Congress Paper Abstract

Objects of desire: performing the transgendered body

MARTIN BERG, MSSC, MTH, BA, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, LUND UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN

This paper examines the notion of body, gender and sexuality among self-identified male to female transgenderists (i.e. transvestites and transsexuals) between the ages of 15 and 69. Based on an interpretation of 316 self-presentations collected within a digital community, 55 digital diaries and a number of qualitative focused interviews, this paper seeks to establish a notion of, not how gender is achieved by transgenderists, but rather, what in gender is thought to be achieved. Having this point of departure, one of the main concerns in this paper is establishing an understanding of transgenderism as a social psychological transition. This transition is understood as a process of becoming congruent through having different gendered objects (such as dress) mediating between a perceived bodily in- and outside. Focus is the male to female transgenderist’s perception of what in gender is achieved in this transition and how one can read the discursive boundaries of intelligibility and gender within this perception. The research is performed within a theoretical framework of queer theory and thus elucidating the presence of the heterosexual matrix (in Judith Butler’s sense) in everyday life bodily practice, that is within different modes of understanding and relating to one’s own body. The digital portrayals analyzed are understood as integrative parts of the observed authors and the ’real’ world they live in and, as such, regarded as significant pieces of everyday life. Methodologically, grounded theory and discourse analysis are combined into an integrative approach making the construction of a substantive theory achievable.

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