'Introduction' of my book: Re-thinking Crossing Gender by Lee R J Middlehurst
The hostility of difference, the deadly comedy of binary gender, the cascading assertions about my body, and the impossibility of identity: Postmodernism is the way to navigate my world.Maybe it serves that purpose for anyone who is or has felt different.[1]
Prelude
Our present world is becoming increasingly guided by technological innovations. Many recent sci-fi books, films and television series feature artificial life forms and implants into human bodies.Perhaps many of us fear that we are losing our human identities.When we look at news programmes covering terrorist atrocities and people who commit multiple murders in schools, streets and other public spaces are there any connections here?Are people so afraid of the increasingly dehumanised world that some of us try to aggressively simplify concepts or exact irrational revenge?
Now, of course, most people could not be violent or strongly irrational.Many of us might have unconscious desires but most of us would never carry them out in reality.Unconscious biases are a different matter.That is where some private and public organisations are focussing their attention.The terms ‘conscious bias’ and ‘unconscious bias’ are increasingly used.I certainly refer to them in my research.You will read that later on in this book.
This book is - well, the title somewhat gives the game away - Rethinking Crossing Gender.My research has examined the key dimensions of gender diversities.These variations could be expressed as ‘trans*’,[2] which
is an umbrella term that refers to all of the identities within the gender identity spectrum. There’s a ton of diversity there, but we often group them all together (e.g., when we say “trans* issues”). Trans (without the asterisk) is best applied to trans men and trans women,[3] while the asterisk makes special note in an effort to include all non-cisgender gender identities, including transgender, transsexual, transvestite, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderfuck, genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, two-spirit, bigender, and trans man and trans woman.[4]
It has been proposed that the ‘trans*’term is ‘deconstructing’ gender diversity terminologies.[5]Senior members of TransForum Manchester, the transgender support organisation, also emphasise the current significance of this ‘trans*’ term.[6]
During my interactions with trans* communities in Manchester from 2005, I knew that many previous research views were increasingly outdated.Perhaps my perspectives were seen then as unusual.Certainly no one had intensely studied trans* communities in Greater Manchester before.
In this developing technological world, a transgender person could be seen as Haraway’s ‘cyborg’[7] - partly divorced from conventional human limitations and increasingly dependent upon technological communications with ‘Others’.[8]Such a trans* person is outside gender role stereotypes, unambiguous sexuality definitions, and many mainstream rules within societies.
During my research, I found that, from the 1970s, many trans* people have been to Manchester’s ‘Gay Village’[9]as a refuge from mainstream gender conceptions. I should add I do not strongly explore sexuality or racial diversities in the Village as these have been thoroughly studied elsewhere.[10]However, there have been no previous intensive explorations of the social interactions of trans* people in Greater Manchester.This is despite trans* support groups being in Manchester since 1975 and specifically in the Gay Village from 1986.[11]It could be regarded as strange that no earlier research has been made, considering, for example, the annual Sparkle festival, which has been held in the Village since 2005.From 2007, this celebration has been claimed to be the world’s largest annual celebration of transgenderism.[12]This festival (inter)nationally attracts thousands of trans* women each year.[13]Plus Government representatives have attended the Sparkle celebrations looking for developing knowledge about trans* lives in the UK.[14]
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) document the Trans Research Review[15] details some of this incomplete research about present-day trans* people in the UK, including:
-Lack of understanding present-day transvestism. -Inconsistent definitions of ‘transgenderism’. -Omitting understanding online transgender communities. -Little information about Transphobia.[16] Family issues with transgender people. Employment difficulties of transgender people. Presentations of transgender people within media texts.
This book looks at all of these above issues.My research is also cynical of binary concepts and techniques of analyses within the social sciences.While this book includes several fields in the social sciences, it is not chiefly shaped by sociology, sexology, psychology or legal activism.
Within the academic social sciences, I could be defined as a ‘sociocultural anthropologist’ and as an ‘ethnographer’ who uses both qualitative research (interviews and observations) and quantitative research (surveys).[17]However, I am also a musician and an artist[18] – these abilities I use in my research as well, which can connect with the academic definitions of ‘participatory action research’.[19]My multi-skilled views expand upon the previous limited gatherings of research.[20]My standpoint here then is about countering ‘modernist’ barriers that separate the scientific and artistic disciplines.[21]
In his 1998 book, Becker contends sociologists can have narrow insights beyond familial and academic commitments.[22]He argues such academics need to be more involved with non-academic groups to avoid research errors.Researchers in other academic fields could also show these ‘narrow insights’.Becker’s opinion is similar to proclamations from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).[23]On 23rd June 2011, the NCCPE appointed me a Public Engagement Ambassador (PE Ambassador) in order to build fruitful interactions of academic and non-academic views.[24]
As a result, while this book is shaped by qualitative research, the addition of survey results mirrors the recommended tactic for current Public Engagement academic research within universities.[25]
Modernism, Postmodernism and Post-structuralism
These three words are hardly understood by many people, which is perhaps unfortunate in that they shape the studies for this book.[26]Modernism developed in the late 1800s and early 20th Century.[27]There are suggestions modernist concepts developed in rebellion against views from the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, which originated from around the mid 17th Century to approximately the early 19th Century.[28]
Modernists contend, “Facts do not exist, only interpretations”.[29]Artists in the early 20th Century developed techniques, including ‘impressionism’ and ‘cubism’[30] while writers developed modernist fictional works, which include disrupting gender binary notions.[31]
Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist, wrote articles in the 1920s and 1930s that were compatible with modernist outlooks.[32]From a postmodern viewpoint, some of Gramsci’s writings could be reinterpreted as guidance for researchers of social interactions.While his texts do not refer to transgenderism, several of his writings can be inventively read as concerns about adverse impacts upon trans* people.Thus, if Gramsci’s term ‘proletariat’ is reinterpreted, within postmodern perspectives, as ‘cross-dressers’, then the recommendations for academic researchers is: We need to free ourselves from the habit of seeing culture as encyclopaedic knowledge, and men as mere receptacles to be stuffed full of empirical data and a mass of unconnected raw facts, which have to be filed in the brain as in the columns of a dictionary, enabling their owner to respond to the various stimuli from the outside world. This form of culture really is harmful, particularly for the proletariat. It serves only to create maladjusted people, people who believe they are superior to the rest of humanity because they have memorized a certain number of facts and dates and who rattle them off at every opportunity, so turning them almost into a barrier between themselves and others.[33]
As I’ve been a participatory action researcher and a PE Ambassador, these delusions of superiority were hopefully avoided in my studies.Gramsci writes of an educational structure that assists the ‘proletariat’ (re-interpret as ‘cross-dressers’) to develop “in the most productive way for both themselves and society.” [34]
I have recognised that modernist expressions can be unified under the view that perceptions are ‘constructed’.[35]De Saussure inspired the development of ‘structuralism’.He writes, “Every discourse is a sign system in which the key structural feature is the code of binary opposites”.[36]In his 1957 book, Barthes uses these ‘semiological’ concepts and considers mythological prejudices.Within Marxist views, he analyses “'self-proclaimed petit-bourgeois myths' to expose how they were socially constructed realities created to convert their particular 'historical class-culture into a universal nature'”.[37]In a similar way, certain trans* identities can be reconceived as members of a ‘petit (or petite) bourgeoisie’ to suggest constructed myths that diminish the status of the ‘proletariat’.[38]
My research techniques featured in this book mirror the multi-layered and disordered nature of reality.However, it could be seen that they are hampered by the structures of the written language.[39]
These different approaches to representation epitomise the diversity of more recent ethnographic work, and reflect the interpretative turn in ethnographic writing and representation. Various commentators have called for texts that are more open, messy and fragmented - in order to challenge and highlight the very conventionality of ethnographic writing and to encourage more creative and complex modes of representation (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Ellis and Bochner, 1996).While the conventionality of all modes of representation is implicitly recognised, there is more than a hint in such arguments that complex texts may be more faithful to the complexities and contours of social life.[40]
In his 1998 book,[41] Marcus writes how the postmodern views of ‘messy and fragmented’ texts can help investigations alongside researchers looking at how they themselves affect their work.[42]
In addition, the studies in my book are influenced by Derrida’s views that being an observer changes the issues being observed.[43]Reason and Bradbury also emphasise this position within action research strategies.[44]Moreover, this book’s ‘post-structural’ viewpoints implicitly question societies’ concepts of ‘truth’.[45]
During the shaping of this book, I have recognised class identifications within transgender groups but I will not intensively analyse them, due to the absence of any thorough research about Manchester-based trans* communities and the insufficient research into current transvestic people in the UK.[46]
I also acknowledge the writings of the philosopher and cultural theorist, Baudrillard.He asserts, “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning”.[47]I know that current gender identities in some groups can be increasingly ambiguous.As a result, academic classifications of diverse gender concepts are becoming increasingly unstable.[48]In this context, identifications are becoming increasingly unidentifiable.
Several current (trans*) individuals deconstruct their identities and resist the separate categorisation within Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT or LGB&T).Thus attempting to define these diverse identities involves attaching ‘Q’ to become LGBTQ. ‘Q’ itself varies in definitions as ‘Queer’ or ‘Questioning’.[49]This acronym has further developed into LGBTQI, where ‘I’ represents ‘Intersexual’ people.[50]Additional attempts to expand definitions have resulted in creating the acronym LGBTQIA where ‘A’ refers to people identifying as ‘Asexual’ or ‘Ally’.[51]Thus, these labels struggle to define the reality of modern-day postmodern non-normative people.
The postmodern identities of current trans* people can be seen in Manchester’s Gay Village.While the aims to replicate stereotypical Western gender exhibitions of genetic femininity and masculinity may have initially shaped the signs of transgenderism, those replications can become pretences, which develop into identities that no longer attempt to replicate genetic gender expressions. They can become ‘hyperreal’ presentations.[52]
Social Geography and Manchester’s Cosmopolitan Gay Village
Postmodern standpoints have shaped contemporary cities, particularly after World War II, which has resulted in a mix of architectural styles and cultures.As a consequence, several cities, including Manchester and its populations, have become identified and marketed as ‘cosmopolitan’.[53]Significantly, the researcher Pain writes, in 2001, of social interactions and discriminations within these diverse communities alongside the importance of social areas - spatial geographies - providing support and refuge from expressions of power inequality.[54]
The social geography of the Gay Village has become shaped as a shelter for those not conforming to mainstream ‘heteronormativity’.This location has developed into a mythological conception of ‘cosmopolitanism’ within Manchester.[55]I understand that there seem to be two concepts of ‘cosmopolitanism’.One comes from opposing nationalistic fervour and the other derives from keen interactions with the ‘Other’.[56]Geographical areas in Manchester could be regarded as a mix of both conceptions such as Manchester’s ‘Chinatown’.[57]
The current marketing images of the Village predominantly reflect the cosmopolitan perspectives of enthusiastic interactions.This concerns the ‘dynamic’ mix of heterosexual people with the ‘Other’ non-heteronormative LGB&T groups:
Manchester has a large, lively and energetic Gay and Lesbian community, and their needs are catered for in an area, which has come to be known as the Gay Village in Manchester. In recent years it has brought a new dynamism and vitality to a hitherto rather rundown area of the city, and its pavement cafés and bars have helped create in summertime a cosmopolitan and continental ambience, which attracts many people to its nightlife - Gay, Lesbian and Heteros!
The Gay Village probably represents the … biggest concentration of gay interests, services and businesses in Europe.[58]
This development - this gentrification - of the Village appears to derive from actions by politically and business motivated gay people.[59]However, the advertising of this cosmopolitan area can be regarded as re-presenting[60] gay identities as primarily motivated by social interactions and not by political stimuli.[61]However, the body of each person socialising in such places can have a dual identity: “It is not only the medium of perception but is itself a placed object. As such it is staged, styled, genderized, permeated by ethnic constructions, thus becoming a highly precarious ‘building-block’ of spaces”.[62]Thus, these people become no longer ‘individuals’ but marketing objects.
Nevertheless, white middle-class gay male characteristics are the dominant identified and marketed presence within several recognised ‘gay themed’ geographical social spaces.[63]The smaller proportion of lesbians in social spaces, such as in the Village, can be partly due to misogynism.In present Western societies, women, on average, get paid less than men and so cannot afford to socialise as often.[64]It was expressed there are only two bars in the Village, which “are gendered and sexualised spaces offering women a place of retreat from heterosexist and androcentric dominance and violence in whatever forms they take”.[65]Additionally, bisexual identities are allegedly misunderstood and can be discriminated against both within heterosexual groups and within gay communities.[66]
Thousands of trans* people visit the Village each year.[67]Even so, there are no venues permanently providing explicit support for trans* people.Nonetheless, trans* people do receive overt acceptance and assistance in the successive venues that have temporarily hosted the weekly Wednesday meetings of the Manchester Concord and in the various places intermittently supporting the annual Sparkle transgender celebrations.
While the Gay Village developed as predominantly a protective haven for gay men, this cosmopolitan Village has now become a geographical area shaped by multiple interacting social spaces for lesbian, bisexual and trans* people as well as those who are ‘heteronormative’ and non-trans* – cisgendered, cissexual people – who seem to be mostly heterosexual natal women.[68]These insecure identities within the present Village form varied communities that are, in reality, simultaneously aware and unaware of each other.
I have read that a person attracted to cosmopolitan social spaces, such as in the Village, could be viewed as a ‘parasite’.[69]Furthermore, within concepts of cosmopolitanism, the philosopher Kant asserts, “the natural situation of human beings is conflict”.[70]During my investigations of the recent Gay Village, this area is both a site of philosophical conflicts and occasional physical conflicts.There are ‘invasions’ of heterosexual people into the Village with resulting concerns about the safety of lesbian and gay male people socialising there.[71]In this way, these ‘heteronormative’ groups might be seen as ‘parasites’, manipulating this cosmopolitan Village as a temporary alternative to the ‘normality’ of mainstream existences.
Before my writing, there were no previous detailed studies of the effects of this ‘invasion’ upon trans* communities socialising in the Village.Several of my interviewees stress trans* people are the foremost visual signifiers of the diverse human identities in the Village rather than LGB people. This is reflected by the visual marketing of the Village as cosmopolitan as well as in publications mainly aimed at LGB readers and in the various promotions of the Manchester Pride annual festivals.[72]
Nonetheless, trans* people can receive transphobic discrimination from some LGB groups in the Village.[73]However, trans* people are not recognised or are only briefly acknowledged within several academic texts analysing social aspects of gay people in the Village.[74]Yet trans* people receive both transphobic and homophobic harassment within many social spaces.[75]My book highlights these concerns.
The Research Development
My studies have been personally problematic, rethinking my understandings about transgenderism and so this book also includes a decade of personal self-reflective thoughts.I have been intermittently and openly trans*since 1991 but during in socialising in the Village from 2001, I intermingled with other trans* people, learning about their lives and, as a result, learning more about myself.Further changes in my understandings of transgenderism began from 2003/4 when I decided to study the support networks of several trans* women socialising in the Village during my Gender Studies Masters.[76]Then in late 2005, I expanded these findings, increasing familiarity with people socialising in the Village.
Nevertheless, during the latter part of 2007, personal issues intensified to the extent that I decided to take a break from academic work.However, on Friday 27th June 2008, the first day of Sparkle 2008, I directly experienced several incidents that led to my resolve to continue academic studies.
At lunchtime that day, I left my home to get my car and drive to Manchester.Though, just outside, across the road from where I lived, three young men, who had evidently been drinking alcohol, heckled me, using transphobic verbal abuse.I did not acknowledge their existence but, later, I learnt that their shouting was so noisy they disturbed other nearby residents.
When I arrived in the Village later that day, several trans* women, who were friends, approached me and expressed concern for my well being as they had not seen me for several months.One trans* woman, Mary, marched up to me and, without giving any notice, gave me a long‑lasting hug.
As a result of my transphobic experience and the supportive concerns from my trans* friends, I decided to continue my research from October 2008 in order to enhance the understandings of trans* people.My studies were reshaped from mainly being observational to embracing ‘participatory action research’.[77]
Reason and Bradbury write that this action research assists rejecting modernist viewpoints, subtly expands knowledge and opposes the exclusive control of such knowledge within academia.[78]As a result, action research supports the favoured views of Public Engagement within universities.[79]It has been written that Fals Borda was the principle shaper of participatory action research techniques resulting from his experiences in Latin America.[80]He advises researchers:
Do not monopolise your knowledge nor impose arrogantly your techniques, but respect and combine your skills with the knowledge of the researched or grassroots communities, taking them as full partners and co-researchers. Do not trust elitist versions of history and science, which respond to dominant interests, but be receptive to counter-narratives and try to recapture them. Do not depend solely on your culture to interpret facts, but recover local values, traits, beliefs, and arts for action by and with the research organisations. Do not impose your own ponderous scientific style for communicating results, but diffuse and share what you have learned together with the people, in a manner that is wholly understandable and even literary and pleasant, for science should not be necessarily a mystery nor a monopoly of experts and intellectuals.[81]
Fals Borda writes that this self-critical perspective can be regarded as postmodern.[82]Consequently, influenced by these action research standpoints, my studies can also be conceived as postmodern.I understood certain modern research techniques would assist my studies, which include stances deriving from Grounded Theory and Template Analysis.[83]Hence, the gathered data enabled the development of related theories.[84]It could be argued that these research methods can have an affinity with postmodern views, which are “working without rules in order to find out the rules of what you’ve done”.[85]
The underlying intention of this book is to rethink views about transgenderism, particularly cross-dressing, and to assist in re-thinking some social science research approaches.
Senior members of TransForum Manchester, the transgender support organisation, also emphasise the current significance of this ‘trans*’ term: ·“TransForum: Manchester Transgender Support Group & Discussion Forum” from http://www.transforum.org.uk/
[3]In this quote and in this book a trans woman or a trans man is a transsexual person.
[6]TransForum-Manchester (2013). “TransForum : Manchester Transgender Support Group & Discussion Forum” on http://www.transforum.org.uk/
[7] See: ·Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Re-invention of Nature. London, Free Association. ·Haraway, D. (2006). “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”. The transgender studies reader. S. Stryker and S. Whittle. London, Routledge: xvi, 752 p.
[8] See: ·Beauvoir, S. d. (2010 [1949]). The Second Sex. New York, Alfred A. Knopf. ·Baudrillard, J. (1981). “Simulacra and simulation”from https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf ·Dicks, B., B. Mason, A. Coffrey, P. Atkinson (2005). Qualitative Research and Hypermedia : Ethnography for the Digital Age. London, SAGE.
[9] Often colloquially referred to as the ‘Village’.See: ·Manchester-Concord (2012). "Mary's Blog" from http://www.manchesterconcord.org.uk/mblog/maryblog1s.htm.
[10]See: ·Moran, L. and B. Skeggs (2003). Sexuality and the politics of violence and safety. New York; London, Routledge. ·Binnie, J. and B. Skeggs (2006). Cosmopolitan knowledge and sexualised space: Manchester's Gay Village. Cosmopolitan urbanism. J. Binnie, J. Holloway, S. Millington and C. Young. London, Routledge: xi, 259 p. ·Darbyshire, K. J. (2007). Being Gay, Being Straight: An Anthropological Critique of Manchester's Gay Village. London School of Economics and Political Science. London, University of London. PhD: 267. ·Held, N (Jun. 2011) Racialised Lesbian Spaces: A Mancunian Ethnography, Lancaster, Lancaster University. PhD
[11] See: ·Whittle, S. (1st June 1999). "Britain's Transsexual Action Organisation." LISTSERV Archives” from https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=trans-academic;d79f3aba.99. ·Baker, J. (2010b). "What is The Northern Concord?" from http://www.northernconcord.org.uk/What_is.htm.
[12] Expressed in the 2007 ‘Sparkle Festival Guide’.
[13]See: ·Angel, K. (29th Jun 2006). "Sparkle 2006 - The International Transgender Celebration." Retrieved 12th Mar. 2011, from http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Society/Sparkle_2006_-_The_International_Transgender_Celebration_72840.html. ·Dunning, J. (17th Jul 2009). "Police Sparkle at Trans Pride." Retrieved 27/06/2011, from http://www.lgf.org.uk/police-sparkle-at-trans-pride/.
[14] TREC, Manchester-Concord, TransForum (2011). The Sparkle Guide 2011 - Supplimentary Guide for Talks and Workshops. Manchester.
[15] See Mitchell, M. and C. Howarth (Autumn 2009). Research report 27 - Trans Research Review. E. a. H. R. Commission. London.
[16] ‘Transphobia’ means prejudices (including violence) against trans* people.
[17]See: ·Mead, M. (1949). Male and Female. A study of the sexes in a changing world. London, Victor Gollancz. ·Stack, C. B. (1974). All Our kin : strategies for survival in a Black community. [S.l.], Harper. ·Ingold, T. (1985) Who Studies Humanity? The Scope of Anthropology. Anthropology Today, 1:6:15-16 ·Middlehurst, L. (2005). Queering Transvestism: From the Internet Closet Out and In Manchester. Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Leeds, University of Leeds. Masters of Arts: 60. ·Nanjunda, D. C. (2010). Contemporary studies in anthropology: a reading. New Delhi, India, Mittal Publications. ·Middlehurst, L (Feb. 2011). The Transgender Survey, International Repartee - Transgendered and Cross‑dressing Lifestyle Issue 66, Rose's Publications. ·Middlehurst, L. (Jul. 2011). The Six Transgender Identity Questionnaires: 16.
[18] See: ·Manchester-News (23rd Sept. 2009). "Lee Middlehurst" fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-L-KNwjQz4. ·wwwTinCanTV (31st Oct. 2009). "Art From Recycled CDs - Lee Middlehurst" from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uADnSZszD-s.
[19] Berg, B. L. (2007). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston; London, Pearson.
[20] See ·Robinson, A (29th Jul. 2011)“In TheoryBakhtin: Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia”from http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-bakhtin-1/ ·Bakhtin, M. M. (1984 [1929]). Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
[22] Becker, H. S. (1998). Tricks of the Trade : how to think about your research while you're doing it. Chicago, Ill; London, University of Chicago Press.
[23]NCCPE (2012a) "What is Public Engagement?" National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagementfrom http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/what.
[24]NCCPE (2012b). "The Public Engagement Ambassadors Scheme." National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagementfrom http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/how-we-help/ambassadors-scheme.
[25] Duncan, S. and S. Spicer (2010). The Engaging Researcher - Inspiring people to engage with your research. Vitae. B. f. P. Engagement. Cambridge, Vitae: 20.
[26]Read a fascinating and enlightening website entry:
[27]See ·Scott, J. and G. Marshall (2005). A dictionary of sociology. Oxford ; New York, Oxford University Press ·Knox, P. L. and S. Pinch (2006). Urban social geography : an introduction. Harlow, Prentice Hall.
[28] See: ·Butler, C. (2010). Modernism : a very short introduction. Oxford, Oxford University Press. ·Schindler, R. J. "Dr. Ronald Schindler - Lecture Notes : Outlines." Retrieved 24th Aug. 2013, from http://www.rschindler.com/.
[29]Nietzsche, F. W. and W. A. Kaufmann (1971). The portable Nietzsche. Selected and translated with an introduction, prefaces, and notes by Walter Kaufmann. London, Chatto & Windus.
[30] See: ·Samu, M (2013) “Impressionism: Art and Modernity” from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm ·Cottington, D. (2004). Cubism and its histories. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
[31] See: ·Potter, S. and V. O. Woolf (1994). Orlando. London, Faber and Faber. ·Woolf, V. (1995). Orlando : a biography (Wordsworth Classics). Ware, Wordsworth. ·Lee, H. (1997). Virginia Woolf. London, Vintage. ·Domestico, AandP. Lewis (2010a) “The Modernism Lab at Yale University – T.S. Eliot” from http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/T.S._Eliot ·Domestico, AandP. Lewis (2010b) “The Modernism Lab at Yale University – Virginia Woolf” from http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Virginia_Woolf
[33]Pages 56/7 from ·Gramsci, A. and D. Forgacs (1988). A Gramsci reader : selected writings 1916-1935. London, Lawrence and Wishart.
[34]Page 64 from ·Gramsci, A. and D. Forgacs (1988). A Gramsci reader : selected writings 1916-1935. London, Lawrence and Wishart.
[35] See: ·Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research : meaning and perspective in the research process. London, SAGE. ·Robinson, D., J. Groves, R. Appignanesi (1998). Introducing philosophy. Cambridge, Icon, 1999. ·Garratt, C. and C. Rodrigues (2001). Introducing modernism. Cambridge, Icon. ·Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics : the basics. London, Routledge.
[36] From Page 160 of ·Robinson, D., J. Groves, R. Appignanesi (1998). Introducing philosophy. Cambridge, Icon, 1999.
[38] These reconceptions partly come from Barthes’ writing where he inspires deconstructing perceptions in his 1968 text The Death of the Author.[38]In his 2003 book, Allen writes about Barthes’ post-structuralist belief that a reader’s understanding of an author’s text may not be what the author intended: ·Allen, G. (2003). Roland Barthes. London ; New York, Routledge.
[39] See: ·Derrida, J. (1976). Of grammatology. Baltimore ; London, Johns Hopkins University Press. ·Hammersley, M. (1998). Reading ethnographic research: a critical guide. New York; London, Longman. ·Wilchins, R. (2004). Queer Theory, Gender Theory. London, Alyson Publications.
[40] From Page 31 of ·Dicks, B., B. Mason, A. Coffrey, P. Atkinson (2005). Qualitative Research and Hypermedia : Ethnography for the Digital Age. London, SAGE.
[41]Marcus, G. E. (1998). What Comes (Just) Ater “Post”?. The Landscape of Qualitative Research. N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London, Sage Publications.
[42] In her 2000 book, Namaste writes that the philosophers Derrida and Foucault refuse “to accept individual social agents as ‘masters’ of their own lives, identities and worlds” (on page 16). She also writes Derrida is sceptical about binary concepts textual meanings.In her 2004 book, Wilchins discusses Derrida’s allegation that “Gender is a language” (on page 35) with his claims that definitions and binary concepts are debatable.In several chapters of my book, binaries are also cynically discussed.Numerous parts of my book are structured to go beyond the limits of language.See: ·Namaste, V. K. (2000). Invisible Lives : The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press. ·Wilchins, R. (2004). Queer Theory, Gender Theory. London, Alyson Publications.
[43]Appignanesi, R., C. Garratt, Z. Sardar, P. Curry (1995). Introducing Postmodernism. Cambridge, Icon.
[44]Reason, P. and H. Bradbury (2001). Handbook of action research : participative inquiry and practice. London, SAGE.
[45] See: ·Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge. London, Tavistock Publications. ·Sawicki, J. (1991). Disciplining Foucault : feminism, power, and the body. London, Routledge.
[46] See: ·Whittle, S. (1st June 1999). "Britain's Transsexual Action Organisation." LISTSERV Archives, Retrieved 30.05.2011, from https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=trans-academic;d79f3aba.99. ·Angel, K. (1st Jul. 2006). "Sparkle 2006 - The International Transgender Celebration" Retrieved 12th Mar. 2011, from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/07/prweb405887.htm. ·Sparkle-Management (2007). Sparkle Festival Guide. AXM Bar. Sparkle. Manchester. ·Dunning, J. (17 Jul 2009). "Police Sparkle at Trans Pride." Retrieved 27/06/2011, from http://www.lgf.org.uk/police-sparkle-at-trans-pride/. ·Mitchell, M. and C. Howarth (Autumn 2009). Research report 27 - Trans Research Review. E. a. H. R. Commission. London. ·Baker, J. (2010b). "What is The Northern Concord?" Retrieved 7th May 2010, from http://www.northernconcord.org.uk/What_is.htm.
[47]Baudrillard, J. (1981). “Simulacra and simulation”from https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf
[48] Davy, Z. (2011). Recognizing transsexuals : personal, political and medicolegal embodiment. Farnham, Ashgate.
[49] See: ·Guild-of-Students (2011). "University Of Birmingham - LGBTQ Liberation Association" from http://www.lgbtq.co.uk/. ·Surrey-County-Council (2011). "Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Questioning - LGBTQ" from http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Lesbian+Gay+Bisexual+Transgender+and+Questioning+-+LGBTQ?opendocument.
[51] UMKC (2013) “LGBTQIA Students” from http://www.umkc.edu/HOUSING/lgbtqia.asp
[52]Baudrillard, J. (1981). “Simulacra and simulation”from https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf
[53] See: ·Massey, D. B., J. Allen, S. Pile (1999). City worlds. London, Routledge in association with the Open University. ·Moss, J. (7th Nov. 2011). "The Gay Village 1 - Manchester City Centre" from http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/gay/gay-vill1.html.
[54]Pain, R. (2001). Introducing social geographies. London, Arnold.
[55] See: ·Barthes, R. (1957). Mythologies (extracts). Literary Theory : An Anthology. J. Rivkin and M. Ryan. Malden, MA Oxford, Blackwell: xx, 1314 p. ·Baudrillard, J. (1981). “Simulacra and simulation”from https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf ·Valentine, G. (2001). Social geographies : space and society. Harlow, Prentice Hall. ·Knox, P. L. and S. Pinch (2006). Urban social geography : an introduction. Harlow, Prentice Hall. ·Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics : the basics. London, Routledge.
[56] See ·Fine, R. (2007). Cosmopolitanism. London, Routledge. ·Derrida, J. (2001). On cosmopolitanism and forgiveness. London, Routledge.
[57] Glinert, E. (2008). The Manchester compendium : a street-by-street guide to England's greatest industrial city. London, Allen Lane.
[58] Moss, J. (7th Nov. 2011). "The Gay Village 1 - Manchester City Centre" from http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/gay/gay-vill1.html.
[59] See: ·Bell, D. and A. Haddour (2000). City visions. Harlow, Pearson Education. ·Bell, D. F. and M. Jayne (2004). City of quarters : urban villages in the contemporary city, Aldershot. Ashgate. ·Homfrey, M (May, 2005) The gay and lesbian community in ·the North-West of England: towards a communitarian theory of gay equality ·University of Liverpool. PhD: 333 ·Lees, L., T. Slater, E. Wyly (2010). The gentrification reader. London, Routledge.
[60] In this book the word ‘re-present’ concerns ‘reinterpretation’ as opposed to ‘represent’ which can mean ‘to symbolize’ (Stringer, 2013).
[61] See: ·Duncan, N. (1996). Bodyspace : destabilizing geographies of gender and sexuality. London, Routledge. ·Darbyshire, K. J. (2007). Being Gay, Being Straight: An Anthropological Critique of Manchester's Gay Village. London School of Economics and Political Science. London, University of London. PhD: 267. ·Glinert, E. (2008). The Manchester compendium : a street-by-street guide to England's greatest industrial city. London, Allen Lane.
[62] From page 121 of - Löw, M. (2006). "The Social Construction of Space and Gender." European Journal of Women’s Studies 13(2): 119–133.
[63] See: ·Castells, M. (1983). The city and the grassroots : a cross-cultural theory of urban social movements. London, Edward Arnold. ·Pain, R. (2001). Introducing social geographies. London, Arnold. ·Homfrey, M (May, 2005) The gay and lesbian community in the North-West of England: towards a communitarian theory of gay equality. University of Liverpool. PhD: 333 ·Knox, P. L. and S. Pinch (2006). Urban social geography : an introduction. Harlow, Prentice Hall. ·Cordero, J. C. M. (2008). Residents' Attitudes Towards Gay Tourism Sexual Behaviour. Department of Food and Tourism Management. Manchester, The Manchester Metropolitan University. PhD.
[64] See: ·Pain, R. (2001). Introducing social geographies. London, Arnold. ·Geoghegan, T. (28th September 2009). "Why lesbians are the butt of gay men's jokes" from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8278398.stm. ·TUC (2012) “Report for Women’s Conference 2012 - Women’s pay and employment update: a public/private sector comparison”from http://www.tuc.org.uk/tucfiles/251.pdf
[65] From page 15 of - Held, N (Jun. 2011) Racialised Lesbian Spaces: A Mancunian Ethnography, Lancaster, Lancaster University. PhD
[66] See: ·Klesse, C. (2004). Gay male and bisexual non-monogamies: resistance, power and normalisation, University of Essex PhD. ·Nunn, G. (14th Jul. 2009). "The last bastion of prejudice" from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/14/duncan-james-blue-bisexual. ·Klesse, C. (29th Sept. 2010). "Christian Klesse - Creating Bisexual Intimacies in the face of heteronormativity and Biphobia." from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMkqEMrH0Xo.
[67] See: ·Angel, K. (1st Jul. 2006). "Sparkle 2006 - The International Transgender Celebration" from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/07/prweb405887.htm. ·Dunning, J. (17 Jul 2009). "Police Sparkle at Trans Pride" from http://www.lgf.org.uk/police-sparkle-at-trans-pride/. ·Sparkle-Team (2012a). " Latest News" from http://www.sparkle.org.uk/index.html.
[68] See: ·Whittle, S. (1994). The margins of the city : gay men's urban lives. Aldershot, Arena. ·Bell, D. and A. Haddour (2000). City visions. Harlow, Pearson Education. ·Bell, D. F. and M. Jayne (2004). City of quarters : urban villages in the contemporary city, Aldershot. Ashgate. ·Middlehurst, L. (2005). Queering Transvestism: From the Internet Closet Out and In Manchester. Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Leeds, University of Leeds. Masters of Arts: 60. ·Darbyshire, K. J. (2007). Being Gay, Being Straight: An Anthropological Critique of Manchester's Gay Village. London School of Economics and Political Science. London, University of London. PhD: 267. ·Unsworth, E. (2008). Manchester: The Complete Guide 2008. Manchester, City Life.
[69]Waldron, J. (2010). What is Cosmopolitanism? The Cosmopolitanism Reader. G. W. Brown and D. Held. Cambridge, Polity: 163-175.
[70] From page 171 of - Waldron, J. (2010). What is Cosmopolitanism? The Cosmopolitanism Reader. G. W. Brown and D. Held. Cambridge, Polity: 163-175.
[71] See: ·Moran, L., B. Skeggs, P. Tyrer, K. Corteen (2004). Sexuality and the Politics of Violence. London, Routledge. ·Binnie, J. and B. Skeggs (2006). Cosmopolitan knowledge and sexualised space: Manchester's Gay Village. Cosmopolitan urbanism. J. Binnie, J. Holloway, S. Millington and C. Young. London, Routledge: xi, 259 p.
[72] See: ·Robertson, G. (Aug. - Sept. 2012). The Queen of All PRIDES! ONW - OUTNORTHWEST. Manchester, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation: 52. ·Manchester-Pride (2013). " Manchester-Pride 2012" from http://www.manchesterpride.com/gallery/2012
[73] See: ·Kennedy, N. (22nd May 2010). "Once again the 'T' in LGBT is silenced" from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/22/malawian-transgender-identity. ·Kennedy, N. (20th Oct. 2010). "Stonewall is holding back transgender equality." from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/20/stonewall-holding-back-transgender-equality.
[74] See: ·Moran, L., B. Skeggs, P. Tyrer, K. Corteen (2004). Sexuality and the Politics of Violence. London, Routledge. ·Binnie, J. and B. Skeggs (2006). Cosmopolitan knowledge and sexualised space: Manchester's Gay Village. Cosmopolitan urbanism. J. Binnie, J. Holloway, S. Millington and C. Young. London, Routledge: xi, 259 p. ·Darbyshire, K. J. (2007). Being Gay, Being Straight: An Anthropological Critique of Manchester's Gay Village. London School of Economics and Political Science. London, University of London. PhD: 267. ·Held, N (Jun. 2011) Racialised Lesbian Spaces: A Mancunian Ethnography, Lancaster, Lancaster University. PhD
[75] Un-québec-pour-tous (2013) “What is homophobia?” from http://fighthomophobia.gouv.qc.ca/understanding
[76] Middlehurst, L. (2005). Queering Transvestism: From the Internet Closet Out and In Manchester. Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Leeds, University of Leeds. Masters of Arts: 60.
[77] Berg, B. L. (2007). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston ; London, Pearson.
[78]Reason, P. and H. Bradbury (2001). Handbook of action research : participative inquiry and practice. London, SAGE.
[79]NCCPE (2012a). "What is Public Engagement?" National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement from http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/what.
[80]Fals Borda, O and R. Gott (28th Aug. 2008) “Orlando Fals Borda - Sociologist and activist who defined peasant politics in Colombia” from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/26/colombia.sociology?gusrc=rss&feed=education
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[84] See: ·Ekins, R. (1997). Male Femaling : A Grounded Approach to Cross-dressing and Sex-changing. London, Routledge. ·Berg, B. L. (2007). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston ; London, Pearson. ·Keen, A (2013) “The Paradox of Theoretical Sampling”from http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/512115/2013_RCN_research_4.7.2.pdf
[85] From page 50 of Appignanesi, R., C. Garratt, Z. Sardar, P. Curry (1995). Introducing Postmodernism. Cambridge, Icon.