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Week 5--On Passing
This week we move from Feminist Disability Studies, through a series of articles in The Transgender Studies Reader, to a visit from Pemwrez2009. You may have questions for Pemwrez2009--or you may want to answer the questions Pemwrez2009 suggests we consider:
1) Why is there such an emphasis on reducing the trans individual to essentialist notions of anatomical validity?
2) Man or womantrans-identified transpeople complicate our tendency to associate femininity with women and masculinity with males, since there's no "tranliness" that we associate as being a characteristic of trans people. Why are trans people pressured to assimilate as male or female?
3) Why is passing so important? Why can it be dangerous?