The Problem with Passing

I find the term, “passing” quite divisive. And I’m not talking about the kind of passing that happens when you take a test in school, or when a motorcycle splits the lane on the freeway and speeds past you in your fuel efficient vehicle, or when you awkwardly make eye contact with a passing pedestrian on the street who looks vaguely familiar only to turn out being a lost Tinder match from months ago. No, what I’m talking about is a term mostly used within, but not limited to, the trans community. When a transgender individual is able to go about their day being read and interpreted by others as the gender that they have chosen to embody, then they are considered “passing.” However, I mention it can be used outside of LGBTQ community because it can apply to race as well. In a similar way, some individuals of mixed racial background are able to pass as one race more than another. But I’m here to talk about how passing is NOT a term of empowerment. It is NOT a sign of liberation. Rather, it is a submission to the gender and racial norms that society has used to not only define and confine categories, but also suppress the acknowledgement of minorities that are subject to the very term.

If you have ever read the novel, Their Dogs Came with Them, by Helena Viramontes, you may know that there is a scene that conveniently sets up the debate and complexities behind this notion of passing. I recently read this book in my 20th Century American Literature class for my Master’s program and realized that there is a gaping hole regarding gender in this novel, ripe for discussion. To quickly recap, there is a character named Turtle whose gender identity is never specified. However, we are told that they were born with female body parts, but is usually recognized as male by other characters in the novel. After Turtle dies (sorry spoiler), one character that met Turtle prior to their death, reads in the newspaper that a young girl was killed. He goes out of his way to tell the newspaper that they made a mistake and it was actually a young boy. My professor found this scene empowering because he read Turtle as a transgender man, meaning the character who went to correct the newspaper was actually accepting and confirming of Turtle’s identity. In my professor’s eyes, Turtle successfully passed as a man. I would like to reveal the harmfulness behind this way of thinking.

I seem to have written quite a set up for an actually pretty simple idea. By applying the theories of the almighty Foucault, it would appear that passing as a certain gender only recognizes and points toward the power that has suppressed the categories that are outside of socially accepted norms. I must admit, the hairless French post-modernist is on to something. If the gender binary is the socially accepted norm that controls and institutionalizes gender, how can successfully being perceived as part of the binary that does not make room for non-dominant forms of gender be empowering? The term passing lies in a place where it can only be used in conjunction with the norm. If there was no norm there would be no need for the term to exist. By referencing the gender binary’s power via the definition and use of the term, we are only fueling and confirming the binary’s dominance within society. While passing may seem to be a way to kind of dupe the system, we need to remember the ways in which discourse and language hold underlying meanings and political influence. In attempt to identify oneself against the norm, one is only reaffirming its power. Instead of viewing passing as an act of defiance and justice to the trans community, we must recognize that is also restricting because of how one has still identified themselves within the dominant system.