Ewan Tristan Booth, Ph.D.
PUBLICATIONS:
Booth, E. T., & Spencer, L. G. (2016). Sitting in silence: Managing aural body rhetoric in public restrooms. Communication Studies, 67(2), 209-226. doi: 10.1080/10510974.2015.1122657
[Received the Anita Taylor Award for Outstanding Published Article or Book Chapter (2016) from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language & Gender (OSCLG).]
Booth, E. T. (2015). The provisional acknowledgement of identity claims in televised documentary. In J. C. Capuzza & L. G. Spencer (Eds.), Transgender communication studies: Histories, trends, and trajectories (pp. 111-126). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
[Received the 2016 Outstanding Book Award for edited collections from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender.]
[Received the 2016 Distinguished Edited Book Award from the Applied Communication Division of the National Communication Association.]
Booth, E. T. (2011). Queering Queer Eye: The stability of gay identity confronts the liminality of trans embodiment. Western Journal of Communication, 75(2), 185-204. doi: 10.1080/10570314.2011.553876
[Reprinted in: Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2015). Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.]
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION:
Booth, E. T. (2012). A search for man’s meaning: Examining manhood from the margins of gender and orientation. (Doctoral dissertation). Dissertation Abstracts UMI No. 3505328.
MASTER'S THESIS:
Booth, E. T. (2007). Enacting a dual rhetorical strategy: Communicating transsexual gay male identity. (Master’s thesis). Dissertation Abstracts UMI No. 1444950.
Supervisors: Daniel C. Brouwer, Ph.D.
Booth, E. T., & Spencer, L. G. (2016). Sitting in silence: Managing aural body rhetoric in public restrooms. Communication Studies, 67(2), 209-226. doi: 10.1080/10510974.2015.1122657
[Received the Anita Taylor Award for Outstanding Published Article or Book Chapter (2016) from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language & Gender (OSCLG).]
Booth, E. T. (2015). The provisional acknowledgement of identity claims in televised documentary. In J. C. Capuzza & L. G. Spencer (Eds.), Transgender communication studies: Histories, trends, and trajectories (pp. 111-126). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
[Received the 2016 Outstanding Book Award for edited collections from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender.]
[Received the 2016 Distinguished Edited Book Award from the Applied Communication Division of the National Communication Association.]
Booth, E. T. (2011). Queering Queer Eye: The stability of gay identity confronts the liminality of trans embodiment. Western Journal of Communication, 75(2), 185-204. doi: 10.1080/10570314.2011.553876
[Reprinted in: Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2015). Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.]
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION:
Booth, E. T. (2012). A search for man’s meaning: Examining manhood from the margins of gender and orientation. (Doctoral dissertation). Dissertation Abstracts UMI No. 3505328.
MASTER'S THESIS:
Booth, E. T. (2007). Enacting a dual rhetorical strategy: Communicating transsexual gay male identity. (Master’s thesis). Dissertation Abstracts UMI No. 1444950.
Supervisors: Daniel C. Brouwer, Ph.D.
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Book Chapters by Ewan Tristan Booth, Ph.D.
Television is an inherently visual medium, and this presents a problem for identity claims that cannot be verified by one’s outward appearance. For transgender individuals whose outward appearance does not correspond with their internal sense of identity, the communication of identity often begins with personal narrative, as delivered to friends, loved ones and, in the case of transsexuals, a variety of medical professionals. Many transsexuals tell their stories verbally before they are able to display their identities visually. Unfortunately for television, however, a lengthy discussion of thoughts and feelings provides no visual content outside of the ubiquitous “talking head.” While one’s identity is certainly more than the body one occupies, the average viewer needs to see the identity on the body in order to believe it; in response, television dutifully assures that there is something to see.
The viewer’s need for visual confirmation of identity is not the only problem, however. On the subject of transsexualism, many members of the U.S. television audience will not be satisfied with an outward gendered appearance alone; they are unwilling to accept a gendered identity if they are aware that it does not correspond to the anatomical sex. These viewers do not expect unclothed genitals to be televised, but they do expect reassurance that the “correct” genitals exist before they will acknowledge an individual’s claim to a gendered identity. As a result, television programming tends to reinforce these dominant understandings because, as a commercial medium, it must attract a large audience with sufficiently relatable programming that will not drive the average viewer to change the channel. Because the phrase “sex change” has become a master narrative for transsexualism in U.S. culture, this has led to an emphasis on the surgical alteration of the body, which also helps to provide the visual images that television requires.
The presentation of transsexuals on television, then, faces three distinct challenges—namely, television’s dependence on the visual, the viewer’s need for visual confirmation of gendered identity on the public body, and the viewer’s insistence on sex-gender correspondence. From a production standpoint, these issues might be addressed in a variety of ways, depending on the genre of the program. The specific case study for this essay examines the content of televised documentaries and episodes of documentary series featuring transsexuals who are undergoing the transition process, and finds that, in some programs, the subjects’ gendered identity claims are not fully acknowledged until some type of medical intervention has taken place, after which the authoritative voice-over narration will reflect a change in pronoun use for these individuals. In these examples, the transsexual’s self-identification is framed as a desire, but not acknowledged as a reality until the body has been transformed in some way. In other examples, this self-identification appears to be respected consistently throughout the program.
The field of transgender studies challenges the producers of television programming to acknowledge the non-visual, both through respectful language use, and through the overall structuring of program content. Because the separation of gender identity from birth sex defines the very essence of transsexualism, it is clear that a transsexual’s personal identity should not be framed as a function of corresponding anatomy. Further, transgender studies presents a challenge to television studies, demanding critique when personal identity claims are marginalized in favor of visual and anatomical verification.
Articles by Ewan Tristan Booth, Ph.D.
Television is an inherently visual medium, and this presents a problem for identity claims that cannot be verified by one’s outward appearance. For transgender individuals whose outward appearance does not correspond with their internal sense of identity, the communication of identity often begins with personal narrative, as delivered to friends, loved ones and, in the case of transsexuals, a variety of medical professionals. Many transsexuals tell their stories verbally before they are able to display their identities visually. Unfortunately for television, however, a lengthy discussion of thoughts and feelings provides no visual content outside of the ubiquitous “talking head.” While one’s identity is certainly more than the body one occupies, the average viewer needs to see the identity on the body in order to believe it; in response, television dutifully assures that there is something to see.
The viewer’s need for visual confirmation of identity is not the only problem, however. On the subject of transsexualism, many members of the U.S. television audience will not be satisfied with an outward gendered appearance alone; they are unwilling to accept a gendered identity if they are aware that it does not correspond to the anatomical sex. These viewers do not expect unclothed genitals to be televised, but they do expect reassurance that the “correct” genitals exist before they will acknowledge an individual’s claim to a gendered identity. As a result, television programming tends to reinforce these dominant understandings because, as a commercial medium, it must attract a large audience with sufficiently relatable programming that will not drive the average viewer to change the channel. Because the phrase “sex change” has become a master narrative for transsexualism in U.S. culture, this has led to an emphasis on the surgical alteration of the body, which also helps to provide the visual images that television requires.
The presentation of transsexuals on television, then, faces three distinct challenges—namely, television’s dependence on the visual, the viewer’s need for visual confirmation of gendered identity on the public body, and the viewer’s insistence on sex-gender correspondence. From a production standpoint, these issues might be addressed in a variety of ways, depending on the genre of the program. The specific case study for this essay examines the content of televised documentaries and episodes of documentary series featuring transsexuals who are undergoing the transition process, and finds that, in some programs, the subjects’ gendered identity claims are not fully acknowledged until some type of medical intervention has taken place, after which the authoritative voice-over narration will reflect a change in pronoun use for these individuals. In these examples, the transsexual’s self-identification is framed as a desire, but not acknowledged as a reality until the body has been transformed in some way. In other examples, this self-identification appears to be respected consistently throughout the program.
The field of transgender studies challenges the producers of television programming to acknowledge the non-visual, both through respectful language use, and through the overall structuring of program content. Because the separation of gender identity from birth sex defines the very essence of transsexualism, it is clear that a transsexual’s personal identity should not be framed as a function of corresponding anatomy. Further, transgender studies presents a challenge to television studies, demanding critique when personal identity claims are marginalized in favor of visual and anatomical verification.