Genderism: Transgender Students, Binary Systems and Higher Education

This ground-breaking text profiles a college population often misunderstood: Transgender students. Using a broad range of self-identifying terms, "transsexual," "tranny boy," "genderqueer," "male to something else," "two spirit," "third gender" and "still defining," this study's participants gave voice to a definition and characteristics of genderism. They described a campus dictated by a binary gender system with four components: a social labeling process used to categorize all individuals into rigid male or female identities; accountability for conforming to binary gender norms with requisite rewards and punishments; privileging of non-transgender persons; and invisibility, isolation and inaccessibility of transgender identities. For university faculty, administrators and students, this unique work provides both a theoretical foundation for understanding systemic oppression related to transgender identities as well as a blue print for campus change. This study was recognized with a GLBT Knowledge Community Research Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and Scholar-Activist Award from the American Educational Research Association.