Research Group 2023–2024

The research group began its work at the Institute in February 2023 with the aim of addressing theoretical and political tensions between some parts of feminist thought and action and trans studies.

The desire to establish the group grew out of the understanding that worldwide and in Israel there was increasing tension between transgenderism as a field of study and theoretical thought—accompanied by the politics and promotion of policy by people on the trans spectrum—and some feminist premises, certainly those of radical feminism but also those of more common and popular versions of feminist thought, and some feminist politics and struggles.

The point of departure for the discussion was that the trans option—both as a theory and as its social manifestation—tests feminist assumptions regarding the division between sex (biological) and gender (social-cultural-identity) and mixes these concepts and the “order”—first sex, then gender—on which the common assumptions regarding the social construction of gender and its ramifications are based. True, such objections to feminist premises have existed in feminist theory in various periods in the past, and especially in light of the continuing influence of queer theory on feminism and gender studies in recent decades. Nevertheless, mainstream feminist politics and gender studies in school and in academe, with an emphasis on the social sciences, have not undergone this revolution, or have withdrawn from it gradually. Accordingly, the basis of feminist and gender studies is still studied through the division between sex and gender and through the social construction of gender roles and the modes of its perpetuation (and this is even more so with regard to popular representations of feminism in the media and culture).

In this widespread view of feminist theory, feminist struggles that are based on demands in the name of women, for women, with an emphasis on the uniqueness of the feminine body, and on the bodily difference between women and men, such as the struggle for rights related to contraception, abortion, and birth, struggles related to issues of women’s health, and prevention of violence against women—and the demands for resources, legislation, and protection in the name of those demands—are challenged by premises of trans perspectives and trans politics.

The trans challenge enables feminism to return to fundamental issues that have become entrenched and to reexamine them. These issues include the attitude towards the body and towards “nature,” the perception of individual liberty within social systems and in relation to them, and the limitations of control and involvement of society and the state in issues of sex, body, and desire. Additional matters for discussion include questions of policy and resources, the possibility of solidary joint action, and the joining of struggles and aims between feminism and transgenderism. These issues come into yet sharper relief in the face of populist misogynist and transphobic politics which view feminist critique and the LGBTQ struggle as a monolith.

Despite the political and social centrality of these issues in the United States, gender studies in Israel have hardly addressed them, either as a theoretical topic or as a social or political issue. But in recent years there has been a growing understanding that it is no longer possible to avoid this issue. Trans studies do not [yet] exist in Israel, and therefore we are talking about an innovative and experimental approach to dealing with this topic. The group’s discussions addressed these questions with a commitment to an open examination of sensitive topics and an attempt to find ways of shared and creative thinking regarding these issues.

The research group had 18 members and met regularly in the course of 2003–2004.