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J Lee Trefz 53540092, ASTU 150 15A
False Boundaries: The sexualities of transpeople and sexual orientation as a social
construct
Most of our research community's knowledge on sexuality and how it relates to
transgenderism has been provided by Vernon Rosario. Rosario (96) points out that the
"dichotomized" system of sexual orientation is "historically and culturally dynamic." Rosario's
case study, Frances, a MtF Chicano, uncomfortably identified as gay before settling upon
transexuality while continuing to be attracted to men. In contrast, MtF Japanese author Nomachi
(Mackie 416) showed interest in men only once she identified as a woman. Mackie (416) argues
that unless sex, gender, and attraction are stable, sexual orientation labels are meaningless.
Meanwhile, sixty years after Kinsey (898) established that the capacity to "respond
erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another person of the same or of the
opposite sex, is basic in the species,"
there is an emerging rejection of discrete sexual
orientation labels. Their utility is questioned in describing non-western individuals, by a new
generation of westerners to describe themselves, and in use for describing individuals at all.
In this article I will explore sexual orientation categories, their currency, and their fluidity
through time and culture. Following this I will investigate the sexual identification and behavior
of transgender people and how they are described. Are sexual orientation labels are meaningless
for transpeople not because of unstable identities but because the labels are social constructs?
Are they not only meaningless for transpeople and, as Burleson (261) has demonstrated,
problematic for describing non-western societies, but meaningless, problematic and pernicious
for describing our society on the whole?
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Defining Sexuality
In their bombshell 1948 work, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Kinsey et al.
established that "at least 37 percent of the US male population has some homosexual experience
between the beginning of adolescence and old age" (Kinsey 895). More precisely, surveying
individuals with his seven-point scale of sexual orientation, Kinsey found "that 46 percent of the
male population had engaged in both hetero- and homosexual activities in their adult (i.e.,
sexually mature) lives" (Fairyington 266). From his findings Kinsey (898) established that the
capacity to "respond erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another person
of the same or of the opposite sex, is basic in the species." The Kinsey Scale "offers shades of
gray where certainty once ruled" (Burleson 259). Fairyington describes Kinsey's "assault on the
hetero/homo divide" as having "exposed a radical disjunction between the sexual mores of
postwar America and the reality of people's sex lives." Nonetheless she observes, "the wall
between gay and straight didn't exactly come tumbling down in the wake of Kinsey's research."
But why? As Paula C. Rust points out (Fairyington 269), "Westerners think in neat, discrete
categories." We dichotomize issues by default; gray area and gradation are culturally foreign to
us. In terms of sexuality, this leads to a focus on hetero- versus homosexual. Fairyington (268)
points out that "bisexuals experience disapproval not only from the dominant society but from
the gay and lesbian community as well." Bisexuality frustrates our beloved dichotomy,
suggesting that within us there may be much more of our adversaries, in contrast to whom we
define ourselves and find belonging, than we would like to admit.
But what is bisexuality? Abandoning dichotomy, what do we find in the gray area of
sexuality? Fritz Klein introduced his Sexual Orientation Grid in 1993, greatly improving upon
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the Kinsey's linear scale. It combined five discrete dimensions: sexual attraction, behavior,
fantasies, emotional preference, and social preference (i.e. lifestyle and self-identification). It
assessed past, present, and ideal behavior, rating them on a seven-point scale reminiscent of
Kinsey's (Fairyington 267). Far beyond a mere dichotomy or spectrum, Klein's grid measures a
field of human sexuality, and exposes the lack of a clear definition for bisexuality. To be
bisexual, is it sufficient to fantasize about both sexes without acting on all of them? Must one
have sex with those of both genders, or is a history of love for both necessary? What if one had
relationships with those of one gender in the past, but is exclusive to those of the other at
present? Further complicating the matter, both Kinsey (894) and Fairyington (268) indicate that
many people who behave "bisexually" do not identify as such.
The new generation of American youth is becoming frustrated at the inadequacies of the
three sexual orientation labels mentioned thus far (Savin-Williams 16). A rich lexicon of highly
specific and often clausal sexual orientation labels has arisen to fill their place. Simone Sneed,
nineteen when interviewed by The Advocate in 2004, claims that “Over the years I have met an
ever-expanding population of queers, polyamorous people, flexuals, gender queers, bois, boy-girl
wonders, tranny fags, tranny chasers, hetero boys who used to be lesbians, and lesbians who used
to be hetero bio boys. … 'gay' no longer appears to be an identity that my peers and I are
comfortable with” (Savin-Williams 16). If the variety of labels is proportional to the "years" this
nineteen year-old has had to collect them, Ms Sneed has surely only scratched the surface.
Savin-Williams explores the rejection of traditional labels among gay youth, although he fails to
consider that many of his subjects could just as easily be deemed as coming from a straight
background as a gay one, illustrating the tenacity of dichotomous thinking. He goes so far as to
speculate that "It is highly likely that reduced societal prejudice toward same-sex sexuality has
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contributed to the probability that these young people pursue sexual and romantic partners
relatively independent of gender" (Savin-Williams 18). Nonetheless, he finds fluidity to be a
major reasons why the generation coming of age in recent years has shown some tendency to
reject "gay" as an identity. Andrade, twenty-one when interviewed by Out in 2001, despite
having a boyfriend, doesn't like “the word gay because it's very restrictive.” Indeed, “For every
high school student who identifies as gay, there are three, four, perhaps even ten others with
same-sex attractions who do not.”
Rosario (96) points out that systems of sexual orientation are "historically and culturally
dynamic." We cannot assume that even the most advanced and nuanced understanding of
sexuality developed in the west is definitive for people of all cultures. Dr. Mohammed Nasem
Zafar of Kandahar Medical College "estimates that about 50% of the city's male residents have
sex with men or boys at some point in their lives" (Burleson 261). It is worth noting that
Kandahar is named after it's Greek founder, Alexander the Great, a man famous, as the culture to
which he belonged, for a lack of dichotomised sexuality. Modern Kandaharians' categorization
of sexual relationships is somewhat different from our own. Rather than a straight/gay divide,
with a nod to bisexuality, the Afghans recognize heterosexual, pro-creative marriages and the
ubiquitous keeping of a halekon, or teenage male sexual companion, by the men in these
marriages. "In the case of the Pashtun, whereas a man taking a male lover receives tacit approval,
starting a gay support group may be something else entirely" (Burleson 261). A westerner may
look at a Pashtun
With their lovers sitting on their knee and start to make assumptions.
"That man is gay, obviously." Or , "That man is straight and just
looking for a sexual outlet because women are kept at arm's length."
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Or, This man shows how we are all really bisexual." These men are
whatever we want them to be. What they can't be from a Eurocentric
point of view is simply a typical Pashtun man (Burleson 262).
In light of the preceding cultural, generational, and definitional factors it appears that our western
system of understanding human sexuality is woefully behind the advances made in the field.
There are strong indications that people who fit a description of strictly heterosexual or strictly
homosexual in all factors considered in Klein's grid are, by any measure, in the minority
(Fairyington 267). Nonetheless, focus on these labels persists, both in society at large and to a
degree within the academy as well.
The Sexualities of Transpeople
Mackie (416) argues that unless sex, gender, and attraction are stable, sexual orientation
labels are meaningless. Indeed, how can the labels bi-, hetero- or homosexual apply to
transpeople? As one transitions from one gender identity to another, how does the definition of
their sexual orientation change, if at all? What of those who identify as gender-neutral?
Mackie (416) offers Japanese trans writer Nomachi Mineko as an example of sex, gender,
and sexuality in flux. Nomachi describes her "emerging sexual orientation" unfolding alongside
her gender identity. Before identifying as a woman, Nomachi had a series of unrewarding
encounters with women, one of which resulted in an "extreme physical reaction." in the same
period of her life Nomachi rejected a sexual advance from a man. Nomachi takes a physical
reaction, a "tingle" when caressed by an attractive man, as evidence of the truth of her attraction
to men.
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While Nomachi's narrative may be typical of transpeople, who Mackie (416) finds are
often compelled to fulfill expectations of heteronormative patterns, not all transpeople tow the
line. According to Bockting, Benner and Coleman (689), “Devor (1993) examined the sexual
orientation of 45 female-to-male transexuals. Nine (23%) identified as gay or bisexual after
transition." Bockting, Benner and Coleman (688) survey a sample of twenty-five sex-reassigned
FtMs attracted to men. Of the twenty-five, "15 (60%) identified as gay, 8 (32%) as bisexual, and
2 (8%) as queer," making them incidentally "more bisexual than the nontransgender gay and
bisexual controls." These, however, are the only categories the researchers gave their subjects to
choose from in the survey. Given the chance for deeper expression, the participants gave
descriptions of themselves more like "I would describe myself first as a guy, then as a gay man,
then as an FtM, then perhaps , if people are savvy enough, as a queer FtM who still has sex with
women (usually butch women or MtFs) once in a while" (Bockting, Benner, Coleman 693).
Another asserted his orientation in terms of gender expression rather than sex: "I have a queer
gender and a queer sexual orientation... I am attracted to people in the same region of the gender
galaxy as me regardless of whether they were assigned F or M at birth... The binary gender
system doesn't work for me. Neither does a spectrum... I'm a sissy tranny fag." Yet another
emphasized attraction to the individual rather than their gender: “Now, after being with Jim for 6
months, I realize that i am in the healthiest, most satisfying, enjoyable and meaningful
relationship that I have ever been in. And it isn't because Jim is male. It's because of the person
he is and the person I am when I'm with him” (Bockting, Benner, Coleman 696).
Synthesizing post-dualistic sexuality and the sexuality of transpeople
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In the past, transpeople who have shown any sexual attraction to the gender that they
identify as have had a devil of a time attaining sexual reassignment surgery (Bockting, Benner,
Coleman 688). Bockting, Benner, and Coleman found no significant differences between a
sample of queer FtMs and a non-transgender queer control in self esteem, sexual satisfaction, or
psychological adjustment. As sex, gender, and sexuality are now understood to be distinct, it has
been established that homogenderal sexual attraction cannot preclude a transperson from SRS.
An abandoning of both strict sexual orientation labels and the concept of heterosexuality and
homosexuality as dominant over more fluid possibilities would allow transpeople to reach
personal fulfillment without any danger that the legitimacy of their identity be questioned.
Besides supporting the dominance of variety in sexual orientation beyond two or three
simple categories, the sexualities of transpeople support the idea of sexuality as fluid
throughout the life of the individual. Before reassignment, two thirds of Bockting, Benner, and
Coleman's study participants, who all now express at least some attraction to men, went through
a period of identifying as lesbian (694). Bockting, Benner, and Coleman (689) refer to studies of
male-to female transsexuals who “experienced a change in their sexual orientation from
heterogenderal (toward women) to homogenderal (toward men). These examples support
Fairyington's (268) observation that "it might make sense to drop the identity categories
altogether and go back to Kinsey's purely behavioral approach whereby research subjects are
asked about their activities and fantasies but not about the labels they use. This is supported by
Savin-Williams (19), who suggests that "we must... stop focusing solely on "gay versus straight"
research." Despite their thorough application of terms like gay and bisexual, Bockting, Benner,
and Coleman (699) find themselves on a similar page as those above: "We found that gay or
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bisexual female-to-male transexuals search for affirmation and belonging both within and
outside existing categories of sex, gender, and sexual orientation."
Discussion
Human sexuality cannot be conveniently divided into discrete categories. The definition
of basic labels, like heterosexual, is blurred when multiple factors such as identity, behavior, and
fantasy are taken into account. Considering such factors, all available research shows that a
minority of the population can be described as strictly gay or strictly straight, robbing dichotomy
of its dominion. Conventional sexual orientation labels are of course not only inadequate in
describing those of the culture that created them, but become yet more hopeless when confronted
by the sexual paradigms of non-western cultures. The sexualites of transpeople add one more
layer of absurdity upon the use of conventional western labels. Not only do “straight,” bi or
“gay,” preclude a third gender from the conversation, they struggle to capture the sexuality of
individuals whose sex and gender are in transition. Besides, the sexual behavior of transpeople
often contributes to a diversity in human sexuality transcending labels.
It becomes difficult to study sexuality without terms. First, research shows using a set of
categories than that cannot be counted on one hand would more closely reflect the diversity of
human sexuality. Second, given the potential for sexual fluidity that Kinsey established as
fundamental to humanity, labels would more accurately be used to describe one’s behavior rather
than as to describe the individual. Such a change of thinking would particularly benefit
Transpeople pursing SRS, as it frustrates the rationale for denying SRS based on sexuality. My
results neglect to take into account the influence of politics, such as Foucault’s concept of
biopower, on human sexuality. I have also neglected to consider sexuality among the intersex.
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More research is needed on how the categories of understanding available in one’s
culture, and the limited opportunities for belonging constructed around them, influence one’s
sexual identity and behavior. Our research community would also benefit first from an expanded
understanding of how living in a culture that, as Burleson (260) describes, “likes to measure and
quantify the world” colors our judgments. Second, in what ways, if at all, this tendency
contributes to intolerance and prejudice.
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References
Bockting, W., Benner, A., & Coleman, E. (2009). Gay and Bisexual Identity Development Among
Female-to-Male Transsexuals in North America: Emergence of a Transgender Sexuality.
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(5), 688-701. doi:10.1007/s10508-009-9489-3.
Burleson, W. (2008). The Kinsey Scale and The Pashtun: The Role of Culture in Measuring
Sexual Orientation. Journal of Bisexuality, 8(3/4), 259-264. Retrieved from Academic
Search
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Fairyington, S. (2008). Kinsey, Bisexuality, and the Case Against Dualism. Journal of Bisexuality,
8(3/4), 265-270. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
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