Abstract
Confronted with the centrality of the body for trans-masculine individuals interviewed in the United Kingdom and Portugal, we explore how bodily-reflexive practices are central for doing masculinity. Following Connell’s early insight that bodies needed to come back to the political and sociological agendas, we propose that bodily-reflexive practice is a concept suited to account for the production of trans-masculinities. Although multiple, the journeys of trans-masculine individuals demonstrate how bodily experiences shape and redefine masculinities in ways that illuminate the nexus between bodies, embodiments, and discursive enactments of masculinity. Rather than oppositions between bodily conformity to and transgression of the norms of hegemonic masculinity, often encountered in idealizations of the medicalized transsexual against the genderqueer rebel, lived bodily experiences shape masculinities beyond linear oppositions. Tensions between natural and technological, material and discursive, or feminine and masculine were keys for understanding trans-masculine narratives about the body, embodiment, and identity.
Highlights
In recent years, growing attention has been awarded to trans-masculinities1 (e.g., Hines2002)
Confronted with the centrality of the body for trans-masculine individuals interviewed in the United Kingdom and Portugal, we explore how bodily-reflexive practices are central for doing masculinity
While recent literature describes the plurality of trans lives and identities (e.g., Ekins and King 2006; Stryker and Whittle 2006; Hines and Sanger 2010; Brubaker 2016; Halberstam 2018; Pearce et al 2019, amongst others) and investigates the plurality of trans masculinities, we underline the centrality of bodies and embodiments in the construction of masculinities
Summary
In recent years, growing attention has been awarded to trans-masculinities1 (e.g., Hines2002). Abstract Confronted with the centrality of the body for trans-masculine individuals interviewed in the United Kingdom and Portugal, we explore how bodily-reflexive practices are central for doing masculinity. The journeys of transmasculine individuals demonstrate how bodily experiences shape and redefine masculinities in ways that illuminate the nexus between bodies, embodiments and discursive enactments of masculinity.
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