Transgender Identities : Within and beyond the constraints of heteronormativity

Angie Fee argues that there are gaps in the training of counsellors/therapists that leave important issues of sexuality and gender mainly unexplored. The binary categorisation of sexuality into homo and hetero, and gender into man and woman has simplified reduced complex phenomena. She believes that sexuality and gender cannot be summed up by using pathological and biological models alone and more attention needs to be paid to the influence of culture and society. She argues that the cultural is often invisible, so not yet thinkable about in terms of how it influences our own belief system. Angie's work goes beyond calling for tolerance and acceptance and calls for an examination of the influence of heterosexual ideology. Heterosexuality is continually produced and reproduced in social practice and psychological therapies without any exploring into how the concept of heterosexuality came to be constructed. Her interest is in challenging therapy trainings to address the role heterosexuality has in their theories which will then enable a more flexible space for thinking about desires outwith a heteronomative paradigm.