Preface

Guest Editor’s Preface
Michael ‘Miqqi Alicia’ Gilbert

The papers gathered here in this special issue of the International Journal of Transgenderism were presented at the What is Trans / Gender? Symposium in Provincetown, MA on October 22 and 23^rd, 1999. The symposium was held in conjunction with the 25^th Anniversary of Fantasia Fair, the world’s longest running transgender event. Several of the organizers had a vision of extending the concept of the well-established FanFair into a Transgender Week – a week of various cultural, academic, and fun events and happenings that would surround the Fair. I was encouraged, or perhaps I should say bullied, to organize the symposium by the powers that be. They were persistent, those powers: and when I tried to say, "This isn't going to work, forget about it," a number of people kept after me and said, "No, you can do it, you will make it happen." As you can see, it did happen.

My vision was for a true symposium, a gathering where speakers could take a full 30-40 minutes, and then still have as much time for discussion. This enabled us to have a great deal of interaction and very stimulating discussion. By the time it came to part the presenters and participants had formed an intellectual bond, a synergy, that was quite wonderful and made my efforts more than worthwhile.

Five of the seven papers presented at the symposium are included in this issue of the IJT, as well as this introduction and the welcoming remarks by Ariadne Kane, Executive Director of the Outreach Institute of Gender Studies. The papers all deal with the relationship between people, gender, and the world. They are each by well-known theorists in the fields of gender, biology, psychology and economics. Vern Bullough’s paper reviews the history of gender theory and presents a view that explains how we arrived where we are and where we might go from here. Suzanne Kessler & Wendy McKenna provide an intriguing update of their views that incorporates some surprising results that have emerged since their well known earlier work. Anne Fausto-Sterling’s contribution is from her brand new book, Sexing the Body, and is reprinted with permission of (and thanks to) Perseus Books. Given the never-ending debate on the roles of nature and nurture, Fausto-Sterling’s integrative view of connectionism is particularly useful and pertinent. Deirdre McCloskey’s piece provides us with a description of how changing gender can change one’s perspective in surprising areas, including academic outlooks. My own essay presents my views on cross-dressing and what it means to accept oneself as a cross dresser.

I believe that this collection offers a fascinating, well rounded, and interdisciplinary look at the concepts of both gender and transgender. I hope that scholars and students will find it useful, and that it promotes further work and stimulates further research. I want to thank all the presenters and participants for their hard work, fascinating presentations and interventions, and unflagging good faith and spirit of cooperation.