Gender Trouble and Return of the Sexual in a Cisgender Research Collective Confronted With Trans∗ Femininity

Abstract

The author analyzes a research study of trans∗ women and their surgeons, conducted before and after vaginoplasty in a French public hospital service. The essay is an examination of countertransference in three research frameworks: (1) working with a research team; (2) taking part in a peer group, facilitated by a psychologist, a surgeon, and a secretary, bringing together women who had already undergone surgery and those awaiting it; and (3) research interviews with Lara, a 64-year-old trans∗ woman. The author emphasizes the importance of taking into account gender countertransference—that is, the disruptive effects of the encounter with trans∗ people and their desires, paying specific attention to what the encounter with trans∗ femininities has stirred or revealed in terms of the author's own relationship to the body and to cisgender femininity.