Susan Matthews is an educator and anti-transgender activist. Matthews is a self-described “gender critical academic and parent.”
Background
Susan Marcia Matthews grew up in London and went to St Paul’s Girls’ School. Matthews then attended St Anne’s College, Oxford, later earning a doctorate at Oxford in 1996.
Matthews was named an honorary research fellow at the University of Roehampton in 1989. Matthews has published on the histories of sex, sexuality and gender. Matthews’ research interests include children’s literature and narrative theory.
Anti-trans activism
Matthews took an interest in twentieth-century gender transition narratives and 21st-century gender workbooks and literature for young audiences.
In October 2019, Matthews participated in a meeting by anti-trans group FiLiA titled “From Born in Your Own Body to the Invention of the Transgender Child.” Panelists were Matthews, ex-trans activist Charlie Evans of Detransition Advocacy Network, and anti-trans philosopher Heather Brunskell-Evans.
Matthews contributed chapters to two anti-trans books by Michele Moore and Heather Brunskell-Evans:
- The Body Factory: Twentieth Century Stories of Sex Change (2018)
- Gender Guides and Workbooks: Understanding the Work of a New Disciplinary Genre (2019)
- Queering the Curriculum: Creating Gendered Subjectivity in Resources for Schools. (2019)
Matthews contributed a chapter titled “The Children Who Wouldn’t Grow Up: Gender in children’s literature over fifty years” to the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader.
References
Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina [Eds.] (2023). Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781032261195
Stephanie Davies-Arai and Susan Matthews (2019). Queering the Curriculum: Creating Gendered Subjectivity in Resources for Schools. In Michele Moore and Heather Brunskell-Evans [Eds.]. Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Cambridge Scholars, ISBN 978-1527536388
Matthews, Susan (2019). Gender Guides and Workbooks: Understanding the Work of a New Disciplinary Genre. In Michele Moore and Heather Brunskell-Evans [Eds.]. Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Cambridge Scholars, ISBN 978-1527536388
Staff report (6 Sep 2019). Trans books for children ‘misleading’ and ‘irresponsible.’ The Christian Institute https://www.christian.org.uk/news/trans-books-for-children-misleading-and-irresponsible/
Michele Moore and Heather Brunskell-Evans [Eds.] (2019). Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, ISBN 978-1527536388
Matthews, Susan; Biggs, Michael (2019). A Disappearing Man. Oxford Magazine https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/Oxford%20Magazine%208th%20week%2C%20Hilary%20term%202019%20-%20No%20406.pdf
Matthews, Susan (2019). Susan Matthews: Curriculum Vitae. https://roehampton.academia.edu/SusanMatthews/CurriculumVitae
Matthews, Susan (Sep 13, 2019). An Academic Conference in the Age of Gender. Medium https://medium.com/@susanmatthews28/an-academic-conference-in-the-age-of-gender-a00a4c656d56
[uncredited] (Oct 27th 2018). Transgender politics focuses on who determines someone’s gender. The Economist https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/10/27/transgender-politics-focuses-on-who-determines-someones-gender
Matthews, Susan (2018). The Body Factory: Twentieth Century Stories of Sex Change. Heather Brunskell Evans and Michele Moore [Eds.].Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body, pp. 123-138. Cambridge Scholars, ISBN 978-1527503984
Media
FiLiA (October 2019). 67 From Born in Your Own Body to the Invention of the Transgender Child – FiLiA Conference 2019. https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2020/4/5/from-born-in-your-own-body-to-the-invention-of-the-transgender-child-filia-conference-2019
Resources
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Medium (medium.com)