This book focuses on the stories of eighteen transgender survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and how their accounts challenge conventional understandings of this form of abuse. By examining the contexts in which abuse occurs, the book anchors transgender experiences with IPV within a largely trans-antagonistic culture. The dynamics of abuse, as told by survivors, are largely informed by an existing transphobic and genderist society. The prevalent themes in the accounts describe how transphobic and genderist attacks manifested as distinct patterns of abuse. When reflecting and making s ... More

This book focuses on the stories of eighteen transgender survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and how their accounts challenge conventional understandings of this form of abuse. By examining the contexts in which abuse occurs, the book anchors transgender experiences with IPV within a largely trans-antagonistic culture. The dynamics of abuse, as told by survivors, are largely informed by an existing transphobic and genderist society. The prevalent themes in the accounts describe how transphobic and genderist attacks manifested as distinct patterns of abuse. When reflecting and making sense of their reality, survivors saw many of their experiences with abuse as attempts by abusers to control their gender transition and define them on the abusers’ own terms. The book discusses a prominent dynamic of the abuse as controlling transition, in which victims felt that abusers wanted to regulate their identities. This control occurs through two generic strategies: (1) discrediting identity work, redefining the situation to focus on participant-defined insecurities, a form of altercasting; and (2) targeting sign vehicles, including regulating gender transition treatments and controlling through props. Finally, survivors described what is referred to as walking the gender tightrope in which respondents used gendered language in the processing of their victim identity. Additionally, they discussed various help-seeking strategies and how they navigated genderist boundariesand barriers to these resources. The book works toward characterizing the distinct experiences of transgender survivors of IPV while also identifying differences across the intersections of race, class, and gender identities.