CALL FOR PAPERS
A special double-issue of The Journal of Bisexuality
InterSEXions of the "Others": Bisexuality and Transgender
Bisexuality and Transgender--the "other" categories--are often
characterized as simply huddling under the LGBT umbrella together. While
some might think of these as mere "additions" tacked on to lesbian and
gay identity politics, we think that bisexuality and transgender (BT)
have much to say to--and about--each other. With this in mind, we
solicit essays from numerous fields for a special issue of The Journal
of Bisexuality, entitled: "InterSEXions of the "Others": Bisexuality and
Transgender."
Ideally, essays will critically query the intersections of BT
experiences and politics. Moreover, far from being "strange bedfellows,"
bi- and trans- lives potentially offer theoretical, cultural, social,
and political challenges to our collective and individual understandings
of desire and how it moves within and among us. Further, BT experiences
"complicate" the representation of desire--in our individual identities
and in the media. What are these challenges and complications? How can
they be used--personally and politically? How might BT lives complicate
one another? What could be the "common ground" among BT experiences, and
where do divergences "queery" the assumptions each makes about desire,
identity, and sexual politics? More radically, what might
intersexuality tell us about bisexuality and transgender? In our
societal obsession for explanations of LGBTs, is there a privileging of
those who are or claim to be "born that way" as opposed to those who
seek to "sculpt" or "construct" themselves, whether that be
psychologically, physically, or both?
To further this discussion, we invite inquiries and analyses from a
number of critical orientations in the humanities, social sciences,
biological sciences, and interdisciplinary fields. While we are *not*
soliciting fictional work, studies of literature, film, and the Web are
welcome. *Some* personal pieces will be accepted--given they also
contain a *critical* edge, linking the personal to the political in an
insightful and academically provocative way. There may be room for a few
poems or cartoons, but inquiries should be made prior to submitting
them.
Possible questions and issues for critical exploration include (but
are not limited to) the following:
*When does mere addition of "others"-such as bisexuals and
trans-people (or intersexuals, for that matter)-to the gay and lesbian
set of identities begin to challenge those identities and problematize
movements for sexual and gender equality? Will "turf war" politics arise
with the suggestion of stretching the umbrella term to include
intersexuals, as it did with the addition of bisexuality? Do such
additions fracture what LGBT means? What does LGBT mean? And when will
the alphabet listing-LGBTQQI-end? Should it?
*The paradoxical "importance" of gender--in trans and bi identities
and relationships.
*Having your cake and eating it too: Refusing to fit to the prescribed
binary. Is this possible? Desirable? Politically efficacious?
*What do BT lives and experiences do to/for/with identity politics?
*What is the "label" for attraction to (and by) transgendered (and
intersexual) people? Or people in transition?
*Are butch women with fem men in a trans relationship?
*Bi "stopovers" for (hetero)transsexuals and homosexuals?: MtFs, FtMs,
and StGs (straight to gay).
*What does intersexual identity or experience tell us about
bisexuality-as an identity, an experience, or even a politics?
*How does intersexuality inform or complicate trans experiences?
*What do bi- and trans- experiences tell us about sexual orientation?
*Transsexuals and Bisexuals: Opposite ends of the queer spectrum?
*The complexities of being "out" as bi or trans in a binary world
(gay/straight; male/female).
*How might "medical alterations," such as sexual (re)assignment
surgeries, reflect on BT experiences? And vice versa?
*What are the politics or value assumptions of "gay genes" versus
"mono-sexual/mono-gendered" genes?
*"Snapshot" identities v. identities in "motion."
*Cross-cultural perspectives on bi/trans experiences.
*BT interactions in artistic and/or mass media.
*BT experiences in literature, music, and the arts.
*How does one's appreciation of art "shift" when encountering art from
a bi-, or trans- experience/viewpoint?
*What is BT art, literature, music?
*What is the role of art (generally or specifically defined) in
furthering the discussion of BT experiences? Or of promoting thought
about BT intersections?
Email abstracts or completed manuscripts to both of the editors below.
Completed manuscripts due by December 31, 2002.
For further information, contact
Dr. Jonathan Alexander
P.O. Box 210205
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221
513-556-1769
jamma@fuse.net
or
Dr. Karen Yescavage
Department of Psychology
University of Southern Colorado
2200 Bonforte Blvd.
Pueblo, CO 81001
719-549-2719
yescavage@uscolo.edu
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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