Trans/Virtual: The Anxieties of Transsexual and Electronic Embodiments

Abstract

The transsexual body, modified with medical technology, enters the realm of the unreal as it destabilizes notions of binary sex and gender. It can be, for many anxious viewers of it, a body in opposition to nature. Anxieties about the real versus the virtual also arise in relation to cyberspace. This paper, originally written as an oral PowerPoint presentation, explores the places where transgender physicality, cyberspace, and anxiety intersect, discussing the ways in which clinicians and clients can use virtual reality to expand beyond traditional notions of body and self, real and unreal.

KEYWORDS:

• transsexual
• transgender
• avatar
• cyberspace
• virtual reality
• Second Life