The Transsexual Empire

01Raymond argued that surgeons performing sex reassignment were 'cutting off the possibility of' authentic gender deviance to maintain social norms.
02Sandy Stone, named by Raymond as a male infiltrator, responded in 1987 with 'The Empire Strikes Back,' now considered the founding text of trans studies.
03The book was republished in 1994 with a new preface in which Raymond declined to retract any of its core claims.

The DU penetrator of a 30 mm round from the GAU-8 Avenger

Corybantian dance , the type of dance most likely danced on Gymnopedia festivals (image from Smith 's Dictionary of Antiquities ).

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying Duke William 's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

Janice Raymond's 1979 'The Transsexual Empire' argued that sex reassignment surgery wasn't liberation but a medical system eliminating gender-nonconforming bodies to protect the male-female binary. Sandy Stone answered it with a 1987 essay that founded trans studies.