Dear Craig,I doubt that such comments would be tolerated about ethnicities on this list. Someone with prior experience as a counsellor or mental 'health' professional should not need prior familiarity with cisgenderism theory to know that being flippant about other people's life dilemmas can be hurtful. Asking for people's genders to be respected is not at all the same as asking to have views of themselves as 'a dog' valued. Frankly, your comments show very little awareness of the discrimination and social exclusion people face when their externally assigned genders are treated as legitimate and their social genders are invalidated. For example, people have been assaulted when trying to use public toilets, expelled from schools, and forced to wear the clothing and play with the toys that psychologists felt comformed to their birth-assigned 'sex. This has caused significant harm and violated people's human rights. I encourage you as someone who frequently challenges discrimination on this list to do some critical thinking about your own bigoted statements on this list. You said:"When it comes to Cisgender there must be some remarkable confrontations when the person with male genitals attempts to go on the female only naturist beach while insisting he is a woman (or do not want to be labelled either way). Also, how fluid is the position - Can I be female (whatever that is) on Tuesdays and male (whatever that is) on Wednesdays? These are not attempts to disparage but I would much appreciate comments."You have misendered a woman in your figurative or actual example by calling her 'he'. You may not be attempting to disparage, but your comments nevertheless do function to disparage regardless of your intent. As for 'cisgender', please note that I used the term 'cisgenderISM', a term used similarly to heterosexism and not an essentialised classification for a person. Your example serves to construct people's requests for their gender self-designations to be respected as somehow extreme or beyond the pale.After reading your many rants and critiques of people on this list who use even tacitly oppressive language, I am quite shocked that you seem so unaware of the cisgenderist oppression facilitated unwittingly by your comments. I hope that anyone else on this list who finds these comments bigoted will speak out to challenge these dismissive comments. Silence is the voice of complicity, and I will not be complicit in this discriminatory rhetoric.There are some people who live in multiple genders in different settings for a variety of reasons. My terminology has changed significantly since this chapter was published (Ansara, 2010), but I will share just one story from my book chapter in the hope that it will raise a bit of conciousness here:"I first encountered Danielle (pseudonym) on the telephone. She was afraid to meet in person. After several phone calls, her voice trembled as she agreed to meet with me and one of my Peer Advocates in the office space Lifelines had just acquired in the back room of a local print shop. Extremely concerned about her privacy, she insisted upon changing out of her flannel lumberjack shirt in the tiny bathroom beside the back entrance before meeting with us. She emerged wearing a modest peach pantsuit and low heels, her pink lipstick matching the smile that hovered uncertainly at the corners of her mouth. Her gaze flitted briefly from the floor to our staff and then back down, her hands shaking as she smoothed her hands across the hem of her blouse. The peer advocate and I smiled encouragingly, honoured to bear witness to her as she presented herself as she wished to be seen by others for the first time in over fifty years. Unfortunately, the owner of the print shop picked that moment to allow a 12 year old boy into the back room. The multiple conversations with me and my clinical supervisor about the extreme privacy needs of our constituents and the importance of not allowing his customers into our space while we were in meetings had failed. The boy glared at Danielle for several long moments, while her hands shook with increasing rapidity, her smile faltering as I began collecting Lifelines‘ newly placed office supplies for removal in front of her to reassure her that we would not retain office space in a hostile environment, a tangible assurance that her safety was more important to us than this particular office space. My willingness to relinquish an asset as vital as office space when retaining that asset became incompatible with Danielle‘s best interests highlights the secondary marginalisation and sacrifices that counsellors may face while trying to maintain ethical practices.As Danielle invited us into her life, she taught me that, despite my own experience of having a non-assigned gender identity and the fact that local professionals were beginning to consider me an expert in All Things Trans, all of us had a lot to learn. One of the first insights most people gain when working with people who are exploring non-assigned gender identities is the importance of pronouns; ‗she‘ or ‗he‘, ‗him or her‘. Typically, ideas about appropriate pronoun usage are limited to identifying a person who appears visually ambiguous to the viewer and either assiduously avoiding gendered pronoun usage or asking which pronoun the person prefers. The former is frequently experienced as degrading or insulting by individuals with a clear pronoun preference, while the latter can often attract the unwanted attention of others who are present, and both cases can result in a sense of social exclusion. Nonetheless, assigning a pronoun based on social categorisation of visual appearance is risky—risky in the sense that an incorrect assignment can damage client trust. Constituents like Danielle provided me with the insight to see that the usage of pronouns and gendered terminology was even more complex than I had anticipated. This complexity also extends to matters of attire and visual presentation.The single parent of a young child, Danielle struggled with the competing demands of caring for her terminally ill spouse, finding safe ways to simultaneously express her gender identity and maintain her family. Since her wardrobe of women‘s clothes had been discovered, Danielle‘s strict Christian relatives had threatened to seek full custody of her child if she demonstrated any signs of continuing to express her gender as a woman, an expression that they considered psychologically abnormal, dangerous, and deviant.After hearing about her extreme isolation, I invited her to attend the support group that I facilitated for people articulating, exploring, or affirming non-assigned gender identities. She stressed that if we encountered her outside of the group, we must address her as Jack and use male pronouns. This was not due to gender ambiguity or hesitation on her part; she was petrified that someone from her insular, rural community might discover her identity and try to destroy her family. It was a learning experience for the members of the group to witness Danielle attending the group with the thick, coarse arm hair, stubble, and flannel shirts typically associated with men, looking every bit the part of the robust lumberjack she had to be to sustain her home life, while being referred to consistently as Danielle and ‗she‘. Danielle‘s presence reminded all of us that the freedom to present as a member of the gender with which one identifies—despite one‘s attire, hair, voice, or mannerisms—was a basic human right denied to many others in similarly repressive situations. For other group members, fear of governmental and police oppression deterred them from exercising this right; despite the inclusion of trans individuals in local equal protection legislation, these laws were rarely known or observed by local police, who routinely harassed and arrested numerous women from our group for illegal sex work solely because they did not ‗pass‘7 as female when wearing women‘s clothes in public.
For Danielle, the group was a respite from the oppressive act she was compelled to play in daily life, the stress of a role that did not match her inner longings. Sometimes, I would arrive early enough to unlock the door in time for her to change into comfortable women‘s clothing prior to the meeting. At other times, she was barely able to abscond from the responsibilities of home and family for long enough to slip inside the building before our meetings were over. Yet each time she joined us, Danielle expressed relief that she had one safe place in which to explore what it felt like to be herself. Consequently, group sessions take on a critical role—they are perhaps the only setting in which some people experience the liberation of being ‗seen‘ and ‗heard‘, essential components of trauma recovery and transcending marginalisation. During the check-in period at the beginning of each meeting, after the ground rules were recited aloud by the group, each participant was encouraged to state one or more desired gender pronouns. On multiple occasions, Danielle expressed her gratitude for the rule that required participants to respect desired pronouns, regardless of visual appearance or passing ability. Her presence reminded others that visual cues provide limited and sometimes misleading information about gender identity.
Staff at clinics where I conducted site assessments often described cases of clients whose legal documentation listed them as ‗male‘ and who alternated between overt visual presentation as women and standard men‘s attire. The consensus among clinic staff was that such individuals could be unhesitatingly addressed and treated as men, since these clients had neither asserted identities as women, nor corrected staff on pronoun usage. The staff sobered when I raised questions inspired by Danielle‘s presence in the group. Did these individuals wish to be considered women in the private confines of the clinical office, but to have their privacy preserved to safeguard their livelihoods, as in Danielle‘s case? Were they in the process of articulating a gender as women, bi-gender, or genderqueer while being unsure of how to explain their situation to staff or advocate for themselves? Were they trying to communicate their feelings and preferences passively or non-verbally? By examining these questions, we learned that consulting with clients and confirming their pronoun preferences is a vital first step in creating safe environments."
On a personal note, I want to add that these comments are as emotionally toxic as racist or sexist remarks and they have the effect of making me and others whose personal experience involves having had to affirm our self-designated gender feel unwelcome and uncomfortable on this list. I am speaking up because there are people on this list and elsewhere who cannot. People's lives are not mere fodder for intellectual musings that disrespect their lived experiences. I expected better from this list and hope people will work to make community psychology a less cisgenderist place. It is clear from this post that we have much work to do as professionals and as people before that aim will be realised.
Thank you,
Gávi
--Mr Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc, AHEA2012 APA Division 44 Transgender Research Award Recipient
2011 UK HEA National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award Recipient
2002 Keshet Leadership of the Year Award RecipientPhD Candidate & Academic Tutor, School of Psychology, University of SurreyVisiting Lecturer in Psychology, WISP, University of Warsaw席嘉力 آتش جاوید גבריאל יוסףOn Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 8:58 AM, CRAIG NEWNES <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Apart from some personal correspondence with Gavriel I know nothing about Cisgenderism. According to the definition below it is "a term for discriminatory ideology that does not recognise people’s own view of their gender as legitimate." Far enough but if this is stretched just a little surely it is the tip of an iceberg wherin people's views of themselves should be respected - whatever they may be. If I view myself as a dog and claim the right to be seen as a dog, won't that result in me being impounded if I'm out without my owner? If I view myself as a politician won't I be prevented from entering the commons to take my place if no-one has actually voted for me? When it comes to Cisgender there must be some remarkable confrontations when the person with male genitals attempts to go on the female only naturist beach while insisting he is a woman (or do not want to be labelled either way). Also, how fluid is the position - Can I be female (whatever that is) on Tuesdays and male (whatever that is) on Wednesdays? These are not attempts to disparage but I would much appreciate comments.CraigSent: Wednesday, 8 August 2012, 2:59
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] NOT TOO LATE: Reducing cisgenderism in relationship & family therapy, FREE presentation and workshop
___________________________________ There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK (to post contact Grant [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUKPlease note that although the deadline for RSVP for the FREE event on this important issue on Thursday 9th was given below as 6th August, there is currently still room for one or two more so if you want to go but have not registered please contact Gavi at: [log in to unmask]DavidFrom: David Fryer <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, 6 August 2012, 7:31
Subject: Reducing cisgenderism in relationship & family therapy, FREE presentation and workshop
___________________________________ There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK (to post contact Grant [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUKPosted on behalf of Gavi Ansara
Reducing Cisgenderisms in Relationship and Family Therapy: Strategies and insights for improving practice
Dr Markie Blumer & Mr Gávi AnsaraThursday, 9th August, 1:30-3:30 pm, University of Surrey**This FREE presentation and workshop is funded by a summer 2012 Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Research Support Grant**Cisgenderism is a term for discriminatory ideology that does not recognise people’s own view of their gender as legitimate (Ansara, 2012). Previous findings indicate that pathologising forms of cisgenderism about children are more widespread in mental health professions than in other fields (Ansara & Hegarty, 2012). People whose genders have been delegitimised by others are also ignored and marginalised in relationship and family therapy research and practice (Blumer, Green, Knowles, & Williams, 2012). Ideological assumptions embedded in counselling practices can often perpetuate or reproduce forms of cisgenderism that adversely affect people’s relationships, families, and sexual health (e.g., Ansara, 2010; Ansara, 2012). Currently, there is little to no professional dialogue about these issues, which makes reflexive discussion crucial.This session will use a combination of interactive exercises, content presentation, and discussion to initiate that dialogue. Gávi will introduce the theoretical framework of cisgenderism and explain how different forms of cisgenderism can manifest in clinical and counselling settings, using evidence both from research and from his past professional experiences. Markie will explore the often hidden forms of cisgenderism in both mainstream and feminist understandings of counselling practice and family therapy. Both Gávi and Markie will discuss the negative effects of cisgenderism on families, family therapy, relationships, and the therapeutic alliance. We will reflect as a group on ways to reduce cisgenderism in our own practices with families, parents, partners, and supervisees.About the presenters:Markie L. C. Blumer, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Family Therapy Program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist (IA, NV) and mental health counselor (IA), a clinical member and approved supervisor of the AAMFT, and serves as an editorial board member for both the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy: An International Forum and the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy. She attained her Master’s in family therapy, with an emphasis in sex therapy from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and her Ph.D. in human development and family studies, specializing in family therapy from Iowa State University. Dr. Blumer’s award-winning research primarily focuses on sexual and gender orientation minorities, feminist practices, mentoring and supervisory relationships, couple and family technology, and family and ecological sustainability. She has presented nationally, as well as published and co-published in these areas in top tier journals of the field. For more information, visit her online profile page, view the youtube channel UNLVMFT youtube, Twitter: @Markie_Blumer or email: [log in to unmask].Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc, is a final year PhD student in Psychology at Surrey supervised by Dr Peter Hegarty. He received the 2012 American Psychological Association Division 44 Transgender Research Award for research that makes a significant and innovative contribution to the field. This award-winning research was the first published empirical study of cisgenderism. Gávi also received the 2011 National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award for making a significant impact through excellence in teaching and the 2002 Keshet Leadership of the Year Award for founding an outreach project for people with minoritised genders and sexualities in traditional religious communities. Gávi’s research on cisgenderism is partly motivated by his experiences as a man who was not raised as a boy and who continues to experience cisgenderism in his everyday life; as former founding director of a charity that assisted hundreds of people in navigating cisgenderisms in their everyday lives; as an experienced counsellor and therapeutic advocate for people seeking gender affirmation; and as a polycultural person with cross-cultural childhood experiences of how gender norms in one society can contradict those in another. Gávi has published several book chapters on cisgenderism and presented accredited trainings to medical and mental health clinicians. He holds certificates in Addictions Counselling; HIV Testing & Prevention Counselling; International Human Rights; & Advanced Group Facilitation. For more information, visit his website or email [log in to unmask].
--**Please note that I am in the final weeks of preparing my PhD thesis (not called a dissertation in my field in the UK!) for submission and have very limited availability for unrelated emails at this time. I appreciate your patience with any resultant delays in my response. Thank you.**Gávi--Mr Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc, AHEA2012 APA Division 44 Transgender Research Award Recipient
2011 UK HEA National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award Recipient
2002 Keshet Leadership of the Year Award RecipientPhD Candidate & Academic Tutor, School of Psychology, University of SurreyVisiting Lecturer in Psychology, WISP, University of Warsaw席嘉力 آتش جاوید גבריאל יוסף___________________________________ There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK (to post contact Grant [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
--**Please note that I am in the final weeks of preparing my PhD thesis (not called a dissertation in my field in the UK!) for submission and have very limited availability for unrelated emails at this time. I appreciate your patience with any resultant delays in my response. Thank you.**Gávi--Mr Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc, AHEA2012 APA Division 44 Transgender Research Award Recipient
2011 UK HEA National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award Recipient
2002 Keshet Leadership of the Year Award RecipientPhD Candidate & Academic Tutor, School of Psychology, University of SurreyVisiting Lecturer in Psychology, WISP, University of Warsaw席嘉力 آتش جاوید גבריאל יוסף
___________________________________ There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK (to post contact Grant [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK