hi and so I’m going to talk to you today
a little bit about a research project
that I completed last summer at this
university and the project has a lot of
personal significance to me because the
4,000 pounds that I was paid to complete
this project I used to fund hormone
replacement therapy one year that the
NHS system for trans people is difficult
to say the least and in many cases
there’s a waiting list of over a year
but also on top of this when I first
discovered the people I’m about to speak
about they allowed me to think about
gender nonconformity in a way that was I
think permissible people always tend to
ask me when I knew I was trans and like
when I like I had these thoughts in my
mind that made it feel like it was okay
to transition and I think in general
whenever we see gender non-conforming
people in media in culture gender
non-conforming people are monster fide I
think the first um transition I ever saw
and was a character in this with Britain
um so yes that’s again so if I asked you
to picture an image of ancient Egyptian
kingship you would probably imagine
something a little bit like this there
are three statues and they all represent
different people from different periods
of ancient Egyptian history they’re all
depicted in conventional masculine style
their bodies are straight and they were
the numbers headdress two of them were
false beard and they were the Shem get
killed and they’re carrying orbs so what
if I told you that this statue on the
far left actually represented a woman
who depicted herself like this and like
this and like this but also
like this you can see the difference in
body types
so pharaoh Hatshepsut was one of Egypt’s
longest reigning female pharaohs and she
came to the throne initially as the
regent for her step son tan Moses the
third hardship suit depicted herself in
the masculine regalia of kingship
because in order to be the legitimate
ruler of Egypt she had to look like the
legitimate ruler of Egypt and being
Pharaoh
there was no uniform and for women so
here had Shepherd represents herself I’m
on a carving from a temple with the
goddess Hathor and you can see the stark
contrast between the way in which Hathor
is depicted and the way in which HUD
shops it is depicted so hardships it
essentially exploited her gender
presentation and for political benefit
so the next person I want to talk to you
about is Pharaoh Akhenaten Akhenaten is
most known for breaking with thousands
of years of Egyptian religious tradition
and establishing the solar art and deity
as supreme above all so I can Anton
basically is one of the earliest people
to come up with a kind of monotheism so
if you remember this image of the three
Egyptian kings you can see again the
differences in presentation the
Akhenaten was trying to essentially
embody the solar art and deity that he
was trying to elevate a supreme and in
like polytheistic religious systems
there are typically a supreme masculine
figure and a supreme feminine figure so
in trying to establish a monotheism this
deity had to embody both principles and
so the king who
the deities representative also had to
embody these principles so you can see
here that I cannot and presents himself
with breasts and a pregnant ish looking
belly
I cannot him said in the hymn to the
great art and deity that the Artem was
the mother and father of all mankind and
that’s represented here in the statue of
Akhenaten which has been named as the
sexless Colossus in which Akhenaten is
depicted with no genitals very clearly
now this statue in particular hasn’t
always been received very well by
historians and by art historians in 1973
JD swales for The Lancet said I cannot
in is represented in such a grotesque
and effeminate form the diagnosis of
Freilich syndrome has been entertained
even more warning for the retrospective
diagnostician members of Akhenaten’s
entourage are also shown as having
female breast development
so essentially swales was so disgusted
by this image that he feels first of all
they need to follow gize it and and and
also the need to insult it it’s kind of
familiar
um so the main thing i think that i took
from this quotation is the word
grotesque and so thinking about
transition is only in life and it took
me approximately 30 seconds to google
caitlyn jenner followed by the word
grotesque in order to see this so this
article by Robert Paul raised I’m not
quite sure what the website it’s called
but um says Caitlyn Jenner looked
absolutely grotesque and it says I don’t
know if you how well you can see this
but um the article says please be kind
to me I’m new at this
Caitlyn Jenner said in her masculine
voice that she stepped up to the podium
to accept the ESP Y Arthur Ashe award
for courage
and then after describing what Caitlin’s
wearing the writer of this piece goes on
to say but 65 year-old Caitlyn like
tediously grotesque not even a designer
dress worth thousands and diamonds worth
of fortune contend the athlete / reality
star formerly known as Bruce into a
beautiful woman the writer then
continues that Caitlyn looks deformed
has wrinkled hands and huge feet and
gives the writer nightmares the writer
says if one more person describes
Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful that they
are going to kill themselves and
honestly people have said very similar
things to my face on multiple occasions
usually people that I don’t know at all
um and so I suppose the significance of
this project for me personally is that
I’ve been able to find a great deal of
comfort in the fact that I cannot in HAP
shed suit were trying to present
themselves as gods and they were trying
to present themselves as divine and
beyond the constraints it’s particularly
an Akhenaten’s case with the art in
dating and the elevation of the art into
supreme power this like will to power
through presentation I find very
inspiring and I think most importantly
these figures show that the relationship
between a biological sex and gender
presentation has been negotiable for
well since the second millennium BCE and
that trans is not new and it’s not a
trend and it’s not something that’s
irreligious per se um and I think also
there’s inherent irony in the fact that
I just spent however long describing to
you what these figures are doing and why
they’re doing it because I don’t think
it really needs an explanation and I
think it’s justified in the sense that
these historical figures and by looking
at what their statues show in these
public bodies
we can read things about other aspects
of ancient Egyptian history and we can
trace trends but I think the problem too
often with trans and gender
non-conforming people is that people
think that an explanation is always
required and people think that an
explanation is um justified people to
seek and you know quotes like this are
reflected in the way that trans people
are diagnosed in medical systems and you
know it goes on but I think the final
thing that I’ve learned from looking at
these figures is that there can be a
danger with trans people and gender
non-conforming people to see this as the
only aspect of our identities and you
know Akhenaten was one of the most
controversial Egyptian pharaohs ever who
completely broke his religion and and
the artwork as well and hatshepsut LED
like incredible campaigns and built
incredible buildings and was one of
Egypt’s most successful fairies . and
yet people are most interested most of
the time in the way that they present
themselves because they see well this
and feel like they need an explanation
um so I think in general it would
probably um be better if we could just
let these people speak for themselves
and appreciate that presentation is
something that’s um interesting and
beautiful but um nothing more thank
[Applause]
[Music]
a little bit about a research project
that I completed last summer at this
university and the project has a lot of
personal significance to me because the
4,000 pounds that I was paid to complete
this project I used to fund hormone
replacement therapy one year that the
NHS system for trans people is difficult
to say the least and in many cases
there’s a waiting list of over a year
but also on top of this when I first
discovered the people I’m about to speak
about they allowed me to think about
gender nonconformity in a way that was I
think permissible people always tend to
ask me when I knew I was trans and like
when I like I had these thoughts in my
mind that made it feel like it was okay
to transition and I think in general
whenever we see gender non-conforming
people in media in culture gender
non-conforming people are monster fide I
think the first um transition I ever saw
and was a character in this with Britain
um so yes that’s again so if I asked you
to picture an image of ancient Egyptian
kingship you would probably imagine
something a little bit like this there
are three statues and they all represent
different people from different periods
of ancient Egyptian history they’re all
depicted in conventional masculine style
their bodies are straight and they were
the numbers headdress two of them were
false beard and they were the Shem get
killed and they’re carrying orbs so what
if I told you that this statue on the
far left actually represented a woman
who depicted herself like this and like
this and like this but also
like this you can see the difference in
body types
so pharaoh Hatshepsut was one of Egypt’s
longest reigning female pharaohs and she
came to the throne initially as the
regent for her step son tan Moses the
third hardship suit depicted herself in
the masculine regalia of kingship
because in order to be the legitimate
ruler of Egypt she had to look like the
legitimate ruler of Egypt and being
Pharaoh
there was no uniform and for women so
here had Shepherd represents herself I’m
on a carving from a temple with the
goddess Hathor and you can see the stark
contrast between the way in which Hathor
is depicted and the way in which HUD
shops it is depicted so hardships it
essentially exploited her gender
presentation and for political benefit
so the next person I want to talk to you
about is Pharaoh Akhenaten Akhenaten is
most known for breaking with thousands
of years of Egyptian religious tradition
and establishing the solar art and deity
as supreme above all so I can Anton
basically is one of the earliest people
to come up with a kind of monotheism so
if you remember this image of the three
Egyptian kings you can see again the
differences in presentation the
Akhenaten was trying to essentially
embody the solar art and deity that he
was trying to elevate a supreme and in
like polytheistic religious systems
there are typically a supreme masculine
figure and a supreme feminine figure so
in trying to establish a monotheism this
deity had to embody both principles and
so the king who
the deities representative also had to
embody these principles so you can see
here that I cannot and presents himself
with breasts and a pregnant ish looking
belly
I cannot him said in the hymn to the
great art and deity that the Artem was
the mother and father of all mankind and
that’s represented here in the statue of
Akhenaten which has been named as the
sexless Colossus in which Akhenaten is
depicted with no genitals very clearly
now this statue in particular hasn’t
always been received very well by
historians and by art historians in 1973
JD swales for The Lancet said I cannot
in is represented in such a grotesque
and effeminate form the diagnosis of
Freilich syndrome has been entertained
even more warning for the retrospective
diagnostician members of Akhenaten’s
entourage are also shown as having
female breast development
so essentially swales was so disgusted
by this image that he feels first of all
they need to follow gize it and and and
also the need to insult it it’s kind of
familiar
um so the main thing i think that i took
from this quotation is the word
grotesque and so thinking about
transition is only in life and it took
me approximately 30 seconds to google
caitlyn jenner followed by the word
grotesque in order to see this so this
article by Robert Paul raised I’m not
quite sure what the website it’s called
but um says Caitlyn Jenner looked
absolutely grotesque and it says I don’t
know if you how well you can see this
but um the article says please be kind
to me I’m new at this
Caitlyn Jenner said in her masculine
voice that she stepped up to the podium
to accept the ESP Y Arthur Ashe award
for courage
and then after describing what Caitlin’s
wearing the writer of this piece goes on
to say but 65 year-old Caitlyn like
tediously grotesque not even a designer
dress worth thousands and diamonds worth
of fortune contend the athlete / reality
star formerly known as Bruce into a
beautiful woman the writer then
continues that Caitlyn looks deformed
has wrinkled hands and huge feet and
gives the writer nightmares the writer
says if one more person describes
Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful that they
are going to kill themselves and
honestly people have said very similar
things to my face on multiple occasions
usually people that I don’t know at all
um and so I suppose the significance of
this project for me personally is that
I’ve been able to find a great deal of
comfort in the fact that I cannot in HAP
shed suit were trying to present
themselves as gods and they were trying
to present themselves as divine and
beyond the constraints it’s particularly
an Akhenaten’s case with the art in
dating and the elevation of the art into
supreme power this like will to power
through presentation I find very
inspiring and I think most importantly
these figures show that the relationship
between a biological sex and gender
presentation has been negotiable for
well since the second millennium BCE and
that trans is not new and it’s not a
trend and it’s not something that’s
irreligious per se um and I think also
there’s inherent irony in the fact that
I just spent however long describing to
you what these figures are doing and why
they’re doing it because I don’t think
it really needs an explanation and I
think it’s justified in the sense that
these historical figures and by looking
at what their statues show in these
public bodies
we can read things about other aspects
of ancient Egyptian history and we can
trace trends but I think the problem too
often with trans and gender
non-conforming people is that people
think that an explanation is always
required and people think that an
explanation is um justified people to
seek and you know quotes like this are
reflected in the way that trans people
are diagnosed in medical systems and you
know it goes on but I think the final
thing that I’ve learned from looking at
these figures is that there can be a
danger with trans people and gender
non-conforming people to see this as the
only aspect of our identities and you
know Akhenaten was one of the most
controversial Egyptian pharaohs ever who
completely broke his religion and and
the artwork as well and hatshepsut LED
like incredible campaigns and built
incredible buildings and was one of
Egypt’s most successful fairies . and
yet people are most interested most of
the time in the way that they present
themselves because they see well this
and feel like they need an explanation
um so I think in general it would
probably um be better if we could just
let these people speak for themselves
and appreciate that presentation is
something that’s um interesting and
beautiful but um nothing more thank
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: