Abstract
Donald N. McCloskey’s life journeys to live as Deirdre N. McCloskey is discussed in this article using Richard Ekins ‘Career Path Theory’. This article traces the different stages which Deirdre crosses in the process of transition to successfully ‘come out’ and ‘pass’ in the experienced gender, as a woman. The character’s self-realisation, the insults and humiliation she faced, the urge to acquire female clothes, the episodes of cross dressing, the fear of losing her family, her determination to lead a dual life, the confidence to come out to their family members and to the public, the procedures that were to be followed before she underwent SRS, her professional life and life after surgery have been dealt at length.
Keywords: career path theory, SRS, transition
Deirdre N. McCloskey — An Introduction, Women’s Struggle
Deirdre N. McCloskey who was Donald N. McCloskey for fifty-two years has recorded her life in Crossing: A Memoir (1999). Deirdre’s work portray about the society including her family who treated her during and after her transition. Donald, who was the Professor of Economics, History, English and Communication at the University of Illinois was also part of the state’s Economic Growth and Development Association. The uniqueness is that she was able to hold the same position as Deirdre too.
Career Path Theory
Richard Ekins, Director of the Transgender Archive and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the University of Ulster, along with his friend Dave Kings has published Transgender Phenomenon and has edited a book, Blending Genders (1996). Based on this Richard Ekins has formulated five phases that a male female undergoes in the process of changing and has termed it as ‘modes of transgendering’. The five phases are Beginning Femaling, Fantasying Femaling, Doing Femaling, Constituting Femaling and Consolidating Femaling.
Beginning Femaling
Ekins points out that during the initial stage the ‘male femaler’ involves in cross-dressing. This stage is identified as the ‘primary deviance’. Deirdre who happened to cross dress at the age of 11 felt a kind of pleasure in wearing women’s clothes. His parents did not consider it seriously as they thought it was a part of that age.
Doing Femaling
Ekins points out that, at this stage, the male femaler would fantasise about femaling. The fantasies would relate with ‘real’ life instances. The constant dream which Deirdre had was “Could I become a woman?” (Deirdre 9). In the doing femaling stage, the individual starts to live as a woman and starts to accumulate clothing for her.
Consolidating Femaling
It is in this stage the male femaler is fully established as a female. The individual gets a frame work to develop his femaling self and world, and he can be as a female in his normal life. Deirdre, at this stage, shook his fear and came out to willingly claim that he is a ‘transexual’. A complete transformation occurs where the male female does all that which would help to identify him as a female.
Thus Ekins’s ‘career path theory’ has been a great source to analyze the various stages which Deirdre has to cross in order to come out and successfully transform into a transgender. This theory definitely can be used by anyone who has to work on gender deviants. This stands as a support to the transgenders for it both syncs and asserts that this change which happens within an individual is very natural.
Works Cited
- Ekins, Richard & Dave King (Ed.,) Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex-Changing. London & New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
- McCloskey, Deirdre N. Crossing: A Memoir. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print.