Agnes (case study)

Agnes is the pseudonym given to a transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel's research in the early 1960s, making her the first subject of an in-depth discussion of transgender identity in sociology.^[1] She is the subject of a 2018 documentary short and a 2022 documentary, both titled Framing Agnes.^[2]^[3]

Early life[edit]

Agnes was born in 1939 and assigned male at birth. 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.^[4] From the age of twelve, she took her mother's post-hysterectomy estrogen pills and feminized her body.^[5] At seventeen, she began dressing and acting in a feminine manner.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[6]

Appearance[edit]

When Garfinkel first met Agnes, she possessed physiology 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:

Agnes' appearance was convincingly female. She was tall, slim, with a very female shape. Her measurements were 38-25-38. She had long, fine dark-blonde hair, a young face with pretty features, a peaches-and-cream complexion, no facial hair, subtly plucked eyebrows, and no makeup except for lipstick. At the time of her first appearance she was dressed in a tight sweater which marked off her thin shoulders, ample breasts, and narrow waist. Her feet and hands, though somewhat larger than usual for a woman, were in no way remarkable in this respect. Her usual manner of dress did not distinguish her from a typical girl of her age and class. There was nothing garish or exhibitionistic in her attire, nor was there any hint of poor taste or that she was ill at ease in her clothing, as is seen so frequently in transvestites and in women with disturbances in sexual identification. Her voice, pitched at an alto level, was soft, and her delivery had the occasional lisp similar to that affected by feminine-appearing male homosexuals. Her manner was appropriately feminine with a slight awkwardness that is typical of middle adolescence.
— Harold Garfinkel, "Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an Intersex Person" (1967)^[7]

Medical history[edit]

Agnes was found to have XY chromosomes, and neither a uterus nor the hypothesized tumor that might produce estrogen. She was referred to Dr. Robert Stoller, and was interviewed by him; Dr. Alexander Rosen, a psychologist; and Harold Garfinkel, a sociologist interested in the way sex works in society. Agnes was taken to be an example of testicular feminization syndrome. She refused to meet or be classified with any other transgender people or homosexuals. She was recommended for surgery as an intersex patient, at a time when such surgery was regularly denied to transgender people. Surgery was done in 1959 by a team of doctors including Elmer Belt. Stoller presented his findings at the 1963 International Psychoanalytic Congress in Stockholm; Garfinkel included an extensive chapter on Agnes in his pioneering 1967 book on ethnomethodology. Post-operative infection and partial closure of her neovagina, weight loss that led to a reduction in breast size, and unpredictable mood changes led to problems with her boyfriend. In 1966 Agnes confessed to Stoller that she had indeed taken external estrogens, causing Stoller to doubt his own theories. He retracted his earlier findings at the 1968 International Psychoanalytic Congress in Copenhagen.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

^ Connell, Raewyn (February 2009). "Accountable Conduct: "Doing Gender" in Transsexual and Political Retrospect". Gender & Society. 23 (1): 104–111. doi:10.1177/0891243208327175. S2CID 144915358.
^ Goldberg, RL (April 26, 2019). "Reframing Agnes". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
^ Sharp, Morgan (January 31, 2022). "Toronto filmmaker Chase Joynt on framing Agnes". Toronto Star.
^ Garfinkel, Harold (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 119.
^ Susan Stryker; Stephen Whittle (2013). The Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 9780415636957. she revealed that she had never had a biological defect that had feminised her but that she had been taking estrogens since age 12
^ Garfinkel, Harold (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 120-121.
^ Garfinkel, Harold (1967). "Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an Intersex Person, Part 1". In Stryker, Susan; Whittle, Stephen (eds.). The Transgender Studies Reader. Vol. 1. New York & London: Taylor & Francis (published 2006). p. 60. ISBN 978-0415947091.

Early life[edit]

Appearance[edit]

Medical history[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]