What's the Difference? Bringing Particularity to Queer Studies of Transgender

Abstract

This article explores the concept of ‘difference’ in relation to studies of transgender. I initially outline the importance of queer and postmodern theory, which have utilised ‘difference’ to incorporate transgender into analyses of sexual and gender diversity. I draw on debates within transgender studies to argue that a lack of emphasis on particularity within poststructuralist and postmodern theory has led to a homogenous theorisation of transgender. I propose that current limitations within queer approaches to transgender can be overcome through a queer sociological framework which grounds gender difference within a social analysis. Drawing on findings from recent empirical research into transgender identities in the UK, the article sketches out a range of distinct subject positions under the umbrella of ‘transgender’. Here I explore the ways in which transgender narratives are formed through divergent gendered experiences and constructed in relation to temporal factors of generation, transitional time span, and medical, social and cultural understandings and practices.