Final project. I have attached the instructions and two assigned readings. You will read the readings and choose any 3 academic source (which you may think is relatable to the topic) from anywhere and

While there were few restrictions governing the format of the role play, the profes- sor in charge of the course asserted: ‘But I don’t want them to get carried away and turn this into a drag show!’ While I don’t think he meant this in a derogator y man- ner, it was made obvious that the world of drag was utterly separate from the world of business, work, and organizations. And nor did I dare, back then, to question his reasoning or to mention my own cross-dressing. Introduction During the past couple of decades gender has become an established eld in the study of work and organization. While research in this eld tends to focus on the social aspects of gender in work organizations, recent studies have directed atten- tion at the bodily aspects of gender. Informed by poststructuralist (e.g. Foucault, 1977; 1979) and feminist theor y (e.g. Butler, 1990; 1993) in particular, research in this area has tended to focus on the gendered body as an object of discursive construction and disciplinar y control in work organizations. For instance, studies of aesthetic labour have problematized how organizations relate the work perform- ance of (primarily female) ser vice employees to an ability to smile, keep eye-contact, CH012.indd 191CH012.indd 191 2/10/11 4:23:29 PM2/10/11 4:23:29 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 192 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION and maintain a certain body-shape (Hancock and Tyler, 2000). Similarly, studies of workplace culture have shown how the (primarily male) manager body is expected to work hard and play hard despite few hours of sleep (Holliday and Thompson, 2001). Much less attention has been directed at transgender embodiment, which cuts across the conventional distinction between female and male, femininity and masculinity. While transgender has attracted increasing interest amongst gender scholars in the wider social sciences and humanities, less than a handful of publica- tions have studied transgender in settings of work and organization.

Departing from a critical review of transgender research in the social sciences, the humanities, and in studies of work and organization, this chapter therefore dis- cusses how transgender may be embodied in studies of gender, work, and organiza- tion. Part of this involves re ecting about my own transgender embodiment, and I argue that an embodied perspective is necessar y to understand (i) how transgender is expressed through bodily practices as well as through social practices, and (ii) how transgender people are subject to problems and opportunities in settings of work and organization. Not only do transgender people suffer discrimination and marginalization at work and in organizations because of our bodies. Our transgen- der bodies are also sites of work, organization, and consumption. Let me therefore begin by elaborating the signi cance of transgender embodiment in settings of work and organization. Transgender, Work, and Organization Despite a lack of robust statistics, the American Psychological Association (APA, 2009) argues that in Western countries ‘[a]s many as 2–3% of biological males engage in cross-dressing’ and that 1 in 10 000 biological males and 1 in 30 000 biological females are transsexual. In contrast, transgender activists and scholars argue that APA systematically underestimates the prevalence of transgender people, estimating instead that 1% of people in Western countries are transgender, that 5% of biological males engage in cross-dressing, and that 1 in 500 biological males are transsexual (see e.g. Conway, 2002; Olyslager and Conway, 2007). From this it would follow that at least 1 in 3000 biological females are transsexual.

Whereas popular discourse often confuses various forms of transgender, the term was introduced by community activists in the early 1980s as an umbrella term to include all individuals who embody and express a gender identity which diverges from the binar y distinction that contemporar y Western societies tend to make between female and male. A transgender person is therefore someone whose gen- der identity does not correspond to the sexual identity that she or he is assigned at birth. As transgendering involves female-to-male (FTM) and male-to-female (MTF) transitioning as well as non-identi cation with a particular gender or sex, it includes transvestites, transsexuals, drag kings, drag queens, intersexuals, third genderists, genderqueers, and agenderists.

Transgender people enjoy different statuses in different societies. Despite having a sacred ‘third sex’ status in certain premodern cultures, as the ‘two-spirit’ peo- ple in Native American culture (Herdt, 1993; see also Linstead and Pullen, 2006), CH012.indd 192CH012.indd 192 2/10/11 4:23:30 PM2/10/11 4:23:30 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 193 the predominance of the two-sex model (Laqueur, 1990) means that transgender people are often subjected to stigmatization and marginalization in contemporar y Western societies. Although the tolerance for and status of transgender people may have increased in recent years (as a case in point, thirteen US states have recently made it illegal for employers to deny someone work based on their gender identity), tolerance itself is a typical liberal principle that may avoid open discrimi- nation but still leave people unwelcome.

Moreover, transgender people are still subject to hate crimes, violence, harass- ment, and labour market discrimination. In a sur vey of the San Francisco transgen- der population, all participants reported some type of abuse and discrimination because of their gender identity or embodied gender presentation, including ver- bal abuse (FTMs 85%, MTFs 83%), employment discrimination (FTMs 57%, MTFs 46%), problems obtaining health care (FTMs 39%, MTFs 13%), physical abuse (FTMs 30%, MTFs 37%), and housing discrimination (FTMs 20%, MTFs 27%) (San Francisco Department of Public Health, 1999). A more recent sur vey of transgender people in San Francisco reported that ‘nearly 40% of respondents believe that they have been discriminated against when applying for work’, that ‘over 24% of people reported that they had been sexually harassed at work’, ‘nearly 19% of respond- ents have experienced trouble in advancing in their company or department’, that 18% of respondents have been red from a job due to gender identity discrimina- tion, and that 59% of respondents are living in poverty (Transgender Law Center, 2006: 3–5). And a sur vey of UK transsexuals reported that 33% of respondents were forced to leave work by their employer during or after transition (Whittle, 2002).

Transgender people with successful careers in mainstream organizations there- fore often conceal their transgender identity at work, and people who do not con- ceal it tend to have problems nding work, keeping work, or being promoted at work. In many countries, persistent transphobia, that is, discrimination and abuse against transgender people, forces transgender people into prostitution, crime, and illegitimate forms of work to support themselves. Uncon rmed estimates sug- gest that 80% of all transgender people in the US have been incarcerated at least once during their lifetime. Paraphrasing C. Wright Mills (1959), it may therefore be argued that the stigmatization and marginalization of transgender people causes personal troubles for transgender individuals that constitute social problems for communities, organizations and societies.

Perhaps I’ve been particularly fortunate in this respect. I’ve received more complimentar y than abusive remarks when going out dressed up, and I’ve never been physically abused when dressed up. Still, even though I don’t tr y to hide my transvestism at work (I’ve got long blond hair, I wear pearls even when in male drag, and many of my colleagues know I’m an MTF transvestite), I’ve never been dressed up at work, mostly out of worr y for how my colleagues and students might react.

At the same time, transgender creates opportunities for work and organiza- tions. Thousands of people pursue part-time or full-time careers as drag queens or drag kings by harnessing their transgender identity and embodiment. RuPaul, for instance, departed from the scene of night club drag shows in the 1990s to become a recording artist, appear in motion pictures, be the cover girl for MAC Cosmetics, and host his own television show. And in addition to the numerous transgender CH012.indd 193CH012.indd 193 2/10/11 4:23:30 PM2/10/11 4:23:30 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 194 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION support groups and community organizations that exist across the world, thousands of businesses and organizations explicitly cater for transgender clients and custom- ers by offering products and ser vices that are mobilized in the construction and expression of transgender embodiment: internet vendors selling wigs, fake beards, and high-heeled shoes in tall sizes, dressing ser vices for MTF transvestites, and med- ical clinics providing sexual reassignment therapy and surger y. Similarly, I don’t think I would have written this chapter had I not been transgender.

As the making of gender, transgender, and embodiment is crucial to transgender people and to the transgender industr y, this is also a dominant issue in transgender research. Typically working from a constructionist approach, this research tends to investigate how transgender people make – and construct – female and male gen- der through social, cultural, linguistic, and discursive practices. Harold Gar nkel’s (1967) ethnomethodological work in sociology on passing and Judith Butler’s post- structuralist work in cultural studies on performativity are central in this context. Transgender in Social Science and Humanities Research Passing Gar nkel’s (1967) ethnomethodological study of the intersexual woman Agnes pioneered social science inquir y into transgender. According to Gar nkel Western societies tend to assume that one’s sex and gender is either male or female, that one’s gender corresponds to one’s sex, and that this is a biological and social fact that does not change over the course of a person’s life. The case of Agnes prob- lematizes this assumption. Agnes was born with male genitalia, developed breasts at the age of twelve, but was raised as a boy until the age of seventeen. At seventeen she decided to live full time as a woman and to seek sexual reassignment surger y.

According to Gar nkel, this required Agnes to engage in ‘sexual passing’, that is, to achieve and secure her right to live as a member of the chosen sex while risking disclosure and ruin. For Agnes, sexual passing was a means rather than an end in itself, and achieving a feminine identity was more important than ‘ordinar y goals’ of getting an education, getting a job, developing an occupational career, and making and maintaining social, emotional, and romantic relationships.

Arguing that Agnes looked, behaved, and talked in a ‘ladylike’ manner, with the skills, feelings, motives, and aspirations of a ‘natural, normal’ [sic] woman, Gar nkel focuses on the social and linguistic aspects of passing, that is, how Agnes mobilized tactics, strategies, and practices of speech and conduct to avoid disclosure of her secret that she was born a male, with male genitalia, and raised as a male. For instance, Agnes would avoid social relationships, particularly any association with gay men and transvestites. She would not talk about her childhood or about the bodily practices she mobilized to pass. She also would avoid people who could reveal her secret, preferring to spend time only with those lacking such knowledge. In general, she would plan ahead and picture a number of scenarios to remain incon- spicuous, not draw attention and minimize risk of disclosure and ruin. In order to do so successfully she developed a practice of ‘rehearsed carelessness’ – carefully CH012.indd 194CH012.indd 194 2/10/11 4:23:30 PM2/10/11 4:23:30 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 195 rehearsing her speech and conduct but without giving the impression that it was carefully rehearsed.

For Gar nkel, Agnes’ passing partly involves the playing of a game, with rules that require the optimizing of instrumental rationality to be played successfully. But unlike Goffman’s (1959) notion of impression management, passing is not wholly rationally calculative but precarious, and the stable routines of passing are accomplished by improvization. Agnes did not already know what was expected of her to pass in any and ever y situation. She did not, for instance, always know what answers to give in the inter views with Gar nkel prior to her sexual reassignment surger y, fearing that giving a ‘wrong’ answer would lead the doctors to remove her breasts instead of her penis.

Gar nkel, then, goes some way in actualizing the connection between bodily and social practices in the construction of gender. But even though Gar nkel describes Agnes’ ever yday bodily problems and the bodily techniques she mobilizes to deal with them, his focus on the linguistic and social practices of passing has made the case more signi cant in highlighting how gender is socially constructed and understand- ing how social order is achieved through ever yday routines. As ethnomethodology is primarily concerned with how social order is produced through stable ever yday routines he turns Agnes into an ideal case that marginalizes the real problems she experiences as a transgender person (Schilt and Connell, 2007). This problem is to some extent mitigated in more recent research on passing. Combining a grounded theor y approach with social interactionism, Ekins (1997) investigates how MTF transvestites accomplish passing in a way which more clearly highlights how trans- vestites are embedded in empirical social worlds. And rather than viewing passing as a mere adjustment to the binar y sexual order, he argues that transgender people may both reproduce and change the social organization of sex and gender. Performativity More than two decades after Gar nkel’s case study of Agnes, through a study of MTF drag performers, Butler (1990) introduces the notion of gender construction as performativity rather than passing. Butler uses the example of poor black and Latina US drag queens from the documentar y lm Paris Is Burning. For Butler, drag highlights that gender is not naturally and unequivocally given, but linguistically, discursively, and socially constructed through the ‘ritualized repetition of norms’ (1993: x) and continuous performance of discrete ever yday practices of speech and conduct that make gender seem natural within a binar y heterosexual matrix. Like Gar nkel’s notion of passing, performativity involves a series of consistent manner- isms, postures, and intonations as well as the use of clothing, hairstyles, and make-up.

However, Butler makes no reference to Gar nkel, and unlike Agnes who sought to conceal her intersexuality, most of the drag queens in Paris Is Burning perform a more excessive form of femininity which is meant to attract rather than avoid attention.

This does not mean that Butler assumes that one can choose and change one’s gen- der from one day to the next. Rather, bodies are formed, constituted, and inscribed with sex and gender by processes that put normative constraints on what bodies should and should not do. Drawing on Althusser’s (1971) notion of interpellation and hailing, CH012.indd 195CH012.indd 195 2/10/11 4:23:31 PM2/10/11 4:23:31 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 196 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION Butler argues that an individual’s performance as male or female is seen as successful insofar as one is recognized – and hailed – by other people as male or female. This is actualized in Paris Is Burning, as one of the main participants, Venus Extravaganza, who unlike most of the drag queens in the lm lives full time as a woman and supports her- self through prostitution, is murdered by one of her clients when he nds out that she has male genitalia.

To Butler, the murder illustrates her theoretical point that performativity does not mean that material experiences such as pain, pleasure, illness, violence, life, and death are mere constructions, but that construction is what enables us to make sense of and live these experiences. As certain constructions make some bodies intelligible and liveable, they make other bodies unthinkable, abject, and unlivea- ble. This does not, however, imply a dualism between liveable and unliveable bodies, between our lived experiences and experiences that we have not had. Since dualism is itself part of intelligibility, Butler instead argues that unliveable bodies are part of ‘the excluded and illegible domain that haunts the former domain as the spectre of its own impossibility’ (1993: xi) – and threatens the possibility of (a stable) iden- tity. The challenge for Butler, then, is to rethink the domain of intelligibility in such a way that unthinkable and unliveable bodies are made thinkable and liveable. But consequently, bodies are effects of discourse, even in terms of the materiality that they live. And in order to rethink the domain of intelligibility, she argues that femi- nist inquir y should take bodily materiality as its research object.

This ironically leads Butler to privilege discourse and marginalize bodily material- ity in general and the bodily materiality of transgender people in particular. Butler does not interpret the murder as a hate crime against a transgender person, but ‘elides Extravaganza’s transsexual status’ and views it as an example of men’s violence against women of colour (Namaste, 1996: 188). Hence, Butler’s feminist anti-racism gets in the way of an adequate interpretation of transgender relations, and both her discourse and her discursive view limit the extent to which unliveable bodies can become liveable by the extent to which unthinkable bodies can be made thinkable.

Butler therefore ignores two things: (i) the actual lived conditions of painful and suffering bodies that many people would rather not think about (including those of many transgender sex workers), and (ii) the bodily materialities that are liveable and might indeed become lived despite our inability to conceive of them in thought.

Unlike Gar nkel’s emphasis on passing, then, Butler’s notion of performativity acknowledges possibilities for change, suggesting that gender expression may be expanded beyond the binar y organization of sex and gender which still dominates contemporar y Western society. But like Gar nkel, she disembodies transgender from the concrete situations of transgender people, displacing their materiality (Prosser, 1998) and social context (Namaste, 2000), turning the real drag queens in Paris Is Burning into a metaphor for the performativity of gender as a whole (Schilt and Connell, 2007), and ignoring the ever yday experiences of transgender people (Namaste, 1996).

More recent work on transgender informed by Butler has had mixed effects on resolving these problems. Halberstam’s (2005) queer theor y analysis of the mur- der of the FTM transgender person Brandon Teena may provide a case in point here. While Halberstam acknowledges that Brandon Teena was murdered because CH012.indd 196CH012.indd 196 2/10/11 4:23:31 PM2/10/11 4:23:31 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 197 he was transgender, her focus is neither on the murder of Brandon Teena nor on hate crimes against transgender people. Instead, Halberstam undertakes a narrative analysis of how transgender activists used the murder politically in the pursuit of transgender rights.

In contrast, Shapiro (2007) resolves some of the problems associated with Butler’s work on transgender by investigating how gender performativity is not just about public performance but embedded in ever yday life through a case study of the drag troupe and feminist political collective Disposable Boy Toys (DBT). By studying drag kings and drag queens both on and off stage, Shapiro explores how drag per- formance affects the performers themselves. The drag performance constituted a space to enact different femininities and masculinities, thereby enabling DBT mem- bers to imagine their ever yday gender differently. Further, Shapiro draws attention to the organizational aspects of DBT – its shared nances, decision-making, and leadership, and how it ser ved as an important community resource, providing peo- ple links to the transgender community and information about support ser vices as well as an ideological and organizational context for collective action. But while Shapiro provides detailed bodily descriptions of certain drag acts and certain DBT members, highlighting their uid identities and bodies, she provides no theorizing of transgender embodiment as such. And even though the DBT drag performance constitutes paid part-time work embedded in the context of social movement organ- izations, Shapiro provides no theorizing of work practices and limited theorizing of DBT as an organization.

Transgender in Studies of Gender, Work, and Organization While transgender remains a marginalized topic in studies of work and organization, then, gender scholarship on transgender tends to evade issues of work and organi- zation. To date, only about a handful of publications have investigated transgender in relation to work and organization. This includes theoretical discussions about transgender and organization theor y (e.g. Brewis et al., 1997; Linstead and Pullen, 2006), and empirically founded work on transgender employees (Schilt, 2006; Schilt and Connell, 2007), most of which tends to take a constructionist perspective.

Informed by Butler’s notion of performativity, Brewis et al. (1997) discuss how transgender – and particularly MTF transvestism – may challenge the binar y gen- der divide. On their view, transvestism is ‘a “hard form of transgression”’ whereby MTF transvestites adopt ‘an entirely female style of costume’ (ibid.: 1288). But as most transvestites construct gender without desiring ‘to become the other gender perma- nently’, transvestites challenge the binar y gender divide by travelling between gen- ders. This leads Brewis et al. to argue that as transvestism highlights the constructed nature of gender, it hints at the possibility for men and women to play with gen- der roles and challenge masculine dominance as well as the binar y gender divide in organizations. This has no doubt been important in introducing transgender to studies of gender, work, and organization. However, like Gar nkel and Butler, Brewis et al.’s metaphorical use of transgender de ects attention from the ever yday lives and embodiments of transgender people in settings of work and organization. CH012.indd 197CH012.indd 197 2/10/11 4:23:31 PM2/10/11 4:23:31 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 198 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION Combining gendered organization theor y with intersectional analysis, Schilt (2006) investigates how the case of transmen makes workplace gender discrimina- tion visible. While transmen have the same skills, education, and abilities before and after transition, some respondents experienced new advantages at work after transition – advantages they did not have as women – and that they were being valued for being male. For instance, one respondent found that customers went more often to him for queries after he transitioned, and a number of transitioned respondents experienced that their views were more highly recognized in meetings and in interaction with co-workers and managers. Moreover, transitioned transmen experienced less sexual harassment, touching, groping, and sexualized comments, problems which they had experienced before transition when appearing as an ‘obvi- ous dyke’. However, tall, white transmen found more advantages than short transmen and transmen of colour. And transmen who were in the early stages of transition or who had not used hormones during transition did not experience these advantages because they did not pass as men or because they looked like young men. Asian and black transmen also did not experience these advantages – Asian transmen because they were viewed by whites as passive, and black transmen because they were viewed by whites as threatening. Hence, the change in how the same person is treated by co-workers after transition means that gender inequalities result from gender stereotypes that co-workers and employers rely on in evaluating the skills and performance of women and men. This is a signi cant contribution to the under- standing of workplace gender discrimination in general. But while Schilt pays attention to the bodily features of transmen and their social interaction with co- workers and employers, it risks turning the experience of transmen into a metaphor of workplace gender discrimination.

Drawing on a combination of Butler’s work and symbolic interactionism (e.g.

West and Zimmerman, 1987), Schilt and Connell (2007) investigate whether trans- gender people who remain in the same job make gender trouble and how they socially negotiate gender identity with their co-workers during gender transition or sex change. In this context, gender trouble refers to transgender activism and the explicit expression of transgender embodiment and identity which disrupts gender binaries and the ‘natural connection between genitals and gender identity’ (ibid.:

602). Before transition transwomen were expected to engage in conversations about cars and sports with their male colleagues while transmen were expected to participate in conversations about appearance, dress, hairstyles, and menstrua- tion. Conversely, after transition transmen were excluded from girl talk while male co-workers questioned the professional capacities of transwomen. For instance, one transwoman was forced out of a business partnership she had had with three men because they doubted her capacity to continue as a business partner, claiming that all she would be concerned with were ‘frivolities of appearance’ (ibid.: 606).

While cross-gender interactions were quite problematic, same-gender interactions after transition were often quite inclusive. In one case, male colleagues signalled that they were positive to the transition of two transmen, asking ‘when they were going to start using the male locker room’. Similarly, a transwoman, despite some distance from female co-workers at rst, started to have lunch with them and was taken shopping by a female colleague. But even though some transgender CH012.indd 198CH012.indd 198 2/10/11 4:23:32 PM2/10/11 4:23:32 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 199 employees sought to ‘adopt “alternative” femininities and masculinities’ to ght binar y and sexist gender stereotypes and sex and gender inequality there was little scope for gender trouble. Full-time transgender employees were enlisted into rituals which reinforce the gender binar y, and they went along with gender stereotypes in order to ‘keep social relationships smooth during transition’ and ‘retain steady and comfortable employment’ (ibid.: 605).

Both studies suggest that transgender employees encounter opportunities, gain privileges and avoid trouble insofar as they pass as members of the opposite sex.

But they also suggest that transgender embodiment as such remains problematic.

Indeed, transgender only ceased to make trouble after transition, when it was no longer apparent or obvious, for transgender employees who passed as members of the opposite sex. These studies are therefore signi cant contributions to the understanding of the construction of transgender and the problems and oppor- tunities that transgender employees encounter in ever yday settings of work and organization, because of or despite our transgender. But despite drawing attention to the bodily practices of transgender employees, they assume that gender is socially constructed, under-theorize transgender embodiment, and give limited insight into the problems, opportunities and experiences that transgender people encounter because of our bodies. Towards an Embodied Approach to Transgender in Studies of Gender, Work, and Organization Although studies of work and organization in particular and the social sciences in general have a long histor y of neglecting issues of embodiment, a number of efforts have been made during the past decade to develop embodied approaches in the social sciences. An embodied approach to transgender may inform at least two pos- sible avenues of research: (i) a more micro-level study of transgender workers, man- agers, clients, and consumers, and (ii) a more macro-level study of organizations, institutions, industries, and elds that cater for transgender people. Both avenues may enable research on bodily practices of transgendering and (how this relates to) the problems and opportunities encountered by transgender people in settings of work and organization.

While previous research has tended to study the body in a disembodied way and focus on the body as an object of discursive construction and disciplinar y control in work organizations, appeals for an embodied approach have argued that the body is an active subject and a medium of action, interaction, knowledge, emotion, and experience. In organization studies and in the broader social sciences these argu- ments have been informed by the work of Merleau-Ponty (see e.g. Williams and Bendelow, 1998a; 1998b; Dale, 2001). Challenging the mind–body dualism, Merleau- Ponty (1962) argues that the body is not a passive object of rational thought, social construction, and organization, but a matter of sensual, mindful, expressive, and lived embodiment. Our thoughts and emotions, habits and experiences, actions, and interactions are embodied, and the mind is an organ located in the body. It is through our bodies that we think, feel, sense and experience, express thoughts and CH012.indd 199CH012.indd 199 2/10/11 4:23:32 PM2/10/11 4:23:32 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 200 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION feelings, create habits and meaning, and act and interact in meaningful ways. For Merleau-Ponty, then, it is our lived embodiment, which is at once routine, inten- tional, and creative, that enables us to relate to, enact and inhabit the world.

Merleau-Ponty’s emphasis on lived embodiment suggests that future studies should not only investigate the social interaction of transgender people at work and in organizations, or the social construction of transgender in the institutional arrangements of organizations, industries, and elds. Rather, future studies need to investigate the lived embodiment and bodily experiences of transgender people at work and in organizations, and how this is affected by and affects institutional arrangements in organizations, industries, and elds.

Micro-oriented research on work and organizations has started to investigate the lived embodiment of employees and managers – how gendered embodiment affects bodily feelings and experiences at work (e.g. Dale, 2001; Knights and Thanem, 2005) and how the body constitutes an active medium of management and organization which enables people to learn and create knowledge in organizations (Edenius and Yakhlef, 2007), commit to work with buzzing excitement, and make decisions based on their gut-feeling (Lennie, 2000). Future research may therefore want to investi- gate the bodily techniques and practices that transgender employees and managers mobilize in expressing – or hiding – our transgender, how our interactions with colleagues and clients affect and are affected by our expression or hiding of trans- gender embodiment, and the bodily feelings and experiences that are spurred as we express or hide our transgender and as we interact with others.

Given Merleau-Ponty’s neglect of body politics and bodily difference, transgen- der research in studies of work and organization would bene t from combining Merleau-Ponty’s ideas with insights from feminism and queer theor y. This may help the area avoid reducing the diverse lived embodiments and experiences of trans- gender people to a generic kind of transgender embodiment and experience, and problematize the speci c bodily problems, opportunities, experiences, and expres- sions of different transgender groups and individuals, beyond the distinctions between MTF and FTM transgendering. It would be particularly fruitful to investi- gate how various forms of transgender embodiment intersect with other forms of bodily, socio-corporeal and socio-demographic difference, including sexuality, race, age, and (dis)ability.

But rather than analysing transgender embodiment from the outside in a disem- bodied, male-stream, and heteronormative way, the emphasis on lived embodiment suggests that transgender research should itself be embodied. Extending Merleau- Ponty’s philosophy and feminist theor y, Williams and Bendelow (1998a; 1998b) have proposed an embodied research strategy for social science research on the body. It is not suf cient to assume that lived embodiment is ‘expressive’, ‘sensual’, or ‘mind- ful’ and involves ‘an active engagement with the world and an intimate connection with both culture and self’ (Williams and Bendelow, 1998b: xvi). As researchers we must re ect about and write our own lived embodiment and bodily experiences into our accounts of the bodies we study. This is a risky and precarious project which thus far has generated little following. As the body itself remains a marginalized research object, it seems even more dif cult to generate enthusiasm around a project that makes individual researchers particularly vulnerable. Still, this is the only way CH012.indd 200CH012.indd 200 2/10/11 4:23:32 PM2/10/11 4:23:32 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 201 that studies of gender, work, and organization can become genuinely embodied, and this may be what it takes to convince our colleagues in the broader area of organiza- tion studies that bodies – and transgender embodiment – matter. In my own research I would therefore re ect about my own lived embodiment and experiences as an MTF transvestite: How do I feel when I’m dressed up, how do I relate to myself and to others, and how do they relate to me – as I take the dog for a walk, ride the bus, go to the supermarket, shop for make-up, women’s shoes and clothing, go out for a drink or a meal, socialize with other MTF transvestites, or inter view transvestites for research? And how do I relate to others when I’m not dressed up but when my trans- vestism still becomes apparent – when shopping for a wig, make-up or women’s shoes while in male drag, when presenting a transgender paper at a conference, or when talking about transgender issues with my colleagues or students?

Wearing stereotypically feminine props such as make-up, women’s clothes and shoes, a wig or my own hair in a more feminine style, it is obvious that my transvestism is written on my body when I’m dressed up. But it also affects how I feel and how I relate to others. Going out dressed up makes me feel more vulnerable, sometimes ner vous, but it can also make me feel more con dent, energized, invigorated and excited. Either way, it makes me change my body language. My voice doesn’t necessarily go up a pitch, but it becomes less monotonous. I tr y to adjust my posture, stand up straight and occupy less space, tighten my shoulders, keep my legs together when sitting down, and reduce the space between my legs when standing up. These things even change when I’m not dressed up but in situations when my transgender is never- theless actualized. Shopping for a pair of tights or mascara when I’m not dressed up I still tr y to appear less masculine, speak more softly and keep my legs together. This rarely upsets people.

I seem to upset others more, provoke more stares and comments, when I go about my ordinar y business in male drag – taking the tube, shopping for food, having a drink at a downtown pub. Even if I don’t pass as a woman when I tr y to dress up as one, at least then people know what I am – a tranny, an MTF transvestite and not a pre-op transsexual, not a butch lesbian, not an effeminate gay man.

An embodied research strategy for the study of transgender embodiment may pose a bigger challenge for the typically macro-oriented study of institutional arrangements in organizations, industries, and elds. The majority of institution- alist research tends to study relations between organizations rather than relations between people in organizations (e.g. Powell and DiMaggio, 1991). Institutionalist studies of transgender embodiment may therefore be more likely to succeed if scholars extend and expand recent efforts to investigate how macro institutions are enacted on a micro level (e.g. Barley and Tolbert, 1997; Czarniawska, 2009), by peo- ple in settings of work and organizations. Future research may want to investigate how institutional arrangements (norms, cultures, and regulations) in the transgen- der industr y are produced, changed, and reproduced through an interaction of organizations, communities and individuals. One case in point is the transgender shoe industr y, that is, companies which manufacture and retail women’s style shoes in men’s sizes and men’s style shoes in women’s sizes: How is the transgender shoe industr y organized and why? What shoes does it manufacture and retail and why?

How does this affect the bodily expression, feelings, and experiences of transgen- der people? And how is this affected by the lived embodiment, bodily feelings, and experiences of transgender people? CH012.indd 201CH012.indd 201 2/10/11 4:23:33 PM2/10/11 4:23:33 PMHandbook of Gender, Work and Organization, edited by Emma Jeanes, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwinnipeg/detail.action?docID=700660.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 202 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION Without having researched these issues yet, I’m continuously frustrated by the dif culty of nding women’s style shoes in a size 42 or 43 (EUR) in ordinar y shoe stores. Women’s style shoes in my size are primarily available from online specialist vendors which mainly stock over- priced garish styles with extreme stiletto heels. To tr y on a pair before buying is therefore not an option. And running in a pair like that is at best dif cult. Conclusion While these research questions emerge from my own transgender embodiment, they may have signi cant implications for the possibility of embodying transgender in studies of gender, work, and organization. Firstly, employing an embodied research strategy to investigate transgender embodiment may enable research on embodi- ment in general and transgender embodiment in particular to become genuinely embodied. Secondly, employing an embodied research strategy to investigate trans- gender embodiment in the transgender industr y would highlight the particular and general features of an under-researched industr y, extend previous efforts (of insti- tutionalist and non-institutionalist research) to bridge the gap between micro-level and macro-level research, and embody the understanding of institutional arrange- ments in organizations, industries, and elds. Thirdly, doing embodied research on transgender in institutional settings links transgender embodiment to the main- stream of organization studies. Despite risks of appropriation, this may help trans- gender research escape its marginalized position as an isolated sub- eld for just the committed few. Hence, it may advance our knowledge of bodily transgendering practices and our knowledge of the problems and opportunities that transgender people encounter in settings of work and organization – across different contexts and levels and analysis. Acknowledgements I am grateful for the incisive and helpful comments of David Knights. REFERENCES Althusser, L. (1971) ‘Ideology and ideological state apparatuses’ in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays, trans. B. Brewster. London: New Left Books, 121–176.

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. EMBODYING TRANSGENDER IN STUDIES OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION 203 Conway, L. (2002) How Frequently Does Transsexualism Occur? http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/peo- ple/conway/TS/TSprevalence.html (downloaded 9 October 2009).

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Copyright © 2011. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 204 HANDBOOK OF GENDER, WORK, AND ORGANIZATION Transgender Law Center (2006) Good Jobs NOW! A Snapshot of the Economic Health of San Francisco’s Transgender Communities. San Francisco: San Francisco Bay Guardian.

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