Examine individual changes

'@@ -1,25 +1,37 @@ {{AfC submission|t||ts=20231107045028|u=Edenaviv5|ns=118|demo=}}<!-- Important, do not remove this line before article has been created. --> -'''''Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity''''' is a 2022 work by political scientist and transgender activist, [[Paisley Currah]]. +'''''Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity''''' is a 2022 work by [[Political science|political scientist]] and [[transgender]] activist, [[Paisley Currah]]. == Overview == -Currah's text diverges from the common discourses around gender and sex as identities and instead asks what it is that sex classifications do.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murib |first=Zein |date=2022-12-16 |title=Sex is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity: by Paisley Currah |url=https://bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/1/3-4/5/ |journal=Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies |language=en-US |volume=1 |issue=3-4 |pages=277–281 |doi=10.57814/mgke-3e07 |issn=2769-2124}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Willis-Conger |first=Rae |date=February 13, 2023 |title=Book Review: Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity by Paisley Currah |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432231153834 |journal=[[Gender & Society]] |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=476-478}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=1.2 The Forest and the Trees |url=https://www.liberreview.com/issue-1-2-the-forest-and-the-trees |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=LIBER: A Feminist Review |language=en-US}}</ref> He ultimately argues that, in the United States, sex classifications are based on what the role of "sex" as a category is intended to do in a particular set of circumstances.<ref>{{Cite web |title=‘Sex Is as Sex Does’ Examines the Tangled Rules on Transgender Identity |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/sex-sex-does-examines-tangled-rules-transgender-identity |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu |language=en}}</ref> As such, he defines "sex" as "whatever an entity whose decisions are backed by the force of law says it is" in a given context.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Currah |first=Paisley |title=Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |year=2022 |isbn=9780814717103 |pages=9, 111-113, 143 |language=en}}</ref> +Currah's text diverges from the common discourses around gender and [[sex]] as identities and instead asks what it is that sex classifications do.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murib |first=Zein |date=2022-12-16 |title=Sex is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity: by Paisley Currah |url=https://bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/1/3-4/5/ |journal=Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies |language=en-US |volume=1 |issue=3-4 |pages=277–281 |doi=10.57814/mgke-3e07 |issn=2769-2124}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=1.2 The Forest and the Trees |url=https://www.liberreview.com/issue-1-2-the-forest-and-the-trees |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=LIBER: A Feminist Review |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Willis-Conger |first=Rae |date=2023-02-13 |title=Book Review: <i>Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity</i> by Paisley Currah |url=https://doi-org.ezproxy.neu.edu/10.1177/08912432231153834 |journal=Gender &amp; Society |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=476–478 |doi=10.1177/08912432231153834 |issn=0891-2432}}</ref> He ultimately argues that, in the United States, sex classifications are based on what the role of "sex" as a category is intended to do in a particular set of circumstances.<ref>{{Cite web |title=‘Sex Is as Sex Does’ Examines the Tangled Rules on Transgender Identity |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/sex-sex-does-examines-tangled-rules-transgender-identity |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu |language=en}}</ref> As such, he defines "sex" as "whatever an entity whose decisions are backed by the force of law says it is" in a given context.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Currah |first=Paisley |title=Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |year=2022 |isbn=9780814717103 |pages=9, 111-113, 143 |language=en}}</ref> Currah's book has five chapters, an introduction, and conclusion. An outline of the contents of the work, not including the introduction and conclusion, is as follows: -# "If Sex Is Not a Biological Phenomenon" -# Sex and Popular Sovereignty +# If Sex Is Not a Biological Phenomenon +# Sex and [[Popular sovereignty in the United States|Popular Sovereignty]] # Sex Classification as a Technology of Governance # Till Birth Do Us Part: Marriage, ID Documents, and the Nation-State -# Incarceration, Identity Politics, and the Trans-Cis DivideThroughout the core chapters, he explores three central arguments regarding sex classification systems: +# Incarceration, Identity Politics, and the Trans-Cis Divide -* "Sex classifications were necessary to the administration of policies that used gender as a technology of government."<ref name=":0" /> For instance, prior to the [[Obergefell v. Hodges|''Obergefell v. Hodges'']] case in 2015, which resulted in recognition of same-sex marriage across the United States, sex classifications were an important tool in policies regarding marriage, and thus property ownership and the construction of familial relationships. Currah notes that marriage is "an instrument of governing" and nation-building, and inextricably linked to the "transmission of property."<ref name=":0" /> -* The "existence of conflicting rules for classifying sex . . . expresses the different work that sex does in different contexts," showing that sex is "operationalized as a mobile technology of government."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Jessica A. |date=2022 |title=Sex Assigned at Birth |url=https://columbialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Clarke-Sex_Assigned_At_Birth.pdf |journal=[[Columbia Law Review]] |volume=122 |issue=7 |pages=1838}}</ref> This is exemplified by cases where transgender people, prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage, were often still barred from marriage to cisgender people of the same sex even as they had legally changed their sex on, for example, their driving license. -* More recently, the term "transgender" itself has become the subject of political divisions and is used in the context of American party politics, where [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatives]] tend to advocate for policies against (explicitly or implicitly) transgender people, and [[Liberalism in the United States|liberals]] advocate for policies that expand transgender recognition/inclusion in American life. Currah argues that the visibility of transgender people has not been as positive as transgender activists hoped it would be, and that the transgender movement's push for state recognition is not the solution, even as he does also support such recognition as a short-term goal.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-27 |title=Trans Emancipation Through Challenging the State |url=https://lpeproject.org/blog/trans-emancipation-through-challenging-the-state/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=LPE Project |language=en-US}}</ref> +=== Core arguments === +Throughout the book, Currah explores three central arguments regarding sex classification systems: +# "Sex classifications were necessary to the administration of policies that used gender as a technology of government."<ref name=":0" /> For instance, prior to the [[Obergefell v. Hodges|''Obergefell v. Hodges'']] case in 2015, which resulted in recognition of [[Same-sex marriage in the United States|same-sex marriage]] across the United States, sex classifications were an important tool in policies regarding marriage, and thus property ownership and the construction of familial relationships. Currah notes that marriage is "an instrument of governing" and nation-building, and inextricably linked to the "transmission of property."<ref name=":0" /> +# The "existence of conflicting rules for classifying sex . . . expresses the different work that sex does in different contexts," showing that sex is "operationalized as a mobile technology of government."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Jessica A. |date=2022 |title=Sex Assigned at Birth |url=https://columbialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Clarke-Sex_Assigned_At_Birth.pdf |journal=[[Columbia Law Review]] |volume=122 |issue=7 |pages=1838}}</ref> This is exemplified by cases where transgender people, prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US, were often still barred from marriage to cisgender people of the same sex even as they had legally changed their sex on, for example, their driving license. +# More recently, the term "transgender" itself has become the subject of political divisions and is used in the context of American party politics, where [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatives]] tend to advocate for policies against (explicitly or implicitly) transgender people, and [[Liberalism in the United States|liberals]] advocate for policies that expand transgender recognition/inclusion in American life. Currah argues that the visibility of transgender people has not been as positive as transgender activists hoped it would be, and that the transgender movement's push for state recognition is not the solution, even as he does also support such recognition as a short-term goal.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-27 |title=Trans Emancipation Through Challenging the State |url=https://lpeproject.org/blog/trans-emancipation-through-challenging-the-state/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=LPE Project |language=en-US}}</ref> +== Reception == +Reviews of ''Sex Is as Sex Does'' note, firstly, that the text is accessible.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Garriga-López |first=Claudia Sofía |date=2023 |title=Sex and State Are Action Verbs |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2023.a910085 |journal=[[Women's Studies Quarterly]] |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=255-257 |via=Project Muse}}</ref> One reviewer, Garriga-López, referred to the work as "accessible and clearly written in a way that makes it especially suitable for undergraduate students as well as people outside of academia who want to deepen their understanding of transgender politics."<ref name=":2" /> As many academic works are not considered accessible to many, especially the public,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Making Our Ideas More Accessible |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/05/11/scholars-must-make-their-work-more-available-and-accessible-essay |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=Inside Higher Ed |language=en}}</ref> Currah's ability to write a thorough and comprehensive, theoretical work while remaining accessible to a wider readership is significant. +Reviews also praise Currah's book for its unique approaches to the state and its challenge to the binary of [[cisgender]] and transgender identity categories.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Anders |first=Sari M. |last2=DuBois |first2=L. Zachary |date=2022-10-18 |title=Book Review: Sex is as sex does: Governing transgender identity |url=https://doi-org.ezproxy.neu.edu/10.1177/03616843221133793 |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=145–145 |doi=10.1177/03616843221133793 |issn=0361-6843}}</ref> Currah frames the state as not a single entity, but as a range of organizations. As J.A. Beicken wrote in their review, Currah reminds scholars to "attend to the plurality of states rather than conceive of one monolithic state."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Beicken |first=J.A |date=April 2023 |title=Currah, Paisley. Sex is as sex does: governing transgender identity |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A744167313/AONE?u=mlin_b_northest&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=b0b49183 |journal=CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries |volume=60 |issue=8 |pages=832 |via=GALE}}</ref> With regard to cisgender and transgender identities, Currah reminds readers of how these tools of sex classification are not solely used against transgender people, and (in Beicken's words) suggests that "readers should be wary of cementing a trans-/ cisgender binary, overlooking the nuances within those categories."<ref name=":3" /> +Rae Willis-Conger, in a review published in [[Gender & Society|''Gender & Society'']], offers a methodological and structural critique of ''Sex Is as Sex Does'', writing that "although the arguments Currah makes in each chapter are solid, the book could have been tied together better by a more specific historical grounding."<ref name=":1" /> + +== See also == + +* [[Transgender rights movement]] +* [[Transgender studies]] +* [[Theories of state]] == References == <!-- Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. 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