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Outside of the transgender community and sexology researchers, this controversy is largely notable because of its implications for ] and ]. In an interview with '']'', Dreger said, "If we're going to have research at all, then we're going to have people saying unpopular things, and if this is what happens to them, then we've got problems not only for science but free expression itself."<ref name="NYT2007" /> Some critics of Bailey, including McCloskey, argue that the protests represent legitimate comment on a topic of public interest.<ref name="NYT2007" /><ref name=":3" /> Outside of the transgender community and sexology researchers, this controversy is largely notable because of its implications for ] and ]. In an interview with '']'', Dreger said, "If we're going to have research at all, then we're going to have people saying unpopular things, and if this is what happens to them, then we've got problems not only for science but free expression itself."<ref name="NYT2007" /> Some critics of Bailey, including McCloskey, argue that the protests represent legitimate comment on a topic of public interest.<ref name="NYT2007" /><ref name=":3" />

=== Protests against the APA ===


==See also== ==See also==

Revision as of 04:41, 6 December 2023

American writer, film producer, director, and activist For the Australian playwright of the same name, see Andrea James (playwright).

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification, as its only attribution is to self-published sources; articles should not be based solely on such sources. Please help by adding reliable, independent sources. Immediately remove contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced. (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Andrea James
Born (1967-01-16) January 16, 1967 (age 57)
EducationWabash College (BA)
University of Chicago (MA)
Occupation(s)Producer, writer, activist
WebsiteOfficial website

Andrea Jean James (born January 16, 1967) is an American transgender rights activist, film producer, and blogger.

She is the creator of Transgender Map, a consumer website for transgender people. She also co-founded Deep Stealth Productions to create content for transgender people, including the first all-transgender cast of The Vagina Monologues. As of December 2023, she has directed 12 videos, shorts, or TV series, and acted as a consultant on many more.

James has been a leading figure in protests against the work of sexologists including Ray Blanchard, J. Michael Bailey and Kenneth Zucker, who she argues engage in the academic exploitation of transgender people. Her tactics—which include targeting the families of those she opposes—have been described by critics as intimidation and harassment.

Education

James grew up in Franklin, Indiana, and attended Wabash College, where she majored in English, Latin, and Greek. After graduating in 1989, she obtained an M.A. in English language and literature from the University of Chicago.

Career

After college, James worked in advertising, first for several years at the Chicago Tribune, then for a decade at DDB Chicago. It was while working there that she transitioned. In 1996 she created Transsexual Road Map (later renamed Transgender Map), a consumer website for the transgender community, and later set up HairFacts and HairTell, a website and discussion forum about hair removal.

James moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and co-founded Deep Stealth Productions with her roommate, author and entertainer Calpernia Addams, to create content by and for transgender people. They filmed an instructional video, Finding Your Female Voice, to offer voice coaching to trans women, and in 2004 produced and performed in the first all-transgender cast of The Vagina Monologues, debuting a new piece created by Eve Ensler for the occasion. James was also a co-producer of and appeared in Beautiful Daughters, a documentary film about the event. Her work in film has continued, and As of December 2023, she has directed 12 videos, shorts, or TV series, and acted as a consultant on many more.

James writes about consumer rights, technology, pop culture, and LGBT rights on her website, and she has contributed to Boing Boing, QuackWatch, eMedicine, The Advocate, The Huffington Post and Misplaced Pages.

Activism

James and Calpernia Addams at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit, 2006

Together with Lynn Conway and Deirdre McCloskey, James was a driving figure in protests—praised as successful action against the academic exploitation of transgender people and described by critics as intimidation and harassment—against J. Michael Bailey's book The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003). In the book, Bailey argues that there are two forms of transsexualism: one a variant of male homosexuality, and the other a male sexual interest in having a female body, a taxonomy critics see as inaccurate and damaging. James argued that Bailey's work was unscientific with "roots in the eugenics movement," and portrayed gender variant behavior as a psychosexual pathology.

The dispute became heated when James satirized Bailey's work in a page on her website containing photographs of Bailey's children, alongside sexually explicit captions, including calling his 5-year-old daughter a "cock-starved exhibitionist." Alice Dreger, an intersex rights activist and a colleague of Bailey's at Northwestern University described this page as an "intimidation tactic," and compared it to the intimidation she had received from right-wing opponents of her own intersex advocacy. Dreger tried to stop James from speaking at the campus, writing "By allowing her to speak on our campus, her student hosts are essentially saying that her tactics—of intimidating others, including by attacking their families—represent an appropriate political or scholarly reaction. I strongly disagree."

Dreger, whose investigation of the controversy was featured in Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that the allegations against Bailey were largely spurious. Dreger argued that James was motivated by scorn for anyone who disagreed with the "woman trapped in a man's body" narrative of trans identity, and described the "surprising large number" of emails she received from transgender women alleging that James had harassed them for sharing their stories.

Outside of the transgender community and sexology researchers, this controversy is largely notable because of its implications for academic freedom and freedom of speech. In an interview with The New York Times, Dreger said, "If we're going to have research at all, then we're going to have people saying unpopular things, and if this is what happens to them, then we've got problems not only for science but free expression itself." Some critics of Bailey, including McCloskey, argue that the protests represent legitimate comment on a topic of public interest.

See also

References

  1. Lam, Steven (June 20, 2006). "What's 'gay' now: we are everywhere indeed". The Advocate, June 20, 2006.
  2. ^ Surkan, Kim (2007). "Transsexuals protest academic exploitation", in Lillian Faderman (ed). Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender events, 1848–2006. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, pp. 700–702.
  3. Anderson-Minshall, Jacob (June 6, 2017). "Don't Forget the Long, Proud History of Transgender Activism". The Advocate.
  4. ^ Nichols, James Michael (4 July 2016). "This Trans Pioneer Has Been Fighting For The Trans Community For Decades". The Huffington Post.
  5. ^ Bartner, Amy (June 3, 2016). "Transgender activist amid Hollywood's transition", IndyStar.
  6. "Andrea James to Give Talk at Wabash". Wabash College, October 21, 2008.
  7. Garvin, Glenn (March 15, 2003). "Breaking Boundaries". The Miami Herald.
  8. Painter, K. (March 26, 2006). "Who qualifies to zap hairs?", USA Today. Archive
  9. Grossman, A. J. (June 5, 2008). "Zapping teenage torment", The New York Times.
  10. ^ Bashour, Mounir and James, Andrea (July 2, 2009). "Laser Hair Removal", eMedicine.
  11. ^ Jardin, Xeni (December 28, 2009). "Welcome to the Boing Boing guestblog, Andrea James!", Boing Boing.
  12. Addams, Calpernia; James, Andrea (July 22, 2003). "Transformations". The Advocate, p. 12.
  13. Nichols, James Michael (February 28, 2016). "The Incredible Story Of Trans Showgirl, Musician And Legend Calpernia Addams", The Huffington Post.
  14. Hopper, Douglas (March 5, 2006). "Helping Transgender Women Find a New Voice", All Things Considered, National Public Radio.
  15. Ensler, Eve and Tennyson, Joyce (2005). Vagina Warriors. New York: Bulfinch Press, p. 11. ISBN 978-0-8212-6183-5
  16. "LesbianAlliance.com interviews DeepStealth's Andrea James", LesbianAlliance.com. Archived April 6, 2004.
  17. "Teaching resources: Beautiful Daughters", Feminist Teacher, 18(2), 2008, pp. 179–180. JSTOR 40546067
  18. "Andrea James | Producer, Director, Writer". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  19. James, Andrea (December 18, 2007). "Don't Tick Off Trans". The Advocate.
  20. ^ Dreger, Alice D. (2008). "The Controversy Surrounding the Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age," Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(3), pp.  366–421. PMID 18431641 PMC 3170124
  21. ^ Singal, Jesse (December 30, 2015). "Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals". New York Magazine.
  22. ^ Carey, Benedict (August 21, 2007). "Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege", The New York Times.
  23. ^ Nichols, Margaret (2008). "Dreger on the Bailey Controversy: Lost in the Drama, Missing the Big Picture", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(3), pp. 476–480. PMID 18431629
  24. James, Andrea (September 2004). "A defining moment in our history: Examining disease models of gender identity" Archived 2017-10-01 at the Wayback Machine, tsroadmap.com.
  25. Bailey, Michael J. "Academic McCarthyism", (Archive), Northwestern Chronicle, October 9, 2005.
  26. "Alice Domurat Dreger". web.archive.org. 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  27. Zucker, Kenneth J. (June 2008). "Introduction to Dreger (2008) and Peer Commentaries". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 37 (3): 365–365. doi:10.1007/s10508-007-9300-2. ISSN 0004-0002.
  28. Dreger, Alice (2015). Galileo's Middle Finger . Penguin Press. ISBN 9781336009288.

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