Trans*

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Trans* is a neologism and conceptual term that refers to a deliberately open-ended cluster of meanings, often used to describe gender-expansive identities, ontological frameworks, and critiques of hegemonic gender systems. The asterisk denotes inclusivity and fluidity, signaling a departure from static definitions of “transgender” and allowing space for multiple identities, histories, and theoretical orientations to co-exist under a shared but non-uniform umbrella.{{Cite magazine |date=2018-04-03 |title=The OED Just Added the Word 'Trans*.' Here's What It Means |url=https://time.com/5211799/what-does-trans-asterisk-star-mean-dictionary/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}

Etymology and Usage

The term trans* emerged in the early 21st century within activist, academic, and online communities. For some, it operates as an umbrella term encompassing identities such as transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, agender, and genderfluid. However, in academic contexts—particularly within philosophy, critical theory, education, and ethnic studies—trans* functions less as a category and more as a critical orientation or analytic that interrogates the structures of gender, power, and knowledge production, especially as they relate to trans people of color.Ellison, T., Green, K. M., Richardson, M., & Snorton, C. R. (2017). We have issues Toward black trans*/studies. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 162-169. DiPietro, P. J. (2019). Beyond benevolent violence: Trans* of color, ornamental multiculturalism, and the decolonization of affect. Speaking face to face: The visionary philosophy of María Lugones, 197-216.Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2021). Queer and trans* of color critique, decolonization, and education. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.

Theoretical Approaches

= Ontological and Epistemological Frameworks =

Within critical theory, trans* has been mobilized as a tool to question the ontological assumptions embedded in mainstream gender and transgender studies. Education philosophers such Omi Salas-SantaCruz argue that trans* is not merely a variation of gender identity but a rejection of colonial knowledge and their accompanying views on being, personhood, and embodiment.Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2024). What is Decolonial Trans* Feminism and What Can It Do for Queer/Trans BIPOC Education Research? Reimagining Knowledge and Identity through the Convergence of Decolonial and Trans* Feminism. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 1(1), 4.DiPietro, P. J. P. (2020). Neither Humans, Nor Animals, Nor Monsters: Decolonizing Transgender Embodiments [Spanish]. eidos, (34), 254-291.

In Black Trans Studies*, for example, the concept of Blackness as historically constructed as “nonhuman” is reframed as a null gender category, emphasizing the epistemic violence of colonial humanism and the ontological exclusion of Black trans people.[2] Similarly, decolonial scholars like PJ DiPietro frame trans* as a methodology that destabilizes Western knowledge systems and affirms pluralist genealogies of gender, including Indigenous, Afro-diasporic, and diasporic Latinx frameworks.[3]Silva Santana, D. (2017). Transitionings and returnings: Experiments with the poetics of transatlantic water. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 181-190.

= Coloniality and Assemblages =

Decolonial trans* scholars emphasize the role of coloniality—of power, being, knowledge, and gender—in shaping what we now understand as gender nonconformity.[6][8] Rather than viewing trans* identities as emerging solely from modern Western frameworks, scholars argue that trans* highlights historical and transnational refusals of colonial gender regimes and foregrounds the assemblages of being that emerge from these refusals.[7][9]Stryker, S. (2008). Transgender history, homonormativity, and disciplinarity. Radical history review, (100).{{cite dictionary |title=trans* |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/trans_adj-a |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |doi=10.1093/OED/1020389239 |access-date=2025-02-06}}

= Social Progression and Movement Analysis =

Trans* scholarship also traces the evolution of community formation and online activism. Eli Erlick and Emily Keener examine how digital spaces have enabled the formation of youth-led trans* movements, challenging isolation and expanding cultural narratives around gender.[26][27] Marquis Bey and others bring abolitionist frameworks into conversation with trans* studies to theorize liberation outside the confines of state-sanctioned identity categories.[14] Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2023). Decoloniality & trans* of color educational criticism. Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education, 8(1). https://traue.commons.gc.cuny.edu/decoloniality-trans-of-color-educational-criticism Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2021). “Queer and Trans* of Color Critique, Decolonization, and Education.” In Cris Mayo (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality in Education. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1336Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2022). Trans* Ethnic Studies. Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education, 691.

Global and Decolonial Considerations

One of the central interventions of trans* is its challenge to the assumption that “transgender” identity is universal. Scholars emphasize that gender systems vary widely across cultures and histories, and what may be termed a “third gender” elsewhere should not be collapsed into Western transgender paradigms. Trans* thus becomes a tool to provincialize U.S.-centric understandings and to recognize the divergent ontologies of gender across the world. DiPietro, P. J. (2019). Beyond benevolent violence: Trans* of color, ornamental multiculturalism, and the decolonization of affect. Speaking face to face: The visionary philosophy of María Lugones, 197-216.Salas-SantaCruz, O. (2023). Nonbinary epistemologies: Refusing colonial amnesia and erasure of Jotería and Trans* Latinidades. WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 51(3), 78-93.

{{cite journal |last1=Lopez |first1=Alan Pelaez |title=trans*imagination |journal=Women's Studies Quarterly |date=March 2023 |volume=51 |issue=1–2 |pages=233–240 |id={{Project MUSE|886236}} {{ProQuest|2792102590}} |doi=10.1353/wsq.2023.0019 }}{{cite book |last=Green |first=Kai M. |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=E. Patrick|doi=10.1515/9780822373711-006 |chapter=Troubling the Waters: Mobilizing a Trans* Analytic |title=No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies |date=2016 |pages=65–82 |isbn=978-0-8223-7371-1 |publisher=Duke University Press}}{{Cite book |last=Bey |first=Marquis |title=Black trans feminism |date=2022 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-2242-8 |series=Black outdoors: innovations in the poetics of study |location=Durham London}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Rucovsky |first1=Martin De Mauro |title=Trans* necropolitics. Gender Identity Law in Argentina |journal=Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad |date=August 2015 |issue=20 |pages=10–27 |doi=10.1590/1984-6487.sess.2015.20.04.a |hdl=11336/69568 |hdl-access=free }} {{Cite book |last1=de Beauvoir |first1=Simone |title=The second sex |last2=Capisto-Borde |first2=Constance |last3=Malovany-Chevallier |first3=Sheila |date=2011 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-307-27778-7 |location=New York }}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780429499142-5 |chapter=Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics |title=Living with Contradictions |date=2018 |last1=Crenshaw |first1=Kimberle |pages=39–52 |isbn=978-0-429-49914-2 |chapter-url=https://philarchive.org/rec/CREDTI }}

Trans*

Theoretical Approaches

= Ontological and Epistemological Frameworks =

= Coloniality and Assemblages =

= Social Progression and Movement Analysis =

Global and Decolonial Considerations

See also

References

Further reading