Susan B. Marine

Our College Is Changing: Women's College Student Affairs Administrators and Transgender Students

Student affairs administrators at contemporary American womens colleges are charged with supporting the personal, intellectual, and relational growth of students. A small but vocal group of students who identify as transgender and who are living as male, genderqueer, or transitioning to live as male, have emerged as a visible subpopulation in highly selective womens colleges. In this qualitative, phenomenological study of the perceptions of student affairs administrators (n = 31), three participant profiles—ambivalent, supporter, and advocate—emerged. Implications for student affairs practice, theory, and the continued transformation of educational environments in support of transgender students are discussed.

Weaving a Tapestry, Compassionately: Toward an Understanding of Young Women's Feminisms

The article challenges representations of so-called third-wave feminist politics that have over-simplified the complex, multifaceted nature of young women’s feminism, and that, by relying upon written accounts, have overlooked the empirical realities of “everyday” feminisms. While much scholarly attention has been paid to the “new femininities”—that is, how young women negotiate the contemporary gender order—as well as to the published work of relatively high-profile third-wave feminists, there are surprisingly few empirical examinations of young feminists’ politics, views, and activism despite an exciting and heartening resurgence of feminist activity in the United States and United Kingdom—the two countries in which this study is located. To better incorporate analysis of such activity into feminist theorizing, the article argues for a threefold approach to understanding young women’s contemporary feminisms: theoretically informed empirical examinations of young women’s politics; a more compassionate approach that understands the political, social, and cultural contexts in which feminist politics and sensibilities are (re)produced and enacted; and a consideration of feminism as a tapestry, with its history reflexively woven into its present.

‘I get together with my friends and try to change it’. Young feminist students resist ‘laddism’, ‘rape culture’ and ‘everyday sexism’

Abstract Contemporary alarm about ‘laddism’ reveals what feminist research and activism has long-recognised; universities, like other social institutions, can be dangerous places for women. Research in the US and, more recently, the UK reveals alarming rates of violence, against women, the cultural and institutional norms which support violence and gaps in institutional responses. In the midst of this contemporary alarm about the university as a hotbed of laddism, there is a risk that the university – a site of potential empowerment and liberation for women (and men) – becomes re-positioned as a danger zone. The limited focus on danger and safety belies the potential of universities to enhance human freedoms through intellectual endeavour. We argue this progressive potential should remain centre-stage, as should university-based resistance to everyday sexism and laddism. This paper analyses accounts of young women feminists (n = 33) in UK and US universities. It explores their use of feminism and features of the university environment to resist and challenge oppressive cultures and practices. It argues that, despite encroaching neoliberalism and enduring sexism, universities continue to provide environments for engagements with feminism, enabling young women students to use feminism to resist and challenge sexism and to envision their feminist futures.

Media Review: The Lives of Transgender People

The Lives of Transgender People is in many respects a landmark study of the experiences, challenges, and resiliencies of a remarkably diverse group of people, all of whom “identify their genders in non-binary ways” (p. vii). Beemyn and Rankin offer readers an engaging story of the ways that the nearly 4,000 participants in this study described their path to understanding themselves as trans*, claiming a trans* identity, and becoming known as trans* to others in their lives. The book provides meaningful insight into both the diversity and common threads of these experiences, assisting educators in learning about this emergent and growing population. The data analyzed for this study give voice to the ways that trans* individuals live with, cope with, and resist the various forces of oppression that impact their experience and the ways they proactively enact and affirm their multiple and complex gender identities. Naming the impact of genderism—the “beliefs and practices that privilege stable, binary gender identities and expressions and that subordinate and disparage trans* people” (p. 21)—is also a key objective of this book.

From Best to Intentional Practices: Reimagining Implementation of Gender-Inclusive Housing.

Using findings from a national study of trans* students’ experiences in gender-inclusive housing, we argue student affairs educators must move toward gender-inclusive housing as an intentional—rather than best—practice. We frame this innovation in the practice of gender-inclusive housing through findings related to the need to perform ongoing assessment regarding these housing options as well as challenging the conceptualization of gender-inclusive housing in ways that center cisgender staff members’ fears and feelings.

Changing the Frame: Queering Access to Higher Education for Trans* Students.

Abstract College access and graduation results in significant life advantages, including higher lifetime incomes, better physical and mental health outcomes, and greater rates of civic engagement. Unfortunately, trans* youth have been systematically prevented from full participation in post-secondary education due to genderist practices and policies. Employing a queer theoretical frame, this manuscript identifies three critical junctures in the college access process where genderist norms inhibit college access and persistence for trans* youth. Five specific strategies for queering college access by ending or minimizing the impact of genderism are advanced, including cultivating the role of school counseling personnel as advocates, reformation of admissions practices, and attention to fostering gender-inclusive co-curricular activities and student communities.

Book Review. Masculinities in Higher Education: Theoretical and Practical Considerations

Feminism’s endowment to the academy has inarguably been fearless examination of the costs of socially inscribed power and dogged persistence in the work of reinvention. In Masculinities in Higher Education: Theoretical and Practical Considerations, editors Jason Laker and Tracy Davis have taken that legacy a step further, assembling a stimulating collection of thinkers exploring current theory and practice in understanding negative and fomenting positive masculinities with college men. Asserting that “ignoring the influence that sex role socialization has on men’s development undermines professional effectiveness with male students and serves to reify systematic patriarchy” (p. xi), the book aims both to inform and to engage the reader in participating in new ways of thinking about men and masculinity, summoning our integrity as educators to accompany current practices for the empowerment of women with efforts to support men in becoming men. Through both articulating data-driven theories and by providing practical strategies for addressing the lack of men’s development programs and services, this volume makes a compelling case for, and maps a path toward, deeper and more fruitful work in the service of enabling healthier masculinities to emerge. In the first section, “Theoretical and Historical Perspectives,” Michael Kimmel and Tracy Davis take us to guyland—the dominant cultural context in which young men today learn the rules (and the associated rewards and sanctions) of manhood, a framework often called hegemonic masculinity. In the next chapter, James O’Neil and Bryce Crapser’s analysis of the ways that participation in hegemonic masculinity compromises men’s healthy development in college across a variety of social, psychological, and interpersonal domains is Book Review

Trans* College Students: Moving Beyond Inclusion

Trans* college students are a growing group in higher education, necessitating a reframing of policies and practices to ensure inclusion for all, particularly those whose gender identities fall outside of the gender binary. In this chapter, extant literature on trans* student identity and experience is reviewed, with a focus on evidence of these students’ many resiliencies. The chapter concludes with an argument for working to reduce genderism (Bilodeau, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education 3: 29–44, 2005) in higher education through questioning presupposed foundations for gender-restrictive campus spaces, enacting changes in these policies and practices, and restating a commitment to “trickle up” social justice (Nicolazzo, Just go in looking good: The resilience, resistance, and kinship building of trans* college students. PhD dissertation, Miami University, 2014. OhioLINK (miami1426251164); Spade, Normal life: Administrative violence, critical trans politics, and the limitations of law. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2011).

Gender-Inclusive Practices in Campus Women’s and Gender Centers: Benefits, Challenges, and Future Prospects

Women’s and gender centers have provided a home for feminist activism, education, and empowerment on the college campus since the 1970s. Recently, some women’s and gender centers have undertaken practices of gender inclusion—expanding their missions and programming to include cisgender men and trans* people of all genders. This exploratory study sought to document these practices and to give voice to the challenges and benefits that centers derive from including those who do not identify as women in their work. Twenty professional staff at campus-based women’s and gender centers were interviewed for this study. Participants described how they are enacting gender inclusivity and named the benefits of bringing people of all genders into the work of advancing gender equity on campus, such as increased numbers of students actively participating in the center’s work and broadening the dialogue on women’s issues. Challenges included an ongoing need to protect women’s space for empowerment and the stress of an increased workload due to expanded programming. Overall, participants were positively inclined toward gender inclusion and felt it represented new and exciting possibilities for coalitional awareness and change on campus.

Mutuality without alliance: the roles of community in becoming a college student feminist

ABSTRACT Feminism has made a resurgence in the last several years, especially on college campuses [Davies. 2011. “Feminism is back, and we want to finish the revolution, say activists.” The Guardian, August 5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/05/feminism-resurgent-activists]. Actions to address sexual violence and other forms of ‘lad culture’ are growing in visibility, as young feminists come together to challenge patriarchal norms on campuses. Little is known about how feminist community functions to solidify individuals’ commitment to liberatory action. The meaning-making process of college-age feminists in the US/UK is relevant to the ongoing question of how social change movements function and flourish. This study chronicled 33 college feminists in the US and UK, describing how feminist communities on campus served to foster stronger commitment to feminism and greater confidence in advocating for feminist values and viewpoints. Community forged through consciousness of one’s differential power and privilege and productive engagement with identity difference was notably absent in these narratives, signaling incomplete encounters with cross-coalitional alliance [Rowe. 2008. Power Lines. On the Subject of Feminist Alliances. Durham: Duke University Press].