This document summarizes a presentation about how intersecting identities of being trans, butch or neither can be affected by climate. It discusses stone butch, FtM and transgender identities and performances of gender. It focuses on the experience of Dr. Sara Crawley, who finds that living in a warm climate of Southern Florida impacts the types of clothing typically used to convey masculine gender identities. Specifically, high temperatures allow Crawley to feel masculine while wearing minimal clothing like sports bras and shorts. The presentation examines how climate and region can influence gender expression through clothing and how identity is not solely defined by appearance.

1. Trans, Butch or Neither?
A Study of Intersecting Identities
And How They Are Affected by Climate
Utilizing the interpretations of Dr. Sara
Crawley, associate professor, Sociology
department, University of Southern Florida
A presentation by Adrienne Caminer

2. Working Definitions
• Stone Butch:Female
bodied person who
has a masculine
gender
expression, identifies
as a lesbian and is
sexually attracted to
other
lesbians, usually
femme lesbians.
http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2009/01/20090120_maddow_250x
375.jpg

3. • FtM: A person who is
born with a female
body who identifies
as a male, and takes
hormones/gets
surgery to change
their body to match
their identification
http://www.xxboys.net/photos/gallery/leo02.jpg

4. • Transgender: An “umbrella term” referring to people
who do not identify with the gender of the body
they were born with, but may or may not want to
undergo surgery or take hormones to change their
body. Many transgendered persons are most
comfortable “in between” genders
http://futurescapes.switch01.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/jdsamson.jpg

5. Other Useful Definitions
• Sex: One’s biological chromosomal sex
designation, typically believed to have only 2
possibilities: Male and Female
• Gender: A socially constructed model of the
two most common sexes
– Often conveyed or assumed in terms of
masculinity and femininity.
– Independent of one’s biological sex

6. All gender isPerformative
• Judith Butler: gender
theorist
– Believed “masculine”
and “feminine”
attributes to be learned
performances with no
biological basis
– Gender has no root, or
original
– Merely a copy of a copy
of a copy…

7. Notes on Clothes Make the Trans
• One can never go
without a perceived
sex, they will be
assigned a presumed
sex and then critiqued
at how well they
represent that sex
– Gender identity is not
solely personal
• “Performance of self is a
visual performance for
others but also an
experienced embodiment”
(Clothes make the
Trans, 375)
• If others perceive your
gender in one way, you
are experience being
the gender they see

8. • Jamie Babbit’s movie, But I’m a Cheerleader, takes
place at an imaginary reparative therapy center
for homosexual teens. The character of Jan, who
appears very masculine and is automatically
assumed to be a butch lesbian is, in fact, not
homosexual at all. Her character’s realization that
she is straight is a funny joke in the film, but also
a critique of cultural assumptions. Jan is proof
that gender identity and sexual identity are
mutually exclusive entities. Despite their
tendency to show up in the same discussions
around the same time, the two identities have no
effect on each other. Stone butch identity
straddles the gap between sexual and gender
identity, as it is a sexual identity with very rigid
rules of appearance

9. Example of Perceived Gender/Sexual
identity in But I’m a Cheerleader
• From about 11:00- 12:50 (link should start at
11:00)
• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4sqz4_b
ut-i-m-a-cheerleaderp3_fun#from=embed&start=708
• RuPaul’s character: “Just take a look at
yourself”

10. • In part, we learn how to
present ourselves
through the overt
judgments of others
• Our outward
appearance is key to the
Gender Identity we
want to convey
• * Is it possible to be a
Trans man if no one
understands you to be a
man?

11. How to Perform Gender Identity?
• Biases of dominant US
culture
permeateLGBTculture.
– “Celebrating whiteness”
– Having money
– Urban lifestyles that
idealize New York and
San Fransisco
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Fcho8uqc7pM/R2La6uVOqdI/AAAAAAAABVg/zlZrMFbHq8/s320/tegan+and+sara.jpg

12. Performing Gender Identity
• New York and San
Francisco are the focus
of most LGBT research
and popular culture
• These cities become
token representations
of “real” homosexuality
and Gender queerness
• Clothing is a key
medium of self
expression
• Apparel worn by New
York and San Francisco
lesbians and trans men
becomes the generally
accepted model

13. SanFran& NY: Temperate Climates
http://www.tunnelsinger.com/GGbridge%20fog%20north%20
tower%20visable%20closer.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/2486644638_20563089ab.jpg

14. • Crawley cannot wear
the typical “butch” or
“trans” attire
http://maxinc.com/testsites/dykes_on_bikes/dob_final/images/board_soni3.jpg
http://www.discount-florida-vacations.com/images/beachwedding.jpg
• Because she lives in
Southern Florida

15. Masculinity Outside of Temperate
Climates
• Crawley notes that, while she often wears
nothing but a sports bra, men’s shorts, and a
thick belt, she is still able to feel trans in her
clearly female body
• (see next image)

16. Is this person a
transman?
Stone butch?
(Crawley, 367)

17. •Short of work, weddings, and
“winter” (the one month of the
year that it is cold enough to wear
pants in her town), Crawley does
not dress in enough clothing to
hide her body
•It is still possible for Crawley to
feel masculine without clothes
•Feels the most like a man when
she can strip down to almost
nothing and take a dive in the
ocean, or catch fish on her boat.
•“Does having the constant
freedom to remove one’s shirt
allow me to experience the world
of freedom more similar to men
than FtMs?” (Clothes, 376)
Crawley, 368

18. Conclusion
• Clothing is an integral part of butch and trans
identity, not only because it disguises and
shapes the body of the butch or trans
person, but also because it conveys a gender
identity to the onlooker. However, clothing is
not the only possible medium for representing
one’s gender identity, nor should it be
considered a superior medium. The key to a
masculine gender identity is simply whether
or not the subject feels masculine when they
act out or wear the clothing associated with
the identity.

19. Work Cited
• Crawley, S. L. (2008). The clothes make the
trans: Region and geography in experiences
of the body. Journal of Lesbian
Studies,12(4), 365-366-379.