Please join us for Transpositive on KBOO Community Radio on Tuesday, December 20th as we speak with Sandra Eder, author of the new book, “How the Clinic Made Gender” available at University of Chicago Press.
Sandra Eder shows how the concept of gender transformed from a pragmatic tool in the sex assignment of children with intersex traits in the 1950s to an essential category in clinics for transgender individuals in the 1960s. Following gender outside the clinic, she reconstructs the variable ways feminists integrated gender into their theories and practices in the 1970s. The process by which ideas about gender became medicalized, enforced, and popularized was messy, and the route by which gender came to be understood and applied through the treatment of patients with intersex traits was fraught and contested. In historicizing the emergence of the sex/gender binary, Eder reveals the role of medical practice in developing a transformative idea and the interdependence between practice and wider social norms that inform the attitudes of physicians and researchers. She shows that ideas like gender can take on a life of their own and may be used to question the normative perceptions they were based on. Illuminating and deeply researched, the book closes a notable gap in the history of gender and will inspire current debates on the relationship between social norms and medical practice.
Transpositive is a biweekly program in Portland exploring themes important to those who identify as Transgender, Gender Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming. Transpositive tries to connect listeners with the ongoing activist, arts, culture, and dialogue happening in Portland and beyond. Make your voice heard! Transpositive PDX is open to new and experienced programmers, guests, and events you want our community to know about. We are an open collective. Anyone who identifies as trans, gender non-binary, gender fluid is welcome to be part of our collective after completing some basic free radio training. For more information contact Emma at transpositivepdx@gmail.com
Transpositive PDX on KBOO 90.7FM or online at KBOO.FM
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program archives 2016-2022: kboo.fm/transpositivepdx
Sandra Eder: https://history.berkeley.edu/sandra-eder
How the Clinic Made Gender: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo156724705.html
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