Doctor, am I an Anglophone trapped

in a Francophone body?
An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time in
Ableist, Cisnormative, Anglonormative Societies
Alexandre Baril
University of Ottawa
An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

From a queer, transactivist, intersectional perspective, and adopting a critical genealogy

methodology, the article extends the concept of crip time to trans people and linguistic
minorities. The article suggests a neologism, trans-crip-t time, that captures a triple
temporality experienced by (1) disabled people (crip time); (2) trans people (trans-crip
time); and (3) minority Francophones and non-Anglophones (transcript/translation
time). The article aims to stimulate dialogue between these marginalized groups and their
associated social movements and fields of study.

Doctor, am I an Anglophone trapped in a Francophone body?

Since beginning my sex/gender transition, people have asked me if I felt

trapped in the wrong body. Given my complex, critical relationship with
this conception of transness and to avoid lengthy explanations or making
generally well-meaning people uncomfortable, I have often joked that, as a
Francophone working in majority-Anglophone fields of study like trans and
disability studies, I feel more like an Anglophone trapped in a Francophone
body than a man trapped in a womans body. Although this rejoinder always
goes over well, it nonetheless carries troubling implications for both trans
and language issues. Asking, Doctor, am I an Anglophone trapped in a
Francophone body? interrogates the dominant trope through which trans
identities have recently been conceptualized by medicine, psychiatry, the
general population, and trans people themselves. This formulation calls into
question the role of medical authorities in establishing diagnoseswhether
mental disorders like gender dysphoria or physical disabilitieswhile also
questioning the academic authority of PhDs in fields of ethnic and linguistic
identities. Although numerous authors in trans studies (e.g. Bettcher; Spade,
Resisting; Halberstam, Female, 14373) have criticized the wrong body
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 10.2 (2016)
ISSN 1757-6458 (print) 1757-6466 (online)

Liverpool University Press

doi:10.3828/jlcds.2016.14

156 Alexandre Baril

discourse, others, like Eva Hayward, have sought to resignify it and highlight
possibilities created by theorizing entrapment:
First, for transsexuals, rather than emphasizing the element of wrong-bodiness
in the now familiar trope, trapped in the wrong body, what if we highlighted
the question of the trap. Trapped can describe the embodied quality of felt
disembodiment []. But, trap may also refer to being trapped by a cultural
insistence in sexual oppositions and hierarchies [] To be trapped in a wrong body,
then, must also account for these questions of articulation, articulating oneself into
culture and history, but also creating a site, a gap, making room in cultural and
political fabrications. In this way, entrapment is always also about doors, alternative
passageways, surprises, and thresholds. To be trapped in the body, then, is possibility
rather than only confinement [] (244)

Following Hayward, I would like to reflect on the doors opened by conceptualizing trans and linguistic identities from the perspective of entrapment, not
in terms of wrong bodiness, but through their economic, political, social,
and cultural contexts. To do this, I use the concept of crip time developed
in disability studies.1 Crip time refers both to the additional time disabled
people require to perform certain tasks and to a more flexible temporality
that takes different rhythms and abilities into consideration (Kafer 2627). In
other words, crip time is not only descriptive, it also evaluates and critiques
traditional temporality. Much as authors like Halberstam (In a Queer) and
Freeman have done with queer time, crip time can be a way to denounce
traditional notions of heteronormative, ableist temporalities and reconceptualize them through marginalized, subaltern perspectives. I argue that the
interpretation of crip time used in disability studies not only provides
heuristic value as a means to examine the temporal experience of trans people
and linguistic minorities in cisnormative,2 Anglonormative3 contexts, but
can also have positive implications for disability studies. Inspired by Bells
and McRuers problematization of heteronormative and racist assumptions in
disability studies, I believe that theorizing trans and language issues together
through the lens of crip time may be useful in calling out cisnormative
1. For distinctions between disability and crip theories, see Kafer; and McRuers Crip Theory.
2. Cisgender is the opposite of transgender. Baril and Trevenen state that cisnormativity refers
to the oppression experienced by transsexual and transgender people in a society that identifies and
represents cissexual/cisgender people as dominant, normal and superior (391).
3.The concept of Anglonormativity has been little theorized, although the international
dominance of English has often been addressed. Spickard first coined the term in 2007; my own
usage here, inspired by the terms heteronormativity, homonormativity, and cisnormativity, is
meant to signify that English and first-language English speakers represent the norm against which
non-Anglophones are judged and discriminated.

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

157

and Anglonormative assumptions in disability studies that remain largely

unchallenged.
Using a queer, transactivist, intersectional perspective; critical genealogy
methodology; and auto-ethnographic approach based on my experiences as a
transsexual, disabled, Francophone man, I propose to extend the concept of
crip time to trans people and linguistic minorities. I suggest the neologism
trans-crip-t time to capture a triple temporality experienced by (1) disabled
people (crip time); (2) trans people (trans-crip time); and (3) minority
Francophones and non-Anglophones (transcript/translation time). The
explanatory value of this combined concept, trans-crip-t time, is twofold.
First, it offers a way to understand the temporal experiences of disabled, trans,
and non-Anglophone individuals in ableist, cisnormative, Anglonormative
contexts. Second, it is useful in considering multidirectional, interlocking
connections between these dimensions of identity.
The primary goal of this theoretical article is to raise new questions; it
does not offer definitive solutions to the under-theorization of links between
disabled people, trans people, and linguistic minorities. In addition to
stimulating dialogue between these marginalized groups and their associated
social movements and fields of study, I explore the potential of theorizing the
similarities, intersections, and overlaps among various forms of oppression
and identities generally presumed to be distinct. To do this, I first define the
varied uses of crip time in disability studies. In the second and third sections,
I theorize crip time as it applies to trans people and minority Francophones,
respectively, through the concepts of trans-crip and trans-crip-t time. To
conclude, I consider the porous boundaries between the disabled, trans,
and Francophone categories and highlight the contributions of this intersectional analysis for disability studies.
The Temporality of Crip Time: A Brief History

Temporality has always been a key element in theorizing impairment/disability,

even within the medical model of disability (Kafer 25). What interests me
here, however, is how temporality has been addressed from marginalized
perspectives, what some authors have called crip time (McRuer, Disability;
Price). The earliest documented uses of crip time are found in the works of
Irving Kenneth Zola in the late 1980s and Carol Gill and Rhoda Olkin in the
1990s, although the term is neither defined nor widely used at that time. It
was not until the new millennium that crip time enjoyed renewed interest

158 Alexandre Baril

in the works of Robert McRuer, the poetry of Petra Kuppers and, more
recently, online posts by Anne McDonald and books by Margaret Price and
Alison Kafer. Although not yet extensively examined, crip time is generally
interpreted in the three following ways.
First, crip time can refer to the extra time physically or mentally4
disabled people require to perform tasks like washing and feeding themselves,
getting dressed, walking, thinking, reading, speaking, and so on. Whereas the
phenomenological experience of this additional time can be frustrating, many
disabled peoples experience of crip time is made more difficult because their
temporality is disrupted by external conditions dictated by ableist, neoliberal
expectations. As McDonald states,
I have cerebral palsy, I cant walk or talk, I use an alphabet board, and I communicate
at the rate of 450 words an hour compared to your 150 words in a minutetwenty
times as slow. [] I am forced to live in your world, a fast hard one. [] I need to
speed up, or you need to slow down. [] Crip time is pre-programmed, thought
running ahead of communication pre-programmed like crip lives, programmed
with activities we did not choose, overwriting our own lives with other peoples
voices.

Crip time signifies both the subjective and social, political experiences of
impairment/disability in a world poorly adapted for people who move, think,
work, or communicate more slowly than the presumed norm. In this context,
crip time is an imposed temporality. St. Pierre observes that, [f]or the
disabled speaker [] this means that speech will almost inevitably result in a
persistent and pervasive decentering of his temporal structure as he is folded
into uncomfortable rhythms and tempos in an attempt to establish a shared
horizon (60). Crip time therefore refers not only to personal temporality, but
also to a temporality no longer our own; it is imposed by structures, institutions,
and other people. In societies not adapted to a variety of dis/abilities, the
extra time disabled people need is not just the result of their condition, but
of a combination of external factors: specialized transportation arriving late,
problems with equipment or prostheses, and inaccessible architecture, among
others. Kafer writes, Operating on crip time, then, might be not only about a
slower speed of movement but also about ableist barriers over which one has
little to no control (26). In addition to their own temporality, disabled people
experience wasted time as they wait, repeatedly, for personal assistance and
services.
4.For Price, mental disability includes cognitive impairments, learning disabilities, emotional
disabilities like depression, anxiety, etc.

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

159

A second meaning of crip time is the dominant interpretation of this

temporality as wasted time. Our societies ableist, neoliberal, capitalist
standards see disabled time as slow and unproductive (Dalke and Mullaney;
Kafer; McRuer). St. Pierre remarks, Gendered, fat, elderly, and disabled bodies
[] are evaluated temporally, and read as a loss or a waste of time for not
performing within normative parameters (60). In this view, crip time is a
criticism of disabled people who fail to respect ableist temporality. As Kafer
notes, disabled temporality is ultimately made impossible: capitalist, neoliberal
discourse makes no time for disabled people or their futures, unless that future
is a cure (14). While dominant perspectives always see crip time as wasted,
authors in disability studies have theorized the possibilities opened up by
understandings of temporality beyond normalcy.
A third use of crip time concerns flexible temporalities for people with
a variety of dis/abilities applied through a broad reconceptualization and
queering of normal time (Dalke and Mullaney; Price 6263). As Kafer
observes,
Crip time is flex time not just expanded but exploded; it requires reimagining our
notions of what can and should happen in time, or recognizing how expectations of
how long things take are based on very particular minds and bodies. [] Rather
than bend disabled bodies and minds to meet the clock, crip time bends the clock to
meet disabled bodies and minds. (27)

Crip time has become, in Kafers words, an alternative to normal, curative

time (2526) or what I call assimilative time, through which a positive future
for disabled people can be envisioned. I argue that extending the concept of
crip time to the realities of trans people and linguistic minorities offers hope
for these groups as well. This brings me to the central concept of this article,
trans-crip-t time, a neologism that captures crip temporality as experienced
not only by disabled people, but by trans people (trans-crip time) and
non-Anglophones in Anglonormative contexts (transcript/translation time)
as well.5 I argue that the crip time experienced by disabled people applies
in similar ways to trans people and minority Francophones. Before presenting
these similarities, however, I will make two clarifications. First, it is not my
intention to reduce the realities of disabled people, trans people, and linguistic
5. A transcript is a written version of content provided in other mediums (documentaries, presentations, speeches, interviews, data, etc.). Although there are differences between transcription and
translation, each can include the other. The term transcript is meant to encompass elements of
translation. Transcript is used because it includes trans and crip, to which I have added a t
to evoke language issues.

160 Alexandre Baril

minorities to a single homogenous group; it is clear that their realities are

very different. Second, like Kafer, Puar (Disability), and Wendell, and as
I have done previously (Needing), I question the rigidity and discreteness
of these categories and invite the reader to consider their permeability in
order to theorize what Kafer terms the political experience of disablement
in relation to temporality (9). From this perspective, the disabled person
category is distanced from medical and diagnostic definitions and anchored
in self-identification and in a political, affinity-based conception of disability
(Kafer 1213; Linton; McRuer, Crip Theory, 15060). My goal is not to
deconstruct the disabled person category to the point of eliminating it
or rendering it meaningless. Instead, I propose an intersectional reconceptualization of this category that allows for its co-construction with other
dimensions of identity, like gender and language.
Trans-crip Time: Being Trans in a Cisnormative World

Over the last twenty years, transgender studies have not only been institutionalized and intensely diversified, but have also developed alternative knowledge,
as illustrated by key readers published in the last decade (Stryker and Whittle;
Stryker and Aizura). Like many other fields of study dedicated to marginalized
groups, trans studies have taken an intersectional turn and established links
with other identity dimensions such as sexuality, class, and race. I (Needing)
and other authors have begun to question the boundaries separating the trans
and disabled person categories (Clare, Body Shame; Puar, Disability;
Prognosis) by identifying overlaps or conceptualizing transness as a potential
form of disability. Along with Gorton and Levi and Klein, I (Transness)
argue that, like physical and mental disabilities, transness can have a debilitating effect on a persons psychological/emotional state, physiological health
(surgery-related complications), professional activities, social life, sexual
relationships, and experience of discrimination. Trans people also experience
crip time, or trans-crip time. Trans-crip time is the additional time trans
people need before, during, and after transition to learn about medical options,
work extra hours to pay for their transition, recover from surgery, learn
feminine and masculine codes and scripts, and more.6 For example, genital
surgery for trans men, like phalloplasties, often require multiple interventions
over several years and many hours in doctors offices (Baril; Cotten).
6. Bornstein addresses the time spent learning normative sex/gender roles (87).

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

161

Like disabled people, trans people are subject to an imposed temporality

based on dominant structures and norms. Trans-crip time therefore includes
many things: time spent waiting for psychologists to recommend surgical
treatments, obtaining surgery dates, finding health professionals who do not
refuse trans patients, completing the real-life test,7 and setbacks in changing
identity papers. For trans people, trans-crip time means the imposition of
cisnormative temporality, both in our experience of time and the way it is
inscribed in our bodies and social/legal identities. In cisnormative societies,
both disabled and trans people depend on a variety of people and supports
(biotechnological, medical, legal, etc.) that require more time due to systemic
obstacles. Trans people also spend considerable time educating other groups
about the oppression and difficulties they face, coping with emotional issues
caused by micro- and macro-aggression and violence, finding places where
they are welcome, and dealing with negative reactions from family members,
friends, coworkers, and the public. Trans people experience a kind of wasted
time that could be avoided if structures and institutions were better adapted
to their needs.8 In sum, as with disabled people who are forced to waste time
fighting ableist structures, trans people are forced to waste time navigating
cisnormative institutions, rules, policies, and culture.
Authors in queer studies have shown that queer time and the queer futures
of non-heterosexual people are delegitimized, considered wasted, (literally
and figuratively) unproductive, and rendered impossible from a dominant
heteronormative conceptualization of time (Freeman; Halberstam, In a Queer;
McRuer, Crip Theory). Authors in disability studies likewise demonstrate how
this logic creates no future for disabled people in an ableist, assimilationist
world focused on curing disability (Kafer). In this context I argue that trans
time is invalidated and trans futures made impossible within cisnormative
contexts. The lack of a trans future is particularly striking for people with
non-binary genders: not only is a future in their preferred sex/gender identity
rendered null and void, but their very cultural, social, medical, political, and
7. In most national contexts, trans people must perform the real-life test (or real-life experience),
an official process required to obtain approval from doctors, surgeons, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals for hormone replacement therapy and surgeries. The person must
live full-time in their self-identified gender in their personal, social, professional, and public lives.
The length of this test has changed over time and varies by country and health care practitioner.
Controversies surrounding this process are beyond the scope of this article, but it is important to
note that the real-life test has been critiqued as a form of gatekeeping.
8.For example, provincial regulations required me to change my civil identity twice. First, I
changed my given name, then, after surgery, changed my legal sex. I spent over 300 hours making
these changes.

162 Alexandre Baril

legal existence is also invalidated in most national contexts (Bornstein; Spade,

Compliance). Furthermore, trans time is considered lost, expensive, and
unproductive, both in the capitalist, neoliberal sense of the word and in terms
of reproduction. Like disabled people, trans people are often subject to forced
sterilization because obtaining a legal sex change usually requires surgery
that includes removing reproductive organs (Baril, Needing). Cisnormative
institutions and structures therefore render trans people unproductive in
multiple ways. Just as queer and disabled peoples viable futures are limited
to homonormativity (Halberstam, In a Queer; Puar, Terrorist) or a cure,
trans peoples future is limited to cisnormative assimilation that demands a
masculine or feminine gender and normative trajectories following neoliberal,
capitalist scripts of productivity (Irving; Spade). Although the normalization
of trans identities through neoliberal and capitalist systems has not yet been
linked to the notions of trans time and trans future by authors in trans
studies, it is critical to consider the possibilities of applying queer time and
crip time to trans time and to envision trans temporalities not dictated by
cisnormative assumptions.
What would a more flexible trans-crip time look like? In her analysis of
crip time in academic spaces, Price writes,
At a conference, adhering to crip time might mean permitting more than fifteen
minutes between sessions; it might mean recognizing that people will arrive at
various intervals, and designing sessions accordingly; and it might also mean
recognizing that audience members are processing language at various rates and
adjusting the pace of conversation. (62)

Trans-crip time could take many forms. In medicine, refusals and delays
in service based on prejudice or lack of knowledge about trans health issues
could be avoided through training for health professionals. In psychology, the
real-life test and psychiatric recommendations could be made optional rather
than mandatory. Socially, educating the public and encouraging the acceptance
of trans people could diminish their daily burden of educating the people they
encounter. Politically and legally, revised regulations could make it easier to
change names and sex, eliminate forced sterilization, and reduce interminable
wait times, exorbitant fees, and complicated bureaucratic procedures. From
an institutional perspective, this could mean recognizing that a person in
transition, like a disabled person, may need more time to submit papers, write
reports, or perform other tasks. I would add that trans-crip time varies
by circumstance: it is experienced differently according to a persons race,
class, ability, national context, or language, to name only these. For example,

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

163

non-Anglophone trans people invest considerable time navigating Anglophone

environments such as online discussion groups and, because the majority of
surgeons specialized in procedures for trans people are English-speaking,
the medical community. Despite significant development of trans studies in
the Anglophone world, trans issues remain under-theorized in French. A few
exceptions include Bourcier and authors interested in the development of trans
analysis in specific Francophone contexts, like France (Reeser).
Trans-crip-t Time: Being Francophone in an Anglonormative World

French and Francophone studies, fields sometimes combined and sometimes

distinguished by authors who highlight the difference between a field focused
on a single culture (French) and one concerned with the whole of the literature,
artistic productions, and critical knowledge produced by Francophone
cultures, have attracted increasing interest in the current transnational context
(Hargreaves, Forsdick, and Murphy). These fields contribute significantly to
postcolonial studies by theorizing not only French coloniality involving other
Francophones, but also by problematizing the subaltern position experienced
by Francophones in an increasingly Anglicized world. Indeed, over the last
few decades, the global dominance of English has been theorized as linguistic
imperialism (Phillipson). The impact of this imperialism extends beyond the
scope of this article into many areas, including the economic, political, social,
cultural, and academic spheres. While authors like Stam and Shohat address
American exceptionalist Anglo-normativity (80)9 in many disciplines, others
explore the consequences of the linguistic imposition and exceptionalism of
English in diverse contexts, including academic conferences (Ventola, Shalom,
and Thompson). As with all majority identities, the Anglophone identity
remains invisible and under-theorized, particularly by Anglophones. That
the terms Anglo-normativity and Anglonormativity produce only 311 hits
in Google suggests that English dominance has gone unnoticed, even within
social movements and fields of study that regularly employ related terms, like
heteronormativity (373,000 results), homonormativity (49,000 results),
and cisnormativity (13,700 results).10
Although Kimberl Crenshaws early discussions of intersectionality
denounced monolingualism as a significant barrier for many non-Anglophone
9.Many authors who discuss American exceptionalism, including Puar (Terrorist), do not
mention that it is also Anglophone.
10. Google searches performed on March 22, 2015.

164 Alexandre Baril

American womenliterally a matter of life or death in the example of a

woman turned away from a shelter offering services only in Englishit is
clear that her invitation to theorize language has not been included in the
intersectional turn. With the rare exception of authors outside the United
States, English dominance in anti-oppression studies, including disability and
trans studies, has passed virtually unnoticed even in intersectional analyses
(Bourcier; Lutz, Vivar, and Supik 6, 910). One of the only authors in disability
studies to apply an intersectional approach and recognize English dominance
is Ellen Samuels, who seeks to build bridges between immigrants who speak
minority languages and d/Deaf people from a perspective rarely advanced in
disability studies (29).
The links between d/Deaf people and linguistic minorities are often discussed
in disability studies, but always through the linguistic-cultural model of
deafness (Kafer 75). Strongly influenced by the social model of disability,
this model conceptualizes d/Deaf communities as cultural, linguistic, ethnic
communities unrecognized by oralist/audist societies (Lane; Samuels; Wendell
2830). As proposed by Lane, this model excludes the possibility of conceptualizing d/Deafness as a disability. Lanes position not only presents subtle
forms of ableism that should be deconstructed, but is also reductive in terms
of the directional links between ethnic and linguistic minorities and d/Deaf
and disabled communities. Lane affirms that ethnic groups are never considered
disabled. As Kafer notes, Spanish speakers are not considered disabled
simply because they cannot communicate in English without the aid of an
interpreter, and, according to this model, neither should Deaf people, who
rely on interpreters in order to communicate with those who cannot sign, be
considered disabled (75). Inspired by Kafer, who asks, [C]an claiming crip
be a method of imagining multiple futures, positioning crip as a desired and
desirable location regardless of ones own embodiment or mental/psychological processes? (13), I would like to reverse the connections normally
established between ethnic and linguistic minorities and d/Deaf people. What
happens when linguistic oppression is conceptualized as potentially debilitating or a disability? What can be learned by approaching the connections
between linguistic minorities and disabled communities from this perspective?
How might this conceptualization contribute to solidarity between ethnic,
linguistic, and disabled communities, as well as between d/Deaf and disabled
people?
Samuels theorizes migratory linguistic experiences alongside d/Deaf
experiences from a different point of view. In her analysis of multilingual
cultural productions, including Sign Language, Samuels observes,

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time 165

The use of deafness as a symbolic corollary to the challenges faced by Asian North
Americans raises intriguing yet vexing questions about the relationship between
physical dis/ability and language in/ability. The communication difficulties resulting
from deafness and speech impairment are generally perceived as organic defects
requiring medical intervention, while the acquisition of a new language is primarily
understood within the realms of education and acculturation. Yet both of these
areas are structured by expectations of normalcy and cultural intelligibility, and
for Asian North Americans, the distinction between them is often blurred. (2021)

Like Samuels, I employ critical genealogy to explore the analytical, disciplinary,

and political distinctions that have led to the establishment of disabled
people and linguistic minorities as discrete categories, as well as to the
creation of distinct fields of study and social movements. Samuels shows that
linguistic minorities can, in different contexts, be categorized as disabled
because they do not possess sufficient language skills. Eleanor Ty demonstrates
that, like d/Deaf people, linguistic minority immigrants with limited English
skills require trained translators or interpreters or the support of bilingual
family members. Without this support, these people are sometimes unable to
complete immigration forms, perform banking transactions, access services,
find employment, and so on (Ty 4749). This dependence has an impact on
the experience of temporality. As Anne McDonald observes, Ones perception
of time is dependent on ones dependency. Furthermore, minimal English
skills are not the only criteria to consider in analyzing the debilitating effects
of Anglonormativity on linguistic minorities. Basic knowledge of English is
insufficient to avoid the marginalizing and stigmatizing effects of living in a
world built by and for Anglophones; a certain ease, fluidity, rhythm, and accent
are also required. Joshua St. Pierre, who analyzes disabled speakers experience
of crip time, shows that communication codes privilege certain speakers while
placing others at a disadvantage and that language is structured by masculine,
ableist norms. Although St. Pierre does not extend his analysis to linguistic
minorities, his argument applies to Francophones in Anglonormative contexts:
The choreography taken for granted by able-bodied speakers is not simply a
neutral script guiding human communication, but consists of normalized rules
played against disabled bodies who cannot hit the right cues, or speak quickly or
fluidly enough. [] To perform normalized speech one must move according to a
particular rhythm, analogous to dance, as the correct production of speech relies
upon an intricate coordination of breathing, articulation, facial expression, bodily
stance, and gesture. (50)

St. Pierre remarks that, in these contexts, disabled speakers are denied equal
participation in signification (53). I would add that anyone who does not

166 Alexandre Baril

meet dominant language codesremembering that these codes are not only
sexist and ableist but often Anglonormative as wellis delegitimized within
the conversation.11 Minority Francophones who live, work, and interact in
English face, to a lesser or greater degree, similar systemic obstacles based on
their mastery of the English language, which also varies according to many
other factors, including race, class, and so on. For example, socioeconomically
privileged Francophones have the financial resources to take English lessons
as well as more free time or stimulating opportunities (like travel) to learn.
Like disabled and trans people, non-Anglophones in Anglonormative contexts
experience a form of crip time I call transcript/translation time.
As a Francophone researcher interested in issues rarely studied in French
(there are no queer, trans, or disability studies departments and programs in
French-speaking universities), I must conduct, present, and publish my research
in English. The well-known adage publish or perish, whose temporal norms of
neoliberal productivity are problematic for disabled people, has consequences
for non-Anglophone researchers as well. In the current transnational context,
it may be more accurate to say, publish in English or perish (Descarries 564).
Given that publications are evaluated by prestige and impact, and that ranking
is disproportionately attributed to journals in English, non-Anglophones are
pressured to publish in English. One must also find journals to publish in ones
first language. For example, internationally, there are between five and ten
French-language feminist journals, while English-language feminist journals
number around a hundred. Similar proportions exist in disability studies,
and no French-language journals currently exist in queer or trans studies.
This can make it difficult to publish in French in these fields. The pressure
many Francophones feel to publish in English is complicated by literal and
cultural translation issues and the time and financial resources required for
language classes and translation and editing services.12 In many Anglophone,
Francophone, and other national contexts, including Quebec, publications
in languages other than English are less valued and do not receive the same
consideration or legitimacy in tenure-track assessment, even if only because
they may be inaccessible to members of a tenure and promotion committee.
Transcript time is therefore the additional time non-Anglophones need
11. Price lists qualities valued by the academy that rely on able-mindedness, such as rationality,
participation, and independence (5). Demonstrating these qualities in English can be difficult
for non-Anglophones. How can you demonstrate rationality if you have not understood key
arguments? How can you participate when language barriers prevent you from expressing yourself
with ease? How can you appear independent while depending on translators?
12. For an article of this length, translation services can cost between $1,500 and $2,000 CAD.

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

167

to accomplish certain tasks. Concretely, this can mean spending more time
writing and reading in English or searching for information online that exists
almost entirely in English (as is the case for trans surgeries). Transcript time
also means speaking more slowly. Although I am considered bilingual, my first
language is French and I do not express myself as quickly in English. Authors
in disability studies often use conference presentations to illustrate how time
is allotted according to ableist norms indifferent to other temporalities (Price;
St. Pierre 62). English is also the mandatory language of presentation in
many international conferences (Ventola, Shalom, and Thompson). Despite my
bilingualism and many hours spent practicing my English-language presentations, compared to presentations in French, I generally cut 20% to 30% of
my content to meet the time limit. If Anglonormativity can have this impact
on someone like me, who is not only bilingual but also has the socioeconomic
means to take English lessons, imagine the disastrous effect it has on someone
who does not enjoy these same privileges. The additional time experienced by
non-Anglophones is exacerbated by institutions and practices that can render
conditions of life, education, and access to services and culture very difficult.
These obstacles constitute wasted time that could be used for other activities
if accessible translation and interpretation services, and more flexible practices,
existed.13 However, just as society does not recognize the burden ableist norms
and structures impose on disabled people, most Anglophones are unaware of
the burden systemic barriers place on non-Anglophones. Difficulty communicating becomes the linguistic minoritys problemits up to them to adapt to
the majority language.
As already established in the case of disabled and trans people, dominant
perspectives perceive crip time as unproductive, futureless, wasted time.
The only viable future is a cure, a future in which disabilities have been
eliminated and trans people have been integrated into binary-gendered society.
In both cases, an assimilative logic is at work, and I argue that the same logic
affects non-Anglophones in many transnational contexts: they must know
the international language to survive. The only possible future available
to non-Anglophones is one that erases their linguistic difference in favor
of English monolingualism. Inspired by the development of crip time in
disability studies, how might it be possible to develop a flexible transcript
13. For example, during my search for a professorship, I translated not only the syllabi of all the
courses I had taught in French, but my teaching evaluations as well. The opposite is not true:
Anglophone candidates in French-language contexts in North America are not required to translate
these types of documents because it is assumed that Francophones have a working knowledge of
English.

168 Alexandre Baril

time capable of taking the temporal reality of minority non-Anglophones

into account? Perhaps the first step is recognizing that Anglonormativity exists
and that first-language English-speakers possess certain privileges. The next
step would be cultivating an understanding of the temporalities of linguistic,
cultural, social, political, and other forms of translation. To Spivaks call for a
politics of translation, I would add a call for a social ethics of translation
that includes a respectful, accountable, accommodating response to linguistic
minorities in Anglonormative contexts. The futures of diverse linguistic
groups must be made possible and their languages and cultures made visible
and viable within transnational realities. We must think about the implications
of these different temporalities and how to make room for transcript time
and Francophone futurity.
Toward a Politics of Crip Time for Marginalized Groups

To conclude, I would like to consider the implications for intersectional

analysis in disability studies of Clares human maze, and more specifically of
entrapment (to return to Hayward) within this labyrinth:
Gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against
abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race [] everything
finally piling into a single human body. To write about any aspect of identity, any
aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze. (Clare, Exile & Pride, 143)

In order to avoid what Puar calls gestural intersectionality that can perform a
citational practice of alliance without actually doing intersectional research or
analyses, it is imperative to theorize, as Clare, Kafer, and I have done, not only
the points of contact between these identity, conceptual, and political categories
too often seen as distinct, but also their profound porousness and multidirectional connections (Disability 78). From a practical perspective, this means
considering the multiple effects of crossed identities, in this case, of disabled,
trans, and Francophone people. For example, as a person who has difficulty
hearing in noisy environments, my ability to understand what is being said can
be severely limited, even in my first language. Although comprehension in my
second language, English, approaches that of a first-language speaker in quiet
environments, it is greatly reduced in noisy settings. Difficulty understanding
conversation can create considerable stress that extends beyond the actual
event (apprehension before, anxiety during, and recovery afterward) and can
affect psychological well-being and health, particularly for people who have

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time 169

mental disabilities. Mental and other disabilities, for their part, can have an
impact on language skills (increased anxiety can reduce a persons ability to
express themselves in a second language), on the experience of gender identity
(Baril, Transness), and the way others perceive a persons gender (Clare, Exile
& Pride). St. Pierre provides the example of a disabled speaker emasculated by
hegemonic, ableist, heterosexist communication codes; it would be interesting
for future research to examine the impact of disabilities on trans peoples
experience of gender and explore how these experiences are informed by
language issues.
I propose the concept of trans-crip-t time to examine the possibilities
created by a permeable, interconnected conceptualization of disabled, trans,
and linguistic identities, not as analytically and empirically discrete, but as
overlapping categories. The hyphens that link transcript time represent
intersections that invite us to think about the porous temporal experience of
marginalized groups and envision a viable future no longer dictated by ableist,
cisnormative, Anglonormative imperatives. Tools developed in disability
studies, like universal design, which envision the creation of architectural,
educational, communicational, and other environments that are accessible
to broad and diverse populations, have significant heuristic potential as yet
unexplored by trans people and linguistic minorities. It is my hope that the
reflections and questions presented in this article, including the title and its
reference to the experience of entrapment, in terms of gender and linguistic
identity, will create possibilit[ies] rather than only confinement to theorize
trans and linguistic realities from an anti-ableist perspective (Hayward 244).
In demonstrating the potential contribution of this intersectional analysis of
crip time as experienced by trans people and minority Francophones, I also
hope to uncover cisnormative and Anglonormative assumptions in disability
studies.
Works Cited
Baril, Alexandre. Needing to Acquire a Physical Impairment/Disability: (Re)Thinking
the Connections between Trans and Disability Studies through Transability.
Hypatia 30.1 (2015): 3048. Print.
. Transness as Debility: Rethinking Intersections between Trans and Disabled
Embodiments. Feminist Review 111 (2015): 5974. Print.
Baril, Alexandre, and Kathryn Trevenen. Exploring Ableism and Cisnormativity in the
Conceptualization of Identity and Sexuality Disorders. Annual Review of Critical
Psychology 11 (2013): 389416. Print.

170 Alexandre Baril

Bell, Chris. Is Disability Studies Actually White Disability Studies? The Disability
Studies Reader. 1997. Ed. Lennard J.Davis, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2010.
37482. Print.
Bettcher, Talia Mae. Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and
Resistance. Signs 39.2 (2014): 383406. Print.
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. New York:
Routledge, 1995. Print.
Bourcier, Marie-Hlne. Queer Zones 3. Identits, cultures et politiques. Paris: Amsterdam,
2011. Print.
Clare, Eli. Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation. 1999. 2nd ed. New York:
South End P, 2009. Print.
. Body Shame, Body Pride. Lessons from the Disability Rights Movement. The
Transgender Studies Reader 2. Ed. Susan Stryker and Aren Z.Aizura. New York:
Routledge, 2013. 26165. Print.
Cotten, Trystan T., ed. Hung Jury. Testimonies of Genital Surgery by Transsexual Men.
Oakland: Transgress P, 2012. Print.
Crenshaw, Kimberl. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and
Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review 43.6 (1991): 124199. Print.
Dalke, Anne, and Clare Mullaney. On Being Transminded: Disabling Achievement,
Enabling Exchange. Disability Studies Quarterly 34.2 (2014). Web. 16 March 2015.
Descarries, Francine. Language Is Not Neutral: The Construction of Knowledge in the
Social Sciences and Humanities. Signs 39.3 (2014): 56469. Print.
Freeman, Elizabeth. Introduction. Queer Temporalities. GLQ: A Journal of Gay and
Lesbian Studies 13.2/3 (2007): 15976. Print.
Gill, Carol. A Psychological View of Disability Culture. Disability Studies Quarterly 15.4
(1995): 1619. Print.
Gorton, R.Nick. Transgender as Mental Illness: Nosology, Social Justice, and the
Tarnished Golden Mean. The Transgender Studies Reader 2. Ed. Susan Stryker and
Aren Z.Aizura. New York: Routledge, 2013. 64452. Print.
Halberstam, J. Female Masculinity. Durham: Duke UP, 1998. Print.
. In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York
UP, 2005. Print.
Hargreaves, Alec G., Charles Forsdick, and David Murphy, eds. Transnational French
Studies: Postcolonialism and Litterature-monde. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2010.
Print.
Hayward, Eva. Spider City Sex. Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory
20.3 (2010): 22551. Print.
Irving, Dan. Normalized Transgressions: Legitimizing the Transsexual Body as
Productive. Radical History Review 100 (2008): 3859. Print.
Kafer, Alison. Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2013.
Print.
Kuppers, Petra. Crip Time. Disability Studies Quarterly 28.2 (2008). Web. 25 March 2015.
Lane, Harlan. Ethnicity, Ethics, and the Deaf-World. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf
Education 10.3 (2005): 291310. Print.
Levi, Jennifer L., and Bennett H.Klein. Pursuing Protection for Transgender People

An Intersectional Analysis of Trans-crip-t Time

171

through Disability Laws. Transgender Rights. Ed. Paisley Currah, Richard M.Juang,
and Shannon Price Minter. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2006. 7492. Print.
Linton, Simi. Reassigning Meaning. The Disability Studies Reader. Ed. Lennard J.Davis.
3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2010. 23336. Print.
Lutz, Helma, Aaria Teresa Herrera Vivar, and Linda Supik, eds. Framing Intersectionality.
Debates on a Multi-Faceted Concept in Gender Studies. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
Print.
McDonald, Anne. Crip Time. Anne McDonald Centre. Web. 16 March 2015.
McRuer, Robert. Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability. New York: New
York UP, 2006. Print.
. Disability Nationalism in Crip Times. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability
Studies 4.2 (2010): 16378. Print.
Olkin, Rhoda. What Psychotherapists Should Know about Disability. New York: GuilfordP,
1999. Print.
Phillipson, Robert. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992. Print.
Price, Margaret. Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life.
Michigan: Michigan UP, 2011. Print.
Puar, Jasbir K. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham: Duke
UP, 2007. Print.
. Prognosis Time: Towards a Geopolitics of Affect, Debility and Capacity. Women &
Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 19.2 (2009): 16172. Print.
. Disability. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1/2 (2014): 7781. Print.
Reeser, Todd W., ed. Special Issue: Transgender France. LEsprit Crateur 53.1 (2013).
Print.
Samuels, Ellen. Speaking as a Deaf Person Would: Translating Unperformability in
Betty Quans Mother Tongue. Amerasia Journal 39.1 (2013): 1932. Print.
Spade, Dean. Resisting Medecine, Re/Modeling Gender. Berkeley Womens Law Journal
18 (2003): 1537. Print.
. Compliance Is Gendered: Struggling for Gender Self-Determination in a Hostile
Economy. Transgender Rights. Ed. Paisley Currah, Richard M.Juang, and Shannon
Price Minter. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2006. 21741. Print.
Spickard, Paul. Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American
History. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. The Politics of Translation. Outside in the Teaching
Machine. New York: Routledge, 1993. 179200. Print.
Stam, Robert, and Ella Shohat. Race in Translation: Culture Wars around the Postcolonial
Atlantic. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print.
St. Pierre, Joshua. Distending Straight-Masculine Time: A Phenomenology of the
Disabled Speaking Body. Hypatia 30.1 (2015): 4965. Print.
Stryker, Susan, and Aren Z.Aizura, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader 2. New York:
Routledge, 2013. Print.
Stryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York:
Routledge, 2006. Print.
Ty, Eleanor Rose. Unfastened: Globality and Asian North American Narratives.
Minneapolis, Minnesota UP, 2010. Print.

172 Alexandre Baril

Ventola, Eija, Celia Shalom, and Susan Thompson, eds. The Language of Conferencing.
Frankfurt/NewYork/Oxford: Peter Lang, 2002. Print.
Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New
York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Zola, Irving Kenneth. The Language of Disability: Problems of Politics and Practice.
Australian Disability Review (1988). Web. 25 March 2015.