I Get Fire Inside Me That Tells Me I’m Going to Defy.”

The Discursive Construction of Trans Masculinity in Cape Town, South Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID12469864
AuthorsEsethu Monakali (0000-0001-8709-2769, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa, corresponding author), D A Francis (0000-0001-6353-4120, Stellenbosch University)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue1
Pages3-23
Publication date2020-12-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMen and Masculinities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1097-184X • E-ISSN: 1552-6828
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1097184x20982025
OpenAlexW3117956806
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited29

This research extends our understanding of trans masculinity in South Africa. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven trans masculine-identified individuals, we analyze the discourses that trans masculine individuals draw on to make sense of their experiences of gender and their embodiment and performance of masculinity. There are three key findings. First, we found that trans masculine people deploy competing discourses of gender to make sense of their gender performativity. Second, participants drew on discourses of sexism, genderism, and transphobia to illustrate the complexity of constructing counter-normative masculine subject positions. Finally, while trans masculine individuals discursively positioned their masculinities as caring, their constructions of masculinity simultaneously contained complicity with dominant discourses about hegemonic masculinity. The findings highlight the diversity and complexity of masculine subject positions taken up by trans masculine individuals

Complicity · Hegemonic masculinity · Hegemony · Masculinity · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access