Leland G. Spencer

Centering Gender Identity and Transgender Lives in Instructional Communication Research

Researchers often implicitly conflate gender identity with sexual orientation, usually through the blithe use of the abbreviation LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer). Those who use t...

Regressing, Progressing, or Transgressing on the Small Screen? Transgender Characters on U.S. Scripted Television Series

This study explored representation of lead and supporting transgender characters in nine U.S. scripted television dramas and comedies aired 2008–2014. Employing qualitative content analysis techniques, episodes were coded for casting, visibility, identity, embodiment, and social interaction. Findings suggested that scripted television has begun to evolve in a manner that relies less on a standardized narrative and one-dimensional characterization of transgender people. The formerly ubiquitous “wrong body” discourse seems to have ebbed in favor of more diverse and refined stories about transgender identity and subjectivity. However, increased visibility does not apply across the spectrum of transgender identity and expression. Transgender people as a population and a political community, trans men, and genderqueer characters remain largely invisible.

Engaging Undergraduates in Feminist Classrooms: An Exploration of Professors' Practices.

This article reports the results of a feminist action research project that sought to ascertain professors’ best practices for engaging undergraduates in feminist classrooms. In semi-structured interviews, professors recommended assigning readings from a variety of positionalities; creating a safe space for class discussion; relying on data to respond to student resistance; and including issues related to diversity, human identity, and social justice at a curricular level. The article concludes with a discussion of the authors experience implementing this advice in his own teaching for two years.

Presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and possibilities for a progressive civility

Some recent scholarship about civility suggests that civility is incompatible with social justice politics because it marginalizes dissent. This essay illustrates the progressive potential of civility though an analysis of the rhetoric of Katharine Jefferts Schori, the current presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and first woman to hold the post. I argue that Jefferts Schori forges a progressive civility by casting a vision for the church and rhetorically transcending controversies, thereby subordinating tense issues. Especially when Jefferts Schori responds to difficult topics, she treats people who disagree with her with respect and dignity, consistent with her liberatory vision.

Performing Transgender Identity in The Little Mermaid: From Andersen to Disney

This essay considers narratives that are not typically read as stories about performative identities. Adapting queer criticism, I suggest that inherent in “The Little Mermaid,” both Hans Christian Andersens short story and the Disney film, is a story about a performance of transgender identity. Exploring parallels between transgender identity development and the mermaid narratives, I argue that the possibility of a transgender reading resides in the mermaid stories, which can be understood as coming out narratives of sorts. In both transgender identity development and the mermaid stories, themes of mind-body dissonance, familial tension, and self-censorship are evident. Further, I suggest that transgender criticism is one of many potential offspring of queer criticism for critics interested in messages related to sexuality and gender identity in texts.

Sitting in Silence: Managing Aural Body Rhetoric in Public Restrooms

Proposing an enhancement to the concepts of verbal and corporeal rhetorics, this article offers the concept of aural body rhetoric, arguing that nonvocal sounds produced by the body can also provide rhetorical messages, create rhetorical challenges and prompt the conscious management of bodily sounds, particularly in panopticonic spaces (panauricons) in which the body is hidden from view. Using the urinary sounds made by transsexual men in public restrooms as an example, this article examines this space as a panauricon that creates a rhetorical challenge for these men and has prompted the dissemination of various rhetorical strategies within the community of transmen in the United States.

Bishop Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly: Toward an Ironic Prophetic Rhetoric

This article considers the rhetoric of Leontine Kelly, the first woman of color to be elected bishop in any Christian denomination. As a black woman bishop in the United Methodist Church, a denomination with a history fraught with contradiction on issues related to gender and racial (in)justice, Kelly often preached to primarily White audiences with the goal of convincing them that racism and sexism were sinful. To do so, Kelly brought together prophecy and irony. This combination proved useful for Kelly and offers possibilities for fruitful interactions between irony and prophecy.