Andrea James

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Andrea James
Andrea James, 2014.jpg
Born (1967-01-16) January 16, 1967 (age 57)
Education Wabash College (BA)
University of Chicago (MA)
Occupation(s)Producer, writer, activist
Website Official website

Andrea Jean James (born January 16, 1967) is an American transgender rights activist, film producer, and blogger.

Contents

Herself a transgender woman, James has been a leading figure in protests against the work of sexologists including Ray Blanchard and J. Michael Bailey who she argues engage in the academic exploitation of transgender people. Her tactics—which include targeting the families of those she opposes—have been described by critics as intimidation and harassment.

James runs the website Transgender Map, which contains advice for trans people, as well as extensive information about those she considers anti-trans.

Education and career

James and Calpernia Addams at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit, 2006 Andrea James and Calpernia Addams (cropped).jpeg
James and Calpernia Addams at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit, 2006

James grew up in Franklin, Indiana, [1] and attended Wabash College, where she majored in English, Latin, and Greek. After graduating in 1989, she obtained an M.A. in English language and literature from the University of Chicago. [2] After college, James worked in advertising, first for several years at the Chicago Tribune , then for a decade at DDB Chicago. It was while working there that she transitioned. [1] By 1999, she created Transsexual Road Map (later renamed Transgender Map), an online resource for the transgender community.

James moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and co-founded Deep Stealth Productions with her roommate, author and entertainer Calpernia Addams, to create content by and for transgender people. [3] [4] [5] They filmed an instructional video, Finding Your Female Voice, to offer voice coaching to trans women, [6] and in 2004 produced and performed in the first all-transgender cast of The Vagina Monologues , debuting a new piece created by Eve Ensler for the occasion. [7] [8] James was also a co-producer of and appeared in Beautiful Daughters, a documentary film about the event. [9] According to her website, her work in film has continued, and as of December 2023 she has directed at least 11 videos, shorts, or TV series, and acted as a consultant on many more. [10]

James has served on the boards of nonprofits TransYouth Family Allies [11] and Outfest. [12] She writes about consumer rights, technology, pop culture, and LGBT rights on her website, and she has contributed to Boing Boing , QuackWatch , eMedicine , The Advocate , The Huffington Post and Wikipedia. [3] [13] [14] [15]

Activism

Protests against The Man Who Would Be Queen

Together with Lynn Conway and Deirdre McCloskey, James was a driving figure in protests—notable for their implications for academic freedom and freedom of speech—against J. Michael Bailey's book The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003). [16] In the book, Bailey argues that there are two forms of transsexualism: one a variant of male homosexuality, and the other a male sexual interest in having a female body, a taxonomy critics see as inaccurate and damaging. [16] [17] James argued that Bailey's work was unscientific with "roots in the eugenics movement," and portrayed gender variant behavior as a psychosexual pathology. [18]

Bailey was accused of unethical behavior, including that he had performed research without consent, that he had outed transgender women, and that he had practiced psychology without a license [19] [20] — allegations which a later investigation found to be baseless. [20] In the midst of the protests against the book, which involved a petition drive and the organized submission of formal complaints, the book's Lambda Literary Award nomination was rescinded, and Bailey stepped down from his role as chair of the Northwestern University psychology department. [19] Although some praised the protests as successful action against the academic exploitation of transgender people, [19] others viewed them as intimidation and harassment. [20] [21]

Alice Dreger, an intersex rights activist and a colleague of Bailey's at Northwestern University whose investigation into the controversy was featured in Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that the allegations against Bailey were baseless, [16] [20] [22] and she criticized James for satirizing Bailey with a page on her website with photographs of Bailey's children alongside sexually explicit captions, including calling his 5-year-old daughter a "cock-starved exhibitionist." [21] [16] [23] [20] Dreger described James's actions as intimidation and argued that James was motivated by scorn for anyone who disagreed with the "woman trapped in a man's body" narrative of trans identity, referencing the "surprisingly large number" of emails she received from transgender women alleging that James had also harassed them for sharing their stories. [20] [24]

Outside of the transgender community and sexology researchers, this controversy is largely notable because of its implications for academic freedom and freedom of speech. Some critics of Bailey argue that the protests represent legitimate comment on a topic of public interest. [16] [17] In a comment to The New York Times, McCloskey said "Nothing we have done, I believe, and certainly nothing I have done, overstepped any boundaries of fair comment on a book and an author who stepped into the public arena with enthusiasm to deliver a false and unscientific and politically damaging opinion.” [16] Bailey's defenders disagree: In the same The New York Times article, Dreger said, "If we're going to have research at all, then we're going to have people saying unpopular things, and if this is what happens to them, then we've got problems not only for science but free expression itself." [16]

Transgender Map

Andrea James runs the website Transgender Map (originally named Transsexual Road Map), which contains resources and advice for transgender people as well as information about people she sees as anti-trans. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

The word cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. The term has been and continues to be controversial and subject to critique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transphobia</span> Anti-transgender prejudice

Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social gender roles. Transphobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination, similar to racism, sexism, or ableism, and it is closely associated with homophobia. People of color who are transgender experience discrimination above and beyond that which can be explained as a simple combination of transphobia and racism.

Shemale is a term most commonly used in the pornography industry to describe trans women or other people with male genitalia and female secondary sex characteristics acquired via hormones or surgery. Many people in the transgender community consider the term offensive and degrading. Using the term shemale for a trans woman may imply that she is working in the sex trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transfeminism</span> Branch of feminism

Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies. Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama in The Transfeminist Manifesto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calpernia Addams</span> American LGBT rights activist

Calpernia Sarah Addams is an American actress, musician, spokesperson and activist for transgender rights and issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Michael Bailey</span> American psychologist (born 1957)

John Michael Bailey is an American psychologist, behavioral geneticist, and professor at Northwestern University best known for his work on the etiology of sexual orientation and paraphilia. He maintains that male sexual orientation is most likely established in utero.

<i>The Man Who Would Be Queen</i> 2003 book by J. Michael Bailey

The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism is a 2003 book by the American psychologist J. Michael Bailey, published by Joseph Henry Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Blanchard</span> American-Canadian sexologist (born 1945)

Ray Milton Blanchard III is an American-Canadian sexologist who researches pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He has found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia. Blanchard also proposed a typology of transsexualism.

The American-Canadian sexologist Ray Blanchard proposed a psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism in a series of academic papers through the 1980s and 1990s. Building on the work of earlier researchers, including his colleague Kurt Freund, Blanchard categorized trans women into two groups: homosexual transsexuals who are attracted exclusively to men and are feminine in both behavior and appearance; and autogynephilic transsexuals who experience sexual arousal at the idea of having a female body. Blanchard and his supporters argue that the typology explains differences between the two groups in childhood gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, history of sexual fetishism, and age of transition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender sexuality</span> Sexuality of transgender people

Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.

<i>Transamerican Love Story</i> 2008 American TV series or program

Transamerican Love Story is an American reality dating show in which suitors woo transgender woman Calpernia Addams. Addams chooses a suitor by process of elimination. When the show first aired, viewers could vote their preferences online, but it was Addams who chose whom to eliminate. Calpernia is accompanied by her friend Andrea James; each episode is hosted by comedian Alec Mapa.

Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She is a 2005 American television documentary film by Antony Thomas.

Christine Beatty is an American writer, musician and transgender activist. She is one of the first trans women to perform and record as a heavy metal musician.

Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.

Anne Alexandra Lawrence is an American psychologist, sexologist, and physician who has published extensively on gender dysphoria, transgender people, and paraphilias. Lawrence is a transgender woman and self-identifies as autogynephilic. She is best known for her 2013 book on autogynephilia, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, which has been regarded by Ray Blanchard as the definitive text on the subject. Lawrence is one of the major researchers in the area of Blanchard's etiological typology of transgender women and has been one of the most major proponents of the theory. While Blanchard's typology and autogynephilia are highly controversial subjects and are not accepted by many transgender women and academics, some, such as Lawrence, identify with autogynephilia. Lawrence's work also extends beyond Blanchard's typology, to transgender women and to transition more generally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Dreger</span> American bioethicist, historian, and author

Alice Domurat Dreger is an American historian, bioethicist, author, and former professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois.

Transgender Awareness Week, observed November 13 to November 19, is a one-week celebration leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. TDoR occurs annually on November 20, when transgender advocates raise awareness of the transgender community through education and advocacy activities.

Parker Molloy is an American writer, blogger, and media critic. Molloy was an editorial and news contributor to Advocate.com, focusing on transgender issues. She has also written for other publications, such as Media Matters for America and The New Republic.

<i>Galileos Middle Finger</i> 2015 book by Alice Dreger

Galileo's Middle Finger is a 2015 book about the ethics of medical research by Alice Dreger, an American bioethicist and author. Dreger explores the relationship between science and social justice by discussing a number of scientific controversies. These include the debates surrounding intersex genital surgery, autogynephilia, and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon's work.

Beautiful Daughters is a 2006 documentary that follows the first-ever all-transgender production of Eve Ensler's famous play The Vagina Monologues. It was released in the United States on February 11, 2006. The documentary is directed by Josh Aronson and Ariel Orr Jordan and features Calpernia Addams, Jane Fonda, and Andrea James.

References

  1. 1 2 Bartner, Amy (June 3, 2016). "Transgender activist amid Hollywood's transition", IndyStar.
  2. ↑ "Andrea James to Give Talk at Wabash". Wabash College, October 21, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Jardin, Xeni (December 28, 2009). "Welcome to the Boing Boing guestblog, Andrea James!", Boing Boing.
  4. ↑ Addams, Calpernia; James, Andrea (July 22, 2003). "Transformations". The Advocate, p. 12.
  5. ↑ Nichols, James Michael (February 28, 2016). "The Incredible Story Of Trans Showgirl, Musician And Legend Calpernia Addams", The Huffington Post.
  6. ↑ Hopper, Douglas (March 5, 2006). "Helping Transgender Women Find a New Voice", All Things Considered , National Public Radio.
  7. ↑ Ensler, Eve and Tennyson, Joyce (2005). Vagina Warriors. New York: Bulfinch Press, p. 11. ISBN   978-0-8212-6183-5
  8. ↑ "LesbianAlliance.com interviews DeepStealth's Andrea James", LesbianAlliance.com. Archived April 6, 2004.
  9. ↑ "Teaching resources: Beautiful Daughters", Feminist Teacher, 18(2), 2008, pp. 179–180. JSTOR   40546067
  10. ↑ "Film & TV". Andrea James. 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  11. ↑ James, Andrea (2007-10-24). "I'm a TransYouth Family Advocate!". Andrea James. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  12. ↑ James, Andrea (2008-06-11). "Outfest Board of Directors". Andrea James. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  13. ↑ Bashour, Mounir and James, Andrea (July 2, 2009). "Laser Hair Removal", eMedicine.
  14. ↑ James, Andrea (December 18, 2007). "Don't Tick Off Trans". The Advocate.
  15. ↑ Nichols, James Michael (4 July 2016). "This Trans Pioneer Has Been Fighting For The Trans Community For Decades". The Huffington Post.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Carey, Benedict (August 21, 2007). "Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege", The New York Times.
  17. 1 2 Nichols, Margaret (2008). "Dreger on the Bailey Controversy: Lost in the Drama, Missing the Big Picture", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(3), pp. 476–480. PMID   18431629
  18. ↑ James, Andrea (September 2004). "A defining moment in our history: Examining disease models of gender identity" Archived 2017-10-01 at the Wayback Machine , tsroadmap.com.
  19. 1 2 3 Surkan, Kim (2007). "Transsexuals protest academic exploitation", in Lillian Faderman (ed). Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender events, 1848–2006. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, pp. 700–702.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dreger, Alice D. (2008). "The Controversy Surrounding the Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age," Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(3), pp.  366–421. PMID   18431641 PMC   3170124
  21. 1 2 Singal, Jesse (December 30, 2015). "Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals". New York Magazine.
  22. ↑ Zucker, Kenneth J. (June 2008). "Introduction to Dreger (2008) and Peer Commentaries". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 37 (3): 365. doi:10.1007/s10508-007-9300-2. ISSN   0004-0002. PMID   18431642. S2CID   11494895.
  23. ↑ Bailey, Michael J. "Academic McCarthyism", (Archive), Northwestern Chronicle, October 9, 2005.
  24. ↑ Dreger, Alice (2015). Galileo's Middle Finger . Penguin Press. ISBN   9781336009288.
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