The Myth of the Wrong Body

There are many good ideas in this book, but the author, Miguel Missé, undermines them by insinuating that his personal experience of being trans is the Truth for all trans people. He speaks of our bodies being “robbed” from us, acknowledges that it’s a strange term to use when trans people are fighting for the right to take hormones or have surgery, and yet continues to use it anyway. His great Truth is “there is nothing biological or innate about this intense rejection of the body.” This is the pattern in the entire book: I know about your suffering, but listen to what I’ve discovered!

Missé dismisses proposed biological causes for being transgendered as “essentialist”. He is a great skeptic of “identity”, asserting at one point, for example, that “Heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and the entire range of possible sexual orientations are not intrinsic traits.” Huh? So, conversion therapy should work then, right? His ideas are as essentialist as the ones he abhors.

He’s so enamoured of his personal epiphany that he’s blind to the diversity of trans experiences. We’ll probably never be certain of the causes of transgenderism, but the most reasonable explanation is that it’s biological sometimes, other times it’s not. Some people have a fluid sexual orientation, others do not.

I have met many trans women in my life who couldn’t be men if their lives depended on it. How did they develop such a feminine appearance? It sure as hell wasn’t testosterone that did it. So, yes, it can be biological. Some people are indeed born in the wrong body, and their desire to change it is not unreasonable. Missé would tell them, “Love your body!”, but that’s a political position that he’s imposing on a personal issue.

Is it any wonder that a lot of trans folks are angry with him? He thinks it’s because he hasn’t explained himself very well. Maybe, but it sure sounds like he’s throwing some trans folks under the bus for the sake of his theory.

It’s unfortunate, because otherwise his views on the trans body often make sense. For Missé, we are not women and men, we will always be trans women and trans men, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

His thoughts on “passing” as cisgender are a reflection of that idea. What he wants “is for society to let us look trans, not to applaud us only once a trace of trans remains.” He’s skeptical of this new era of trans acceptance. “The majority of trans references presented as successful in this new wave of trans visibility are precisely the people who pass totally unnoticed as men or women… it is problematic to understand passing as the trans ideal and the key to social acceptance.” He borrows a phrase from Lucas Platero, who calls this the “trans spectacle”. It’s toxic “because it promotes total self-absorption and obsession with the body’s evolution without any solidarity, community, or critical reflection. Just me and my body which I mold to my will.”

Sure, it’s provocative, but there’s a lot of sense to it too.

He has many good arguments about trans minors also. His central thesis is that by identifying youth early on as trans we create an identity for them that limits their choice of gender expression. He is concerned “that the entire projection of these young people’s futures is founded on the notion that their lives will be much better if they don’t look like trans people and can pass unnoticed as adults.”

Missé is writing about Spain, where he lives, and while that may be the case there, my sense of the situation in Canada is that therapists don’t rush into suggesting hormone therapy and body modification without presenting other options. Still, his ideas on care for trans youth are not unreasonable. Unfortunately, he then does what he so often does in this book. In attempting to reinforce his argument, he makes an absurd, wholly unsupported statement that will make the questioning reader groan. In this case, he suggests that gender non-conforming youth were better off before trans identification became current, “that the range of possibilities in their minds was broader than it is today.” What good was that “range of possibilities” if they only existed in their minds and could not be tested in reality? No good at all.

It is good to have thought provoking political ideas that may advance trans acceptance to a deeper level than where we’re at now. It is also good to be aware that some of those political ideas exist as theories, and when applied to existing trans realities as facts appear critical of some trans people for the choices they make about their bodies. Missé is good at the former, but he needs to do a little work on the latter.

The Myth of the Wrong Body is available for loan at the Ottawa Trans Library.