Transgender politics.

Transgender poses a fundamental challenge to the rigid male/female categorisation which underlies the Western social system. Alternatives, such as those presented by feminist and queer accounts, continue to pay homage to gender binaries. Postmodernism is also problematic, as it fails to account for much transgender experience. The challenge which transgender people present to Western gender binaries is masked by their current social exclusion, which relegates them to the margins and thus nullifies demands for social change. The marginalisation of transgender people can be traced to transphobia, or the fear and stigmatisation of transgender people. The developing transgender movement challenges transphobia and the social exclusion of transgender people. Discourses of citizenship and democracy form an effective basis for an inclusive politics of gender. However, transgender politics is rife with complexity and tension.
Transgender Politics seeks to explore the implications of transgender, firstly for sexual/gender politics and theory and secondly for Western social structure. The thesis aims to usefully inform transgender politics, in keeping with its participative methodology, and locates the main author in relation to the research.
The introduction addresses, firstly, the rationale for the project and the core debates. It then provides an overview of definitions and prevalence of transgender, the development of the transgender movement, cross-cultural and trans-historical contextualisation, and the literature. Lastly, the introduction describes the structure of the thesis.
It is worth noting that some of the terminology in this field is unusual and that I have included a glossary in the appendices. In addition, I would like to point out that the published material which I have used in the thesis can be distinguished from direct contributions by interviewees because the former and includes a date and does not include a first name, where as the interviewee's material includes a first name and is not dated. Lastly, I wish to note that unclear parts of the interviews are indicated by a question mark in the text.