Agnes is the pseudonym given to a
transgender woman
A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...
who participated in
Harold Garfinkel
Harold Garfinkel (October 29, 1917 – April 21, 2011) was an American sociologist and ethnomethodologist, who taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. Having developed and established ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociolog ...
's research in the early 1960s, making her the first subject of an in-depth discussion of
transgender
A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth.
The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
identity in sociology. She is the subject of a 2018
documentary short
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill Ni ...
and a 2022
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
, both titled ''
Framing Agnes
''Framing Agnes'' is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Chase Joynt. An examination of transgender histories, the film centres on Joynt and a cast of transgender actors reenacting various case studies from Harold Garfinkel's work with ...
''.
Early life
Agnes was born in 1939 and
assigned male at birth
Sex assignment (also known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex, typically made at birth based on an examination of the baby's external genitalia by a healthcare provider such as a midwife, nurse, or physician. In the v ...
. She was the youngest of four children. Her mother worked in an aircraft plant; her machinist father died when she was eight. Agnes was raised Catholic, but stopped believing in God when she was older. From the age of twelve, she took her mother's post-
hysterectomy
Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and cervix. Supracervical hysterectomy refers to removal of the uterus while the cervix is spared. These procedures may also involve removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy), fallopian tubes ( salpi ...
estrogen pills and feminized her body.
In 1958 she was working as a typist for an insurance company, and had a boyfriend. She resisted his desire for intercourse and marriage, leading to a series of quarrels before she disclosed her details to him. Their relationship continued.
Appearance
When Garfinkel first met Agnes, she possessed
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
typically associated with the social categories of "male" and "female" at the same time. She had a penis and testicles as well as
secondary female characteristics such as breasts. Garfinkel stated:
References
Further reading
*Schilt, Kristen (2016). "The Importance of Being Agnes". ''Symbolic Interaction''. 39 (2): 287–294.
ISSN
An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit to uniquely identify a periodical publication (periodical), such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...
0195-6086.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes
1939 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Transgender women
Malingering