MUN Anthropology Student conducts Review of a Transwoman! 5/1/2013

Anthropology is the "science of humanity". Social Anthropology specifically studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Last fall, I was approached by a local University student who expressed an interest in undertaking an in-depth study that involved observing me in my regular every day life setting, as well as interacting with me one on one in both an informal social environment, and in a formal sit-down interview.

Student, Megan Bateman, as she explains in the introduction of her paper, also has an interest in looking at the strange relationships of diverse groups that get lumped together by the masses, perhaps incorrectly. She specifically wanted to take a look at whether or not transwomen were accepted or ostracized by feminist movements and gay/lesbian movements.

I won't go too much more into detail, as Megan has quite happily expressed excitement and gratitude to have me publish her entire report, unedited, for you all to see, here on my blog. While I did take issue with the use of the controversial term "lifestyle", Megan reassured me his was not a stereotypical use of the term often erroneously applied to gay/lesbian individuals, but intended to use in as part of societal expectations surrounding expected masculine and feminine lifestyles typically implied to man and women, respectively.

Overall, I think Megan did a great job explaining how and why I have perhaps been misunderstood, and in some cases, ostracized and even hated, by members of the gay/lesbian community, for reasons that appear to be beyond my control. Furthermore, I think Megan has done an excellent job demonstrating that I have matured significantly through the transition process, and now simply life my life as any other woman.

Being a subject or guinea pig for student work, can often be scary and intimidating, as one often has no full control over the output and final product. In this case, I trusted Megan to do a good job at not only submitting a paper that would earn her a good grade, but that would produce a report that would hopefully introduce a behind-the-scenes look at who Jennifer McCreath really is, and specifically, demonstrate that I may not be as scary or as nasty as the local gay/lesbian grapevine may have made me out to be.

The Report, along with photos and entire interview transcript, can be viewed here.

I highly encourage you to real it from cover to cover, as quite frankly, I consider it a master peace and I am eternally grateful to Megan for writing such an awesome report, and I thank her for her interest in playing a role in delivering some more of the much-needed trans education and advocacy work that often gets overlooked or forgotten by the majority of LGBT projects that tend to focus exclusively on the LGB issues.

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