Bending Gender, Ending Gender: Theoretical Foundations for Social Work Practice with the Transgender Community‪.‬

This article puts forth a radical argument: Social workers should reject a dichotomous understanding of gender in favor of more accurate and affirming conceptualizations of gender. Best practices with the transgender population requires as much. In developing this argument, three central points will be defended: (1) transgendered people are oppressed in U.S. society (and, therefore, are a population of concern to social workers); (2) binary gender models are the foundation on which transgender oppression (and several other oppressive systems) depends; and (3) queer theory and social constructionism offer useful insights for social workers seeking an accurate understanding of gender. Many disciplines have contributed to current knowledge of gender and the transgender community (for example, psychology, literature, medicine, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy). I have chosen to focus here on the sociological insights available at the intersection of social constructionism and queer theory. This conceptual site offers rich, thought-provoking considerations of gender, while creating fertile ground for no less than the elimination of gender-based oppression. As such, it offers alternatives to pathological models noted by several authors as historically dominant in psychological and medical thinking about transgendered people (Cooper, 1999; Gagne, Tewksbury, & McGaughey, 1997; Langer & Martin, 2004). Social constructionism and queer theory make a compelling case, and one consistent with social work's values and ethics, for the validity of transgender identities and the pursuit of gender rights.