men are gay?
No. Even if it were, shouldn’t we celebrate self-love, especially living in the context of a heterosexist and homophobic culture?

Is narcissistic love the reason most transmen are gay?
I doubt it. Is there really ever just one reason for anything?

So, what’s the big deal with what Peirce said?
It’s not THAT big a deal...I still put Stop-Loss on my netflix queue, and thought it was a good film, and told others, too. But, it did get me thinking about the interconnections between gender and sexuality...

It used to be that historically there were those who thought that people were “homosexual” (e.g. butch lesbian) because of their “inappropriate” gender display. The theory clearly fell through when considering femme lesbians, though that didn’t prevent femmes from being overlooked and/or ignored for a long time, since they weren’t always acknowledged as “real” lesbians (see Joan Nestle, including one of my favorites, The Femme-Butch Reader: The Persistent Desire). Heck, it was even the case that in the U.S., a post-transition heterosexual was mandated before consent for sexual reassignment surgery was given. And, it’s still true that in some countries today, sex reassignment surgery is being covered by government funding so as to turn “homosexuals” into “heterosexuals,” in keeping with compulsory heterosexual thought. Even trans-identified researchers have made the mistake of assuming the heterosexuality of their trans-identified subjects—that’s what happens under the dominance of compulsory heterosexuality and heterosexism.

So, it’s good to hear about transsexual gay men, to have their existence acknowledged and reflected in media and culture. But, it would have been nice if their sexuality wasn’t made out to be “a love of self,” as if self-love were so bad, and as if same-sex sexuality is only about self-love.

Really, though, maybe my reaction to Peirce’s passing comment about the sexuality of transgender and transsexual people is more about my own interest and theory about how previously gay-identified transpeople cope with passing/identifying as heterosexual post-transition...

Oohh...I smell a new research project...but I guess I should finish the one at hand first!