“To anyone who has chosen invisibility as an imperfect solution to personal dissonance.” -Sandy Stone

As an individual who sometimes chooses invisibility as a response to being at odds with
(my) societal norms, in completing the reading assignments for Gender and Technology I
became really interested in attempting to understand the similarities and differences in the
experiences of transsexuals who undergo surgery and then attempt to ‘pass’ as having
had only one gender and the experiences of the women of color in Peru who undergo
surgery and then attempt to ‘pass’ as having more Caucasian ancestry than they really do.
This paper attempts to compare and contrast these experiences, viewed through the lens
of passing.

My first thought was that both of these sets of choices ‘simply’ lend support to current
societal norms and/or standards relating to the acceptable appearance of a person rather
than pushing society to enlarge its definition of what looks ‘normal.’ This thought
included a sense of betraying oneself to fit societal norms. This is not a new thought.
Indeed Victoria Bañales, in her article “The Politics of Cosmetic Surgery”, claims that
“socially constructed beauty norms [are] endorsed by both the selling doctor as well as
the buying patient.” (141) Similarly, Bernice Hausman notes that some cultural feminists
claim that  “transsexual behavior [buys] into society’s gender norms instead of rebelling
against them.” (10) Viewed this way, both types of ‘passing’ are conforming to societal
norms, albeit slightly different ones (beauty versus gender norms).

However, one of Bañales’s arguments is that the beauty norms, while heavily gendered,
also have roots in racism and classism. This is something that Hausman does not touch on
at all. In fact, Bañales’s point is that these women are motivated less by an effort to
appear ‘normal’ or ‘beautiful’ and more motivated to choose a surgery to change their
facial features from ethnic to Caucasian in order to gain “access to forms of [upward]
class mobility.” (134) While this does not deny that their behavior contributes to beauty
norms, it does make is more complicated. In short, these women, by desiring a job, and
knowing that job availability (for them) is inextricably linked to beauty standards, undergo surgery to meet the standards and so possibly get a job.

While Hausman’s essay does not claim the motivation for a transsexual to undergo
cosmetic surgery is due to desire to be hired, it makes sense (to me) that it would be more
difficult to obtain a job (in the US) for a not obviously male or (meaning the exclusive or)
female person than an obviously male or (again meaning the exclusive or) female person.
In fact, this makes sense. Societal norms are enforced (by people) in multiply ways.
While a societal norm may seem unrelated to performing some activity, like a job or
going to school, this norm is actually related to this activity by virtue of the fact that it is
still in the society. So while on the one hand, looking ‘beautiful’ might seem to have
nothing to do with being able to perform well in a job, since people hire you for a job (or
not) and people are the ones who enforce norms (or not), the two become linked. So the
individual, when confronted with these realities of societal norms and the day-to-day
performance of his/her/?? life, might choose to conform to the norms and make the
performance easier than if she/??/he had not so chosen.

Sandy Stone ends her article “The Empire Strikes Back” with a call to transsexuals to
stop ‘passing’ in order to ‘begin laying the groundwork for the next transformation.’
(336) If Stone had read the article by Bañales, would she similarly call these women to
tell of their surgeries? Would knowing about a surgery of this nature ‘out’ a woman of
color in the same way that knowing about a surgery undergone by a trans individual?
Comparing these two types of experiences yields to me more questions than definitive
statements. I am interested in knowing if the desire to become a different sex is similarly
rooted in classism and racism as Bañales says cosmetic surgery is.

At the end of her article, Bañales calls on her readers to understand the complexity in
these women’s choices. She quotes Gillespie: “although women who opt for cosmetic
surgery do, on various levels, ‘conform to dominant images of beauty,’ this ‘conformity
may function subversively and enable them to achieve social power and have their voices
heard.’ (148) If she had read Hausman’s or Stone’s article, would Bañales think that the
conformity of transsexuals who pass to dominant images of what a gender looks like on
an individual enables them to have their voices heard or perhaps subvert the very same
norms? If, as Hausman claims, gender ‘produce[s] the cultural objects that it is said to
describe’ (15), then what does beauty produce? My final question: is there ever really a
perfect solution?

Written by: aaclh

Works Cited
Bañales, Victoria. “The Face Value of Dreams”: Gender, Race, Class, and the Politics of
Cosmetic Surgery.” Beyond the Frame: Women of color and Visual Representation. Ed.
Neferti X.M. Tadiar and Angela Y. Davis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 131-
152.

Hausman, Bernice. “Introduction: Transsexualism, Technology, and the Idea of Gender”
and “Epilogue.” Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology and the Idea of Gender.
Durham, North Carolina: Duke University, 1995. 1-19, 195-200.

Stone, Sandy. The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto,” Sex/Machine:
Readings in Culture, Gender, and Technology. Ed. Patrick Hopkins. Indiana University
Press, 1998. 322-341.