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Poignant stories from lived experiences
Eating Disorders in Trans and Gender Diverse Communities
Eating disorders affect millions of people worldwide, and are especially prevalent in trans and gender diverse communities. For trans and gender diverse individuals, struggles with eating disorders can be intimately intertwined with identity, body dysphoria and societal pressures to conform to certain gender standards.
My experience with gender dysphoria is closely connected to my eating disorder. Grappling with both male and female body standards is an interesting, complex experience. I felt excluded from the majority of eating disorder programs, as they mainly catered to cisgender women. I remember being offered a bed in an inpatient residence program and realizing that they did not know which room to put me in because all the other patients were cisgender women. This, to me, demonstrated how care providers fail to think about diverse identities and experiences, as they never imagined a person who is not a cisgender woman would need the program.
Eating disorders (especially anorexia) are strongly associated with skinny cisgender white women. While it should be recognized that women are more at risk for eating disorders because of our fatphobic, sexist societal body standards, it should also be noted that eating disorder experiences extend beyond just one identity. This not only excludes trans people and men, but also the experiences of people in larger bodies.
Less than 6% of people with eating disorders are clinically underweight, despite what the media portrays. In my opinion, this is the most harmful stereotype, because it promotes the idea that people’s eating disorder experiences are not valid unless they are clinically underweight based on the criteria of the BMI index, which is an outdated and incorrect measurement of health. People in larger bodies are more likely to be dismissed by healthcare professionals.
In my experience, I was very self-conscious about being trans masculine and not clinically underweight. I eventually became clinically underweight out of persistent desire to fit the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, so (I felt) my experience would be considered valid. I would be sick enough. I later found out that the desire to be sick enough is very, very common with eating disorders. The thing is, everyone who struggles with disordered eating is sick enough, and everyone deserves recovery. Medical professionals need training and education about how eating disorders present. They must understand that it is not always super skinny white teenaged girls who are struggling. Eating disorders don’t discriminate, and anyone can struggle, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, or body size.
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What is Crip Theory?
Crip Theory originated in the interdisciplinary academic fields of Queer Theory and Disability Studies. Both fields explore similar themes, like the binary between what is deemed “normal” or “abnormal” in society. Disability Studies explores how ableism emerges within different representations of disability (such as in invalidating or offensive media portrayals).
Crip Theory is a particular branch of Disability Studies. Crip Theory is very connected to Queer Theory in that both disciplines reclaim historically derogatory language and are generally defined by pride and defiance.
Crip Theory delves into the nuances of disability and identity (similar again to queer theory). It affirms disabled people’s lived experiences, recognizing that disabled people have a lot of unique knowledge (for example, about oppression, access, and the body). At the same time, it also criticizes how some disabled identities become spotlighted and representative of all disabled people (like white, cis, physically disabled people). Crip Theory aims to challenge narrow, exclusionary definitions of disability, and focuses on the intersections of disability, gender, class, race, and sexuality. It also examines capitalism and neoliberalism’s strong connection to various forms of oppression.
Crip Theory provides a unique lens to look at things through. “Cripping” is a term used to describe a way of looking at something through a disability lens, considering how people have been marginalized or pathologized because of disability. This is similar to Queer Theory’s popular term “queering” which is used to describe a way of looking at something through a queer lens!
If you’re looking for a more detailed explanation of Crip Theory, check out the following articles:
McRuer, R., & Cassabaum, E. (2021). Crip Theory. Literary and Critical Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0109
Mery Karlsson, M., & Rydström, J. (2023). Crip Theory: A Useful Tool for Social Analysis. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 31(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2179108
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Understanding Intimate Partner Violence: Support & Resources.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is any form of harm that is perpetuated within an intimate relationship. Anyone can experience IPV, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity. There are many forms of abuse (see this PDF from www.neighboursfriendsandfamilies.ca):
Physical abuse behaviours (including any action that causes physical harm).
Psychological abuse behaviours (insults, degrading, threatening, gaslighting).
Controlling abuse behaviours (tracking whereabouts or internet activity, isolating their partner from friends or family, controlling access to money or employment).
Sexual abuse behaviours (any non consensual sexual contact).
Stalking abuse behaviours (tracking whereabouts, constant texts or calls, showing up uninvited).
Financial abuse behaviours (controlling employment and/or finances, monitoring and controlling expenses).
Legal abuse behaviours (providing misinformation about the justice system, threatening to make false legal allegations, threatening to use the court system to “take away” their children, threatening their immigration status).
Cyber or technology-facilitated abuse behaviours (stalking online, threatening to spread intimate photos, hacking private accounts, harassing through social media, preventing someone from having technology access).
Who is most at risk?
Women and gender diverse folks are most at risk for experiencing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Indigenous women are 5-7 times more likely to be killed by an abusive partner or ex partner (Warning Signs, n.d.). Immigrant women, women with disabilities, transgender people, and women living in rural areas are also at a high risk (Warning Signs, n.d.).
Why might someone not just leave and get help?
There are many reasons why someone might stay in an abusive relationship. They might be financially dependent. They might be stuck in the cycle of abuse, where after every instance of abuse, the abuser becomes extra kind to try and make up for it. The abuser might be manipulating them and lowering their self-esteem, causing them to feel that they have no other option than to stay. They might still love their abuser. Their abuser might be holding immigration status over their head. It can also be extremely dangerous, even lethal, to leave an abusive relationship, as it might provoke escalating violence from the abuser.
How can I help someone in an abusive relationship?
Tell them that you believe them and you are concerned for their safety
If they are planning to leave, encourage them not to confront their partner, to leave quickly and have an escort/witness (for their safety).
Offer to provide childcare or other reasonable assistance while they seek help.
Offer your home or find another safe haven, if possible.
Encourage them to pack a small bag with important items and keep it stored at your home or a women’s shelter.
Refer the survivor to local services, shelters, and helplines.
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The Principles of Disability Justice
Disability justice is a liberatory framework and a new way to imagine disability. The following principles are summarized from the organization Sins Invalid. Sins Invalid is a disability justice performance project movement led by disabled BIPOC and queer people.
Intersectionality:
Intersectionality, a concept popularized by Kimberlé Crenshaw, recognizes that individuals experience multiple forms of oppression and privilege simultaneously. It explores how we might experience aspects of privilege in one facet of our identity, while also experiencing oppression in another.
For example, a white queer disabled person experiences oppression based on their queerness and disability, but they also experience white privilege.
Anti-Capitalism:
Capitalism devalues disabled bodies by measuring worth based on productivity.
Disability justice believes in the inherent value of human beings and acknowledges that our value is not determined by how much we can produce.
Cross-movement solidarity:
Disability justice recognizes the importance of aligning with other social justice movements, such as racial justice, reproductive justice, gender justice, queer and trans justice, prison abolition, environmental justice, and fat liberation among others.
Leadership of those most impacted:
Disability justice centers the voices and leadership of those most affected by systemic oppression, ensuring that policies and actions are informed by the experiences of those most oppressed.
Recognizing wholeness:
Disability justice recognizes that everyone is a unique, complex person full of individual experiences, histories, desires, beliefs, emotions and perceptions.
Sustainability:
This principle focuses on avoiding burnout by promoting slow, transformative liberation.
Cross-disability solidarity:
Disability justice values the insights of every member of the disabled community, recognizing that there is a plethora of people, experiences and perspectives.
Disability justice especially values including those members who are most often left out of conversations.
Disability justice aims to bring together the disability community and break down isolation between people with a vast array of different disabilities.
Interdependence:
Disability justice recognizes its connection to the liberation of the land and all living things.
Collective access:
Disability justice recognizes the importance of access needs.
References
Berne, P., Morales, A. L., Langstaff, D., & Sins Invalid. (2018). Ten Principles of Disability Justice. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 46(1-2), 227–230. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2018.0003
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