Transfeminism

Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies.[1] Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama (involved in the ISNA) in The Transfeminist Manifesto.

A symbol used to represent transfeminism.

Transfeminism describes the concepts of gender nonconformity, notions of masculinity and femininity and the maintaining of sex and gender binary on trans men and women. Transfeminists view gender conformity as a control mechanism of patriarchy, which is maintained via violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals as a basis of patriarchy.[2][3]

Tactics of transfeminism emerged from groups such as The Transexual Menace (name from the Lavender Menace) in the 1990s,[4] in response to exclusion of transgender people in Pride marches. The group organized in direct action, focusing on violence against transgender people, such as the murder and rape of Brandon Teena a trans man. The Transsexual Menace organized protests and sit ins against the medical and mental pathologization of trans people.[5]

Trans people were generally excluded from first wave feminism as were lesbians and people considered "queer." Second wave feminism saw greater level of acceptance amongst some feminists however, however "transsexuality" was heavily excluded, and described as an "illness,"[6] even amongst feminists who supported gay liberation. Third and fourth wave feminism have generally been accepting of transgender people, and see trans liberation as an overall part of women's liberation.[4][7][8]

In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published by Sumach Press. Transfeminism has also been defined more generally as "an approach to feminism that is informed by trans politics."[9][10]

History

Early voices in the movement include Kate Bornstein, author of 1994 Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us,[11] and Sandy Stone, author of essay "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto", which included a direct response to Janice Raymond's writings on transsexuality.[12] In the 21st century, Krista Scott-Dixon[13] and Julia Serano[14][15] have published transfeminist works. Bornstein has also released new works, such as Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation in 2010 with S. Bear Bergman.[16] Susan Stryker and Talia M. Bettcher have also recently released a publication about transfeminism.[17]

Patrick Califia used the word in print in 1997, and this remains the first known use in print outside of a periodical.[18] It is possible or even likely that the term was independently coined repeatedly before the year 2000 (or even before Courvant's first claimed use in 1992). The term gained traction only after 1999. Jessica Xavier, an acquaintance of Courvant, may have independently coined the term when she used it to introduce her articles, "Passing As Stigma Management" and "Passing as Privilege" in late 1999.[19][20]

In the past few decades, the idea that all women share a common experience has come under scrutiny by women of color, lesbians, and working class women, among others. Many transgender people are also questioning what gender means, and are challenging gender as a biological fact. Transfeminists insist that their unique experiences be recognized as part of the feminist sphere.[21]

Transfeminism incorporates all major themes of third wave feminism, including diversity, body image, self-definition, and women's agency. It also includes critical analysis of second wave feminism from the perspective of the third wave.[22] It critiques mainstream notions of masculinity and argues that women deserve equal rights and shares the unifying principle with other feminisms that gender is a patriarchal social construct used to oppress women. The "trans" in transgender has been used to imply transgressiveness.[23] Nicholas Birns categorizes transfeminism as "a feminism that defines the term 'trans-' in a maximally heterogeneous way."[24]

The road to legitimacy for transfeminism as a concept has been different and more vexed than for other feminisms. Marginalized women of trans background and affect have had to prove that their needs are different and that mainstream feminism does not necessarily speak for them.[25] Contrarily, trans women must show their womanhood is equally valid as that of other women, and that feminism can speak for them without ceasing to be feminism. Radical feminist Janice Raymond's resistance to considering trans women as women and as participants in feminism is representative of this obstacle. Her career began with The Transsexual Empire (a book-length analysis of transsexual women) and she has often returned to this theme.[26]

In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published by Sumach Press.[9][27]

At the 2007 Transgender Leadership Summit, Alexis Marie Rivera, spoke about her personal experiences with transfeminism as a young Latina transwoman. She discussed her journey from early transition, where she believed she had to take on the role of housewife, to where she was in the present moment. She asserted that, for her, transfeminism is about taking on feminine gender roles because she wants to, not because she has to. [28]

Compared to other feminisms

Common foundations

Simone de Beauvoir once said that biology does not and must not equal destiny.[29] Feminists have traditionally explored the boundaries of what it means to be a woman.[30] Transfeminists argue that trans people and cisgender feminists confront society's conventional views of sex and gender in similar ways. Transgender liberation theory offers feminism a new vantage point from which to view gender as a social construct, even offering a new meaning of gender.[21]

Transfeminist critics of mainstream feminism say that as an institutionalized movement, feminism has lost sight of the basic idea that biology is not destiny. In fact, they argue, many feminists seem perfectly comfortable equating sex and gender and insisting on a given destiny for trans persons based on nothing more than biology.[31][32] Transfeminism aims to resist and challenge the fixedness of gender that, as many of its supporters believe, traditional approaches to women's studies depend upon.[33]

Transgender people are frequently targets of anti-trans violence.[34][35] While cis women also routinely face violence, transfeminists recognize anti-trans violence as a form of gender policing.[36]

Differences

Transfeminism stands in stark contrast to mainstream second-wave feminism. Transfeminists often criticize the ideas of a universal sisterhood, aligning more with intersectionality and with the mainstream third wave's appreciation for the diversity of women's experience.[37]

According to Julia Serano femininity in transgender women is noticed and punished much more harshly than the same behaviors in cisgender women.[38] This double standard reveals that the behavior itself is not as problematic to many critics as the existence of trans people.[31][39] Julia Serano refers to the breed of misogyny experienced by trans women as 'transmisogyny'.[14]

Citing their common experience, many transfeminists directly challenge the idea that femininity is an entirely social construction. Instead, they view gender as a multifaceted set of diverse intrinsic and social qualities. For example, there are both trans and cis persons who express themselves in ways that differ from society's expectations of feminine and masculine.[37]

Access to feminist spaces

Though little acknowledged, trans people have been part of feminist movements.[40] There have been a number of documented occasions when the trans people portrayed as bad actors were in fact the victims of overreactions by others.[41][42]

Lesbian feminism and transfeminism

In Living a Feminist Life (2017), Sara Ahmed imagines lesbian feminism as a fundamental and necessary alliance with trans feminism. Ahmed argues an anti-trans stance is an anti-feminist stance and one that works against the feminist project of creating worlds to support those for whom gender fatalism (i.e. boys will be boys, girls will be girls) is deleterious.[43]

Radical feminism and transfeminism

Some radical feminists have expressed anti-trans viewpoints. For example, in Gender Hurts (2014), Sheila Jeffreys argued that trans feminism amounted to men exercising their authority in defining what women are.[44]

Some radical feminists are supportive of trans rights. The radical feminist writer and activist Andrea Dworkin, in her book Woman Hating, argued against the persecution and hatred of transgender people and demanded that sex reassignment surgery be provided freely to transgender people by the community. Dworkin argued that "every transsexual has the right to survival on his/her own terms. That means every transsexual is entitled to a sex-change operation, and it should be provided by the community as one of its functions."[45]

Some transgender women have been participants in lesbian feminism and radical feminism. A prominent example is Sandy Stone, a trans lesbian feminist who worked as a sound technician for the lesbian-feminist Olivia Records. In June and July 1977, when twenty-two feminists protested Stone's participation, Olivia Records defended her employment by saying that Stone was a "woman we can related to with comfort and trust" and that she was "perhaps even the Goddess-sent engineering wizard we had so long sought."[46]

Allegations of transphobia in radical feminism

Radical feminist Janice Raymond's 1979 book, The Transsexual Empire, was and still is controversial due to its unequivocal condemnation of transgender surgeries. Raymond says, "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves .... Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive."[47]

In the early 1990s Michigan Womyn's Music Festival ejected a transgender woman, Nancy Burkholder,[48] After that, the festival maintained that it is intended for "womyn-born-womyn" only.[49] The activist group Camp Trans formed to protest the transphobic "womyn-born-womyn" policy and to advocate for greater acceptance of trans people within the feminist community. A number of prominent trans activists and transfeminists were involved in Camp Trans including Riki Wilchins, Jessica Xavier, and Leslie Feinberg.[50][51][52] The festival considered allowing post-operative trans women to attend; however, this was criticized as classist, as many trans women cannot afford genital surgery.[53] Since this incident, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival has updated their community statements page. This page now includes a list of links to letters and statements such as their August 2014 response to Equality Michigan's Call For Boycott and a list of demands in response to the Equality Michigan call to boycott.[54] The initial response to the boycott states that the MWMF believes that "support for womyn-born-female space is not at odds with standing with and for the transgender community".[55]

Kimberly Nixon is a trans woman who volunteered for training as a rape crisis counselor at Vancouver Rape Relief in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. When Nixon's transgender status was determined, she was expelled. The staff decided that Nixon's status made it impossible for her to understand the experiences of their clients, and also required their clients to be genetically female. Nixon disagreed, disclosing her own history of partner abuse and sued for discrimination. Nixon's attorneys argued that there was no basis for the dismissal, citing Diana Courvant's experiences as the first publicly transgender woman to work in a women-only domestic violence shelter. In 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear Nixon's appeal, ending the case.[56][57][58]

Transgender women such as Sandy Stone challenged the mainstream second-wave feminist conception of "biological woman". Stone worked as a sound engineer for Olivia Records from about 1974 to 1978, resigning as the controversy over a trans woman working for a lesbian-identified enterprise increased.[59] The debate continued in Raymond's book,[26] which devoted a chapter to criticism of "the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist." Groups like Lesbian Organization of Toronto instituted "womyn-born womyn only" policies. A formal request to join the L.O.O.T. was made by a male-to-female transgender lesbian in 1978. In response, the organization voted to exclude trans women. During informal discussion, members of L.O.O.T expressed their outrage that in their view a "sex-change he-creature...dared to identify himself as a woman and a lesbian." In their public response, L.O.O.T. wrote:

A woman's voice was almost never heard as a woman's voice - it was always filtered through men's voices. So here a guy comes along saying, "I'm going to be a girl now and speak for girls." And we thought, "No you're not." A person cannot just joined the oppressed by fiat.[60]

Issues within transfeminism

Inclusion in mainstream feminism

According to Graham Mayeda, women who identify as right-wing feel that issues of equality and female importance becomes less significant when the biology of trans people, specifically, male-to-female trans people, is mentioned.[61] He noted that these feminists feel that the biological nature of trans-females confuse "women only" boundaries and could contradict or disrupt feminist goals of establishing a voice in a patriarchal world.[61]

Groups such as the Lesbian Avengers accept trans women, while others reject them. The Violence Against Women Act now "explicitly protects transgender and lesbian, gay, and bisexual survivors", such that domestic violence centers, rape crisis centers, support groups, and other VAWA-funded services cannot turn away any person due to their sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation.[62]

Gender dysphoria

Gender dysphoria describes the condition of people who experience significant dysphoria with the sex assignment that they were given at birth, or the gender roles associated with that sex. The term "gender identity disorder" (GID) is also frequently used especially in the formal diagnosis used amongst psychologists and physicians.[63] Gender identity disorder was classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM[64] and DSM-4.[65] The DSM-5 uses the less pathologizing term gender dysphoria, and the ICD-11 uses the term gender incongruence. Many transgender individuals, transfeminists and medical researchers support the declassification of GID because they say the diagnosis pathologizes gender variance, reinforces the binary model of gender,[66] and can result in stigmatization of transgender individuals.[65] Many transfeminists and traditional feminists also propose that this diagnosis be discarded because of its potentially abusive use by people with power,[67] and may argue that gender variation is the right of all persons.[22] When arguing for the previous diagnostic category, pro-GID transfeminists typically concede past misuse of the diagnosis while arguing for greater professional accountability.[68]

In many situations or legal jurisdictions, transgender people have insurance coverage for surgery only as a consequence of the diagnosis. Removal would therefore increase patient costs. In other situations, anti-discrimination laws which protect legally disabled people apply to transgender people only so long as a manifest diagnosis exists. In other cases, transgender people are protected by sex discrimination rules or as a separate category.[69] This economic issue can split advocates along class lines.[42]

At the 2006 Trans Identity Conference at the University of Vermont, Courvant presented an analysis of this controversy. She noted that "eliminationists" must decide whether their efforts to destigmatize trans people conflict with efforts to destigmatize mental illness and whether removing the GID category would actually help with the former, while disrupting the current, albeit limited, insurance regime. Conversely, "preservationists" must address the problem of faulty diagnoses and improper "treatment".[70] She proposed retaining the category and focusing efforts on legitimating mental illness and improving acceptance of trans people, leaving aside the diagnosis question.

See also

References

  1. Erickson-Schroth, Laura, ed. (2014). Trans bodies, trans selves : a resource for the transgender community. [S.l.]: Oxford University Press. p. 620. ISBN 9780199325351.
  2. Draper, Suzanne C.; Chapple, Reshawna (April 25, 2023). "Resistance as a Foundational Commons: Intersectionality, Transfeminism, and the Future of Critical Feminisms". Affilia: 088610992311657. doi:10.1177/08861099231165788. S2CID 258340922 via CrossRef.
  3. Hereth, Blake; Timpe, Kevin (September 4, 2019). "The Lost Sheep in Philosophy of Religion: New Perspectives on Disability, Gender, Race, and Animals". Routledge via Google Books.
  4. Enke, Finn (February 1, 2018). "Collective Memory and the Transfeminist 1970s: Toward a Less Plausible History". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 5 (1): 9–29. doi:10.1215/23289252-4291502.
  5. Scott, Bonnie Kime; Cayleff, Susan E.; Donadey, Anne; Lara, Irene (May 24, 2016). "Women in Culture: An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies". John Wiley & Sons via Google Books.
  6. Raha, Nat (2017). "Transfeminine Brokenness, Radical Transfeminism". South Atlantic Quarterly. 116 (3): 632–646. doi:10.1215/00382876-3961754.
  7. Ruth Pearce. "Inadvertent Praxis: What Can "Genderfork" Tell Us about Trans Feminism?" (PDF).
  8. Mann, Susan Archer; Huffman, Douglas J. (January 22, 2005). "The Decentering of Second Wave Feminism and the Rise of the Third Wave". Science & Society. 69 (1): 56–91. doi:10.1521/siso.69.1.56.56799 via CrossRef.
  9. Scott-Dixon, Krista, ed. (2006). Trans/forming feminisms : trans/feminist voices speak out. Toronto: Sumach Press. ISBN 9781894549615.
  10. "Trans/forming Feminisms". Sumach Press. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009.
  11. Bornstein, Kate (1994). "Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us." ISBN 0-679-75701-5
  12. Stone, Sandy (1991). The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto Archived September 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. In Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity.
  13. Scott-Dixon, Krista, ed. (2006). Trans/forming feminisms : trans/feminist voices speak out. Toronto: Sumach Press. ISBN 9781894549615.
  14. Serano, Julia (2007). Whipping Girl, A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.
  15. Serano, Julia (2013). Excluded: Making Queer and Feminist Movements More Inclusive.
  16. "Interview with S. Bear Bergman (The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You) — Genderfork". genderfork.com. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  17. Stryker, Susan; Bettcher, Talia M. (May 2016). "Introduction". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 5–14. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334127. ISSN 2328-9252.
  18. Califia, Patrick (July 1997). Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. Cleis Pr; First Printing Highlighting edition. ISBN 1573440728.
  19. Xavier, Jessica, Passing as Stigma Management, archived from the original on July 5, 2008
  20. Xavier, Jessica, Passing as Privilege, archived from the original on July 5, 2008
  21. Gluckman, R.; Trudeau, M. (2002). "Trans-itioning feminism: the politics of transgender in the reproductive rights movement" (PDF). Amherst, MA. Hampshire College. pp. 6–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 18, 2017.
  22. Hill, R. J. (2001), Menacing Feminism, Educating Sisters (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on March 8, 2008
  23. See the subtitle of the trans community periodical "Chrysalis," which is "The Journal of Transgressive Gender Identities," transfeminism should not be seen as an anti-feminist movement
  24. Birns, Nicholas, "The Earth's Revenge: Nature, Transfeminism and Diaspora in Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl", in Lee, A. Robert (ed.), China Fictions, English Language: Literary Essays in Diaspora, Memory, Story, Rodopi, 2008, p. 161.
  25. Johnson Reagon, B. (1981), Coalition Politics: Turning the Century
  26. Raymond, J. (1994), The Transsexual Empire (2nd ed.), Teachers College Press; The second edition includes a new forward that describes her transgender-related work after the publication of her thesis project as the first edition in the late 70s.
  27. "Trans/forming Feminisms". Sumach Press. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009.
  28. "Transgender Leadership Summit, Sunday, March 25, 2007" via www.youtube.com.
  29. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
  30. Brewer, Mary (September 2002). Exclusions in Feminist Thought: Challenging the Boundaries of Womanhood. Sussex, England: Sussex Academic Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-902210-63-6. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  31. Courvant, Diana "Thinking of Privilege" InAnzaldua & Keating 2002, pp. 458–463
  32. Murphy, Emma; Lantz, Sarah (October 28, 1998). "Transgender debate: against exclusion". Press for Change. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  33. Salamon, Gayle (2008). "Women's Studies on the Edge", p. 117. Duke University Press, Durham. ISBN 978-0-8223-4274-8.
  34. "Homepage". Gender.com. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  35. "Transgender Death Statistics 1970 to 8/15/02". Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  36. Gagné, Patricia; Tewksbury, Richard (February 1998). "Conformity Pressures and Gender Resistance among Transgendered Individuals". Social Problems. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. 45 (1): 81–101. doi:10.1525/sp.1998.45.1.03x0158b. JSTOR 3097144.
  37. Serano, Julia (April 18, 2012). "Trans Feminism: There's No Conundrum About It". Ms. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  38. Serano, Julia (2007). "Trans-misogyny primer" (PDF). Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  39. Valerio, Max Wolf (2002). "Now That You're a White Man". In Anzaldua & Keating 2002, pp. 239–254
  40. Deke Law, "Evolution" in This is What Lesbian Looks Like, Kris Kleindienst, Firebrand Books, 1999
  41. See Courvant at Courvant, Diana. "Why Serve Trans or Intersex Survivors". Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  42. See Koyama at http://www.confluere.com/store/pdf-zn/mich-handbook.pdf Archived October 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  43. Ahmed, Sara (2017). Living a Feminist Life (1st ed.). North Carolina, U.S.: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0822363194.
  44. Jeffreys, Sheila (2014). Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism (1st ed.). Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415539401.
  45. Dworkin, Andrea (1974). Woman Hating. New York City: E. P. Dutton. p. 186. ISBN 0-525-47423-4.
  46. Stryker, Susan (2006). The Transgender Studies Reader. United Kingdom: Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 0-415-94708-1. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  47. Raymond, J. (1994), The Transsexual Empire (2nd ed.), Teachers College Press, p. 104
  48. Van Gelder, Lindsy; and Pamela Robin Brandt. "The Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian America", p. 73. Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-0-684-83957-8
  49. "Michigan Womyn's Music Festival:Performances". Archived from the original on September 6, 2014.
  50. Wilchins, Riki (August 14, 2013). "Op-ed: Where 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is Alive and Well". The Advocate. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  51. Denny, Dallas (October 13, 2013). "Congratulations, Camp Trans (1993)". Dallasdenny.com. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  52. Pratt, Minnie Bruce. "Leslie Feinberg". Mbpratt.com. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  53. Sreedhar, Susanne; Hand, Michael (2006). "The Ethics of Exclusion: Gender and Politics at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival". In Scott-Dixon, Krista (ed.). Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans/Feminist Voices Speak Out. Toronto: Sumach Press. pp. 164–65. ISBN 1-894-54961-9. OCLC 70839321.
  54. "Community Statements | Michfest". michfest.com. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  55. "Michfest Response to Equality Michigan's Call For Boycott – August 1, 2014 | Michfest". michfest.com. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  56. "Background on Nixon v Vancouver Rape Relief". Egale Canada. April 4, 2005. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  57. "Excerpt from Proceedings" (PDF). January 8, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 2, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  58. Perelle, Robin (February 14, 2007). Rape Relief wins: Supreme Court refuses to hear trans woman's appeal. Xtra
  59. Sayer, Susan (October 1, 1995). "From Lesbian Nation to Queer Nation". Hecate. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  60. Ross, Becki (1995). The House that Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation. University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0-8020-7479-9
  61. Mayeda, G (2005). "Re-imagining Feminist Theory: Transgender Identity, Feminism, and the Law". Canadian Journal of Women & the Law. 17 (2): 423–472.
  62. "Know Your Rights! Trans Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence" (PDF). Forge Forward. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 29, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  63. Heylens, G; De Cuypere, G; Zucker, K; Schelfaut, C; Elaut, E; Vanden Bossche, H; De Baere, E; T'Sjoen, G (2012). "Gender Identity Disorder in Twins: A Review of the Case Report Literature". The Journal of Sexual Medicine. 8 (3): 751–757. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02567.x. PMID 22146048.
  64. "Gender identity disorder in adolescence and adulthood". ICD10Data.com. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  65. Fraser, L; Karasic, D; Meyer, W; Wylie, K (2010). "Recommendations for Revision of the DSM Diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder in Adults". International Journal of Transgender Health. 12 (2): 80–85. doi:10.1080/15532739.2010.509202. S2CID 144409977.
  66. Newman, L (July 1, 2002). "Sex, Gender and Culture: Issues in the Definition, Assessment and Treatment of Gender Identity Disorder". Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 7 (3): 352–359. doi:10.1177/1359104502007003004. S2CID 145666729.
  67. Crabtree (2002)
  68. "Destigmatization Versus Coverage and Access: The Medical Model of Transsexuality". wordpress.com. April 5, 2008.
  69. "Transgender Law and Policy Institute: State Cases". August 26, 2002. Archived from the original on September 16, 2008.
  70. Daphne Scholinski "The Last Time I Wore a Dress"

Works cited

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.