“I get fire inside me that tells me I’m going to defy.”: The discursive construction of trans masculinity in Cape Town, South Africa

monakali, e. and Francis, D. A. (2022) “I get fire inside me that tells me I’m going to defy.”: The discursive construction of trans masculinity in Cape Town, South Africa. Men and Masculinities, 25(1), pp. 3-23. (doi: 10.1177/1097184x20982025)

Abstract

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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This article is based on the research supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number: 117416).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Francis, Professor Dennis
• Authors: monakali, e., and Francis, D. A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: Men and Masculinities
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 1097-184X
• ISSN (Online): 1552-6828
• Published Online: 29 December 2020