Trans (*)

Trans vs trans*
Alan Pelaez Lopez explains how writing ‘trans*’ shifts the power perspective of studying transgender and gender theory. They posit that writing “Trans” rather than “trans*” centers a Western academic perspective to create a genealogy of transness that fits within hegemonic frameworks of power. “trans*”, as Lopez describes, recenters gender expansive people to allow them to express their experience while remaining detached from hegemonic epistemologies of evidence.

Conception
trans* divides into two separate definitions, the first of which describes the vast diversity of gender identity, gender expression, and gender formation that lies beyond the cisgender identity, this definition is an umbrella term. The second definition builds on describing how trans* becomes an access to contemporary tools for intersectional issues, specifically tools of moving beyond the normative structures of gender.

trans* theorists, such as Kai M. Green, acknowledge both the umbrella term definition and emphasizes the term's expansion into social critique. Green opens his literature by sharing his personal experiences of transitioning while being connected to the Black Lesbian community, in which during an expression of the community he was advised to conform his identity to the policing of the space. Green builds off this personal anecdote to detail how trans* allows for the creation of a framework to deconstruct the policing of trans bodies and to decolonize space. “trans*” becomes a tool of critique for other social movements as well as for oppressive systems. trans* is the avenue through which gender-expansive people (those whose gender identity lies beyond the cisgender experience) explore futures and states of existence beyond the current social structures of identity, emphasizing that their framework doesn’t come from a place of opposition to the cisgender experience but as a method to open the social possibilities. This ideology of “trans*” is primarily described by Alan Pelaez Lopez, in their creative literature trans*imagination. Within the same written piece, they describe the vast complexities of trans*, from the emphasis on intersectional activism, to critiques of Western academia, to the reflection centering. trans* can lie far beyond being an umbrella term.

Political progression
trans* works within, beyond, and through social critiques and movements. trans* thought is a part of Black and Indigenous theory, feminist theory, Queer Theory, etc. acting as a check on the complacency of the theories’ praxises. Most activist-centered theories follow intersectionality through using additive frameworks, such as feminism in which the shift from second wave to third wave centers a shift from a singular identity framework like The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir to intersectionality as defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw which added blackness to feminist analysis. Yet scholars of trans*, such as Green and Lopez, emphasize that intersectionality is crucial to the framework from the very beginning, especially in consideration of how often trans people are left out of social movements. It is within this thinking that scholars who write on trans* often give credit to marginalized activists, primarily those who are Black and Indigenous for creating the foundational framework upon which trans* is built, including social thought like abolition.

However, trans* for someone academics does still occupy solely an umbrella aspect. Within these cases, especially within legal or socio-psychological analysis trans* is used to describe the vast nest of gender-expansive identities. This remains politicized as often these analyses that follow legal or socio-psychological dynamics identify the identity politics that legislation and discrimination have on the trans experience. Within this literature, trans* describes the community and how outside forces, such as the government, are interacting with the trans community.

Methodologies
Academics that study trans* theories have many different ways of researching and demonstrating the concept of trans*. Often many literatures will use multiple methods in order to convey their theory, such as Lopez who uses both creative writing and social progression analysis. Here are some of the examples of different methods:

Creative writing and Poetry
This appears as a way to personalize and create knowledge of trans* that centers the self and the experience of transness. Both Green and Lopez use this method when they retell personal stories within their writings. Lopez builds upon the storytelling aspect by using the framework of written poetry. The start of trans*imagination is written in short stanzas consisting of simple clauses that expand into full paragraphs as Lopez describes the literal interventions of trans*. The piece additionally navigates trans* through language as pieces of the literature are written in Spanish without an English translation, creatively demonstrating Lopez’s point that trans* describes the state of just existing. This also ignites epistemology outside of hegemonic frameworks allowing for space of the knowledge creation for marginalized people.

Film and media analysis
Film Analysis similar to creative literature allows for the demonstration of themes related to trans* through expression. However, within this method, the emphasis is on the parallelism of characters, themes, and lived experiences. One such analysis is done by Gizem Senturk, who analyzes the symbiosis of Jadzia Dax in the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Within their literature, they describe the parallelism of the restriction of gender-affirming care, gender dysphoria, gender performance, multiplicity, and complexity of trans*ness through the series’ species the Trill. Within this framework trans* can demonstrate how it can be explained to a general population, or targeted audience, without having to reduce the theory and complexities held within it. Senturks’ analysis also provides a critique on how the current frameworks of gender that don’t highlight trans*ness become restrictive to the trans experience.

Political analysis
Often politics and legislation have to simplify trans people in order to create legislation related to them. This makes them more uninvolved in the social critique that trans* brings and more interested in the expansiveness of the people who use it. Within these cases trans* becomes an umbrella term in the analysis of the legislation related to trans people. A piece by Robin C. Ladwig analyzes new potential organizational frameworks of the workplace to be more inclusive of diverse gender experiences, while a piece by Martin De Mauro Rucovsky analyzes Argentina’s legal recognition of trans people and the activism by those of gender expansive experience that went into ensuring that legalization. Both of these political cases use the umbrella term version of trans* to advocate and emphasize the change in expansion in policy and legislative work. However, while attempting to maintain the umbrella term definition Rucovsky often uses the expansive and future-thinking version of trans*, even using the asterisk as a conjunction as described by other scholars like Lopez.

Social progression analysis
There is additionally an emphasis on recording and analyzing the evolution of trans*ness not only within it but in connection and derivation from other social theories and critiques. Green and Lopez call back to Black and Indigenous feminism and feminist theorists for being roots for trans*feminism and Marquis Bey does similarly, bringing the connection of abolitionist framework within their trans* literature. Others dive into the formation of the community that sprouts from the term trans*, writers Emily Keener and Eli Erlick analyze the evolution of trans* community in their respective works. Keener focuses on the complexities of gender formation and the varying identities and expressions that fit within the trans* community. Erlick investigated the progression of trans* youth activism on the internet and how the digital sphere became a space to escape isolation and to create social progress for trans* individuals.