When she came out, the American Psychiatric Association classified gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder as a mental health issue, which encouraged discourse on viewing trans people through a “pathologizing framework.” The Oklahoma-born Stryker knows how cultural forces use people’s identity against them. Trans people are the ones being targeted in those public spaces.” I don’t think you will find any statistics, because they are not there. Stryker excoriated the stereotype of trans women being violent predators: “Find me the wave of men pretending to women who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, preying on women and girls in public toilets. Stryker consulted on and appears in the film. The series, presented virtually and free to the public, began earlier this month with a conversation with Sam Feder, the director of the new Netflix documentary “Disclosure,” about transgender depictions in film and TV. She also hosts discussions about transgender representation with the Mills Trans Studies Speaker Series. She is now one of the leading national voices in transgender studies, as she starts a two-year appointment as Mills’ Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership. Stryker’s activism began in the Bay Area, when she was a UC Berkeley doctoral student. Rowling - have joined in the “fear-mongering” about public restrooms or youth being allowed to express transgender identities, she added.

“At this moment in history, when trans existence has become a frontline issue in the culture wars, it’s vital that trans people speak up and speak out, ” said Stryker.Įven people thought to be progressive - notably “Harry Potter” author J.K. Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner were celebrated on magazine covers, anti-discrimination laws have been passed in some states, and Stryker and others have felt free to express their “deepest sense of self to others.” But Stryker warns that those gains now face “a profound backlash.” Stryker, 59, is gratified to see the social and political gains she and other transgender people have won, especially in the past 10 years. The newly hired Mills College professor recalls they might also be seen as “sad, marginalized” street prostitutes or predators in movies like “Psycho” and “Dressed to Kill.” When Susan Stryker came out as a transgender woman in the early 1990s, mainstream America viewed trans people as jokes or worse.

Stryker transgender