Marta Meana is a Spanish-American psychologist and anti-transgender activist deeply involved in publishing and promoting disease models of gender identity and expression, with a focus on sexualized taxonomies of transgender people like “autogynephilia.”
Background
Meana was born in Madrid, Spain on December 1, 1957. Meana attended McGill University, earning a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree before earning a doctorate in 1996, writing a dissertation on dyspareunia. Meana had a post-doctoral research fellowship in women’s health at the University of Toronto.
Meana joined the psychology department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1997. From 2018 to 2020, Meana was interim President of UNLV. Meana retired in 2024.
Comments on Dreger (2008)
In 2008, Meana wrote a peer commentary in response to Alice Dreger’s attacks on trans activists in Archives of Sexual Behavior:
After years of following the developments surrounding the publication of TMWWBQ in real time, it was interesting to step back and read Dreger’s comprehensive reconstruction of events. The story that emerges is reminiscent of classical drama. It comes complete with a protagonist (Bailey), antagonists (Conway, James, McCloskey), characters caught in the crossfire (Kyeltika), and a balanced and half-detached chorus (Dreger) explaining to the audience (the rest of us) the lessons to be learned from the melee. Mercifully, this drama did not end up a tragedy, but it shares significant qualities with the latter. It features a well-meaning, though necessarily flawed, protagonist with the requisite amount of hubris and a group of antagonists whose sordid means nullify any possible empathy the audience may have had with their perceived injury. The chorus seems open-minded and fair, although perhaps a little naïve in her belief in the healing power of her narrative.
Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies (2013)
Meana was editor of Anne Lawrence‘s book on “autogynephilia” titled Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies.
References
Staff report (September 23, 2024). Join Us to Celebrate the Retirement of Marta Meana. https://www.unlv.edu/news/unlvtoday/join-us-celebrate-retirement-marta-meana
UNLV Media Relations (June 4, 2018). Regents Name Marta Meana Acting UNLV President. https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/regents-name-marta-meana-acting-unlv-president
Meana, Marta (2013). Gender Identity Diagnoses: History and Controversies. In Gender Dysphoria and Disorders of Sex Development (pp.137-150). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7441-8_7
Meana, Marta (2008). The Drama of Sex, Identity, and the “Queen.” Archives of Sexual Behavior https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9324-2
Resources
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (unlv.edu)
- Marta Meana
- unlv.edu/people/marta-meana