Thread by @ButNotTheCity

Alright, everyone! I have decided that today is “Florence shows off papers and tries to get cited” day. Buckle up! All of the papers listed can be accessed for free on my website:

florenceashley.com/academic-publi…

This is my very first publication, which inspired the first special issue on trans law in Canadian history. It talks about how hate crime laws fail to protect trans people because they are based on misconceptions about the nature of transphobic violence.

muse.jhu.edu/article/684529

Some places like the UK make it a crime not to tell someone you’re trans before having sex. This paper argues that thick conceptions of privacy rooted in equality do a better job against these laws than ‘trans men are real men’.

digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/dlj/vol41/iss2…

My fondness for the paper has only grown since publishing it, because it deploys a genderfucking analytic that deliberately rejects governmental demands to make gender intelligible, to “figure out” our gender. “Why do you want to know my gender? What are you, a cop?”

Although it isn’t out, this essay has already started influencing trans studies by coining the notion of ‘gender modality’, which refers to how one’s gender identity stands in relation to gender assigned at birth, adding nuance to the cis/trans binary.

florenceashley.com/uploads/1/2/4/…

My magnum opus in terms of influence, this highly accessible and widely-read essay cogently argues that medical gatekeeping is dehumanizing by mistrusting trans people and suppressing the diversity of trans embodiment.

jme.bmj.com/content/45/7/4…

My first paper on the topic of trans youth, it takes a dynamic and relational view of gender identity and shows that ‘promoting gender exploration’ does not justify delaying transition, on the contrary. We explore gender *through* transition, too.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

One day I got frustrated that people kept saying diagnoses of gender dysphoria were required by the WPATH Standards of Care, so I wrote this paper explaining how that’s not at all true and the SOC7 refers to a non-diagnostic meaning of ‘gender dysphoria’.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17…

Does TERF pseudoscience annoy you? Because it annoys me! So after writing some early op-eds showing the flaws in “Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria”, I wrote this peer-reviewed paper about how it is transphobic reactionary nonsense.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

TERF arguments still annoying you? How about this paper carefully explaining that no, gender-affirming care isn’t conversion therapy and if anything is conversion therapy it’s what the TERFs are pushing for. Trust me, I wrote a whole book about it.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

At this point, you probably need a break from all the transphobia, so how about a light little paper about the funniest legal case names and how ranking them revealed that Canada is kinda fascisty?

florenceashley.com/uploads/1/2/4/…

Back to trans stuff, this is my most recent paper. It sets out a comprehensive and ethically-grounded approach to requesting, recording, and recounting gender-related information for governments and organizations. Timely for the Canadian census’ oopsies!

socialchangenyu.com/review/recomme…

Another terminological contribution, this essay not only argues that FFS should be covered by insurance even if ‘cosmetic’ but introduces creative transfiguration as an additional type of embodiment feeling besides gender dysphoria and euphoria.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

This paper is dear to me, and ended up being covered by WIRED. Long story short, constant research makes marginalized participants fatigued and bad research practices does it worse. That’s bad because it creates injustices. Let’s do better!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

J. Michael Bailey had a tantrum over someone calling his doctoral student transphobic for *checks note* comparing trans people to pedophiles. I remind him that scientific neutrality is a myth and at least *I* admit I have normative commitments.

link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Want to know how to do gender neutral speak in French? Look no further than this essay explaining the existing alternatives, pros and cons, and proposing a linguistic framework to move the discussion forward. Because yes I am a frenchie. Didn't you know?

h-france.net/Salon/SalonVol…

Alternative title: “I’m annoyed at my FFS surgeon so I wrote a pissy article about how that was illegal.” It’s about how current legal models of informed consent don’t account for important information that’s needed to prepare but not decide.

mjlh.mcgill.ca/publications/v…

Writing the paper was surprisingly therapeutic. I am sad that just because it focuses on trans health, it won’t get picked up in mainstream health law despite being immensely relevant for all sorts of medical care, especially when involving marginalized populations.

You’ll notice a trend where my papers are all written out of spite. This one is no exception. Written with amazing babe @PsychSerg, we argue that clinicians MUST recognize the political nature of trans health and actively work with us towards liberation.

amjmed.com/article/S0002-…

Another paper written out of spite? Surprise! I wrote this paper while clerking at the Supreme Court because I couldn’t shit on the Williams Institute on social media. I criticize their misleading data representation, but with fancy words.

link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Back in June 2020, the media went wild over how the Ontario Court of Appeal supposedly allowed a drunk ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. This paper is about how that take is super naïve, and that an intersectional analysis calls for much more nuance.

florenceashley.com/uploads/1/2/4/…

I’ll readily admit that I wrote this paper hoping to get cited by the Supreme Court. It was widely predicted that the Court would grant leave in the case, and I wanted to (1) get cited, and (2) ensure they had nuanced takes rather than only reactionary ones.

As a sidenote, I find it interesting how those who write in unqualified opposition to the voluntary intoxication defence typically come from the general scholarship circles of anti-sex work and transantagonistic feminists. What brings all those topics together?

This paper (coming out in English soon in the UCLA Women’s Law Journal) analyzes how the trans legal subject is constructed in law, explaining how we moved from a medical to a minoritarian model while preserving the cisnormative background of the law.

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

That’s all for today! I have more papers but they’re mostly just commentaries and not as interesting for one-off readers unless you’re immersed in those specific debates. I hope you’ll enjoy your reading! Please share away!