1 - Introduction

Summary

What possesses a cisgender woman to attempt a constructive theology of gender variance? The fact I have used the term ‘cisgender’ already marks me out for some readers as someone who accepts the reality and legitimacy of the concept of gender and holds that ‘normative’ and ‘unmarked’ modes of sex, gender, and sexuality are themselves contested and in doubt. For some ‘gender-critical’ readers, including gender-critical radical feminists,¹ my use of the term ‘cisgender’ renders me a ‘handmaid’: someone in thrall to an agenda being imposed by trans people, particularly trans women, to the detriment of those who have lived as women and girls since birth. For some conservative Christian readers,² ‘cisgender’ strikes a note of caution of a slightly different kind: it suggests that I do not accept that gender must, to be a licit reflection of the orders of creation, supervene on physiological sex only in certain ways. ‘Cisgender’ is not an unproblematic term by any means,³ but it has the advantage of making clear that trans people are not the only ones to have a gender and that there is no such thing as an unmarked default when it comes to sex and gender identity.⁴