Who watches the watchmen? A critical perspective on the theorization of trans people and clinicians

This paper, made from an explicitly academic-practitioner stance, aims to highlight some of the problematic ways in which academic writing on trans people, and on the clinicians working in trans healthcare, has been presented in recent years. We argue that much work theorizes trans people and clinic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminism & psychology 2014-05, Vol.24 (2), p.248-258
Main Authors: Richards, Christina, Barker, Meg, Lenihan, Penny, Iantaffi, Alex
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cultural Pluralism
Diversity
Feminism
Health care
Health Care Services
Health Professions
Humanities
Humanity
Social psychology
Social theory
Transgender persons
Writing
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Summary:This paper, made from an explicitly academic-practitioner stance, aims to highlight some of the problematic ways in which academic writing on trans people, and on the clinicians working in trans healthcare, has been presented in recent years. We argue that much work theorizes trans people and clinicians whilst failing to recognise the full and complex humanity of the people concerned. Also, such work frequently universalises a small number of accounts as if they were representative of ‘the trans person’ or ‘the medical/psy profession' as a whole. We call upon future writers and researchers to pay more attention to the multiplicity and diversity of accounts, and to consider the potential damage of perpetuating certain accounts as fixed or universal.
ISSN:0959-3535
1461-7161
DOI:10.1177/0959353514526220