#30 "Transgender Rhetorics..."

Alexander, Jonathan. "Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body." 

     College Composition and Communications 57.1 (2005). Print.

Summary

            In his article, “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body,” Jonathan argues that trans theorists and pedagogical research can help us to understand gender performances through a material and embodied reality. He describes how he incorporates pedagogical activities in his classroom, and uses a majority of his article to discuss what his students’ different stories mean and how they can be interpreted. He concludes with the suggesting that trans theorists can help us to realize the additional extents of the self.

Dialectical Notebook

In this column you RESPOND to the quotes	In this column you TYPE OUT the quote
Alexander frames his article with Patrick Califia-Rice’s story on how he transitioned from a female to a male. This story gives a good representation of what the rest of the article will be about and is a useful way to keep the readers’ attentions (because it may be shocking for some).	“What is a man? Is Patrick Califia-Rice a “real man”? How can we tell?” (195).
This quote summarizes all of the quotes that Alexander used from Zawacki’s article/ essay “Recomposing as a Woman-an Essay in Different Voices.” Zawacki is basically suggesting to women to explore gender through writing and not just reveal the meaning or fundamentals of gender. She does not want writers to make a written voice manly or feminine; she wants them to manipulate language.	“Seeing writing as possibility for representing gender…” (197).
I chose to only put the last part of the quote because, while reading, I felt like that is the section that Alexander was trying to emphasize. He is saying that instructors cannot just make the students figure out and identify sexuality and gender all on their own. The teachers, similar to what Alexander does, need to perform different pedagogical activities that get the students to see first-hand our gender is perceived and to break the stereotypes.	“… it is important for both students and instructors” (198).
This is a very intense statement said by Leslie Feinberg. I had to re read it multiple times because it is such a broad, yet specific, sentence. I think that she is saying that we are taught how to talk and write at a certain age and distinguish that we are male or female. How we use our gender background and knowledge is how we create voice in writing.	“… gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught” (203).
I like how he points this out before getting into depth about how it is an incorrect assumption. Many people probably agreed with the stereotype, or something like it, so then they would be interested in him proving that it is incorrect. He proves it is wrong by suggesting that the transsexual body has definite mechanism of attaining gendered embodiment.	“We know the stereotype is transexuality…” (208).
I have been relating a couple of our past articles to Berger’s article on women in the media, so any of those articles , such as Flynn’s (and including Berger’s), are able to be compared to Alexander’s. Unlike Berger’s article, Alexander has a much broader topic base, but he does touch on the idea that women’s image and portrayal are unfairly judged.	“… our bodies, particularly women’s bodies, are under scrutiny…” (210).