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Paisley Currah has written a clear-eyed and provocative book that places Trans Studies and histories of state power in a remarkably revealing dialogue. Sex Is as Sex Does has reshaped my understanding of governmentality, gender identity, and the complex relationship between the modern self and state institutions. It is a remarkable and unfailingly thoughtful book and a true pleasure to read.--Robert O. Self, author of All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s Paisley Currah's Sex is as Sex Does is a fascinating investigation into the work that sex classifications do in structuring politics and policy. The book brilliantly moves away from a simple identification of transphobia as a cause of discriminatory policies. Instead, Currah asks a more nuanced and ultimately more informative set of questions about what we can learn from looking at how, when, and why state institutions collaborate in or thwart sex reclassification. From his answers to these questions, we understand much more about what sex does for state projects, and ultimately why gender pluralism can help to liberate our political imaginations - and our lives.--Julie Novkov, co-author of American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship

Paisley Currah has written a clear-eyed and provocative book that places Trans Studies and histories of state power in a remarkably revealing dialogue. Sex Is as Sex Does has reshaped my understanding of governmentality, gender identity, and the complex relationship between the modern self and state institutions. It is a remarkable and unfailingly thoughtful book and a true pleasure to read.-- Robert O. Self, author of All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s

Finally, a work that up-ends current debates pinning transgender existence on competing definitions of sex and gender! Through trenchant and always engaging analysis of key policy-saturated sites such as marriage, carceral systems, and identity documents, Currah centers not what sex is but instead, what sex does for state and community interests. Zeroing in on the contradictions and inconsistencies of sex classification and reclassification policies, he illuminates sex as a powerful and mobile technology of governance, simultaneously shedding new light on contemporary investments in how transgender is understood.--Finn Enke, author of Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism Hands down, the best book on the history and function of sex classifications--and the injustices that they produce--that has ever been written.--Sonia K. Katyal, co-author of Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership In this astute, powerful, and long-awaited work, Paisley Currah shows how sex-classification functions as a malleable instrument of governmentality, achieving different ends in different contexts. In doing so, he highlights the debt contemporary transgender activism owes to feminist efforts to overturn sex-classification as a means to deny rights to women. This is an important book for anyone who cares about gender, justice and social transformation.--Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History Beautifully written and argued, Sex Is as Sex Does should be read by anyone who wants to understand why narrow attempts to include marginalized groups in various rights and recognition frameworks will not generate the liberation we so badly want and need. Paisley Currah's work is immensely sophisticated, challenging many widely held assumptions about the relationships between trans people and law, but at the same time argued with such clarity that it is a pleasure to read.--Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next) With scintillating intelligence and expertise, Paisley Currah makes the case that states' designations of 'sex' on birth certificates, drivers' licenses, Social Security cards and so on, today create and stabilize rather than simply register sex classifications-- and should be gone. His book takes the reader on a heady sojourn into trans issues and political theory, always crediting feminism along the way. Sex Is as Sex Does is wonderfully valuable for novice and scholar alike to think with and learn from.--Nancy F. Cott, Jonathan Trumbull Research Professor of American History, Harvard University Paisley Currah has written a clear-eyed and provocative book that places Trans Studies and histories of state power in a remarkably revealing dialogue. Sex Is as Sex Does has reshaped my understanding of governmentality, gender identity, and the complex relationship between the modern self and state institutions. It is a remarkable and unfailingly thoughtful book and a true pleasure to read.--Robert O. Self, author of All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s Paisley Currah's Sex is as Sex Does is a fascinating investigation into the work that sex classifications do in structuring politics and policy. The book brilliantly moves away from a simple identification of transphobia as a cause of discriminatory policies. Instead, Currah asks a more nuanced and ultimately more informative set of questions about what we can learn from looking at how, when, and why state institutions collaborate in or thwart sex reclassification. From his answers to these questions, we understand much more about what sex does for state projects, and ultimately why gender pluralism can help to liberate our political imaginations - and our lives.--Julie Novkov, co-author of American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship

Paisley Currah has written a clear-eyed and provocative book that places Trans Studies and histories of state power in a remarkably revealing dialogue. Sex Is as Sex Does has reshaped my understanding of governmentality, gender identity, and the complex relationship between the modern self and state institutions. It is a remarkable and unfailingly thoughtful book and a true pleasure to read. -- Robert O. Self, author of All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s Paisley Currah's Sex is as Sex Does is a fascinating investigation into the work that sex classifications do in structuring politics and policy. The book brilliantly moves away from a simple identification of transphobia as a cause of discriminatory policies. Instead, Currah asks a more nuanced and ultimately more informative set of questions about what we can learn from looking at how, when, and why state institutions collaborate in or thwart sex reclassification. From his answers to these questions, we understand much more about what sex does for state projects, and ultimately why gender pluralism can help to liberate our political imaginations - and our lives. -- Julie Novkov, co-author of American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship In this astute, powerful, and long-awaited work, Paisley Currah shows how sex-classification functions as a malleable instrument of governmentality, achieving different ends in different contexts. In doing so, he highlights the debt contemporary transgender activism owes to feminist efforts to overturn sex-classification as a means to deny rights to women. This is an important book for anyone who cares about gender, justice and social transformation. -- Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History With scintillating intelligence and expertise, Paisley Currah makes the case that states' designations of 'sex' on birth certificates, drivers' licenses, Social Security cards and so on, today create and stabilize rather than simply register sex classifications- and should be gone. His book takes the reader on a heady sojourn into trans issues and political theory, always crediting feminism along the way. Sex Is as Sex Does is wonderfully valuable for novice and scholar alike to think with and learn from. -- Nancy F. Cott, Jonathan Trumbull Research Professor of American History, Harvard University Hands down, the best book on the history and function of sex classifications-and the injustices that they produce-that has ever been written. -- Sonia K. Katyal, co-author of Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership Finally, a work that up-ends current debates pinning transgender existence on competing definitions of sex and gender! Through trenchant and always engaging analysis of key policy-saturated sites such as marriage, carceral systems, and identity documents, Currah centers not what sex is but instead, what sex does for state and community interests. Zeroing in on the contradictions and inconsistencies of sex classification and reclassification policies, he illuminates sex as a powerful and mobile technology of governance, simultaneously shedding new light on contemporary investments in how transgender is understood. -- Finn Enke, author of Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism Beautifully written and argued, Sex Is as Sex Does should be read by anyone who wants to understand why narrow attempts to include marginalized groups in various rights and recognition frameworks will not generate the liberation we so badly want and need. Paisley Currah's work is immensely sophisticated, challenging many widely held assumptions about the relationships between trans people and law, but at the same time argued with such clarity that it is a pleasure to read. -- Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next)

Author Information

Paisley Currah is Professor of Political Science and Women’s & Gender Studies at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. An award-winning author, he is the founding co-editor of the journal Transgender Studies Quarterly and the co-editor of Transgender Rights and Corpus: An Interdisciplinary Reader on Bodies and Knowledge.

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