Cutting my dick off

Abstract

Cutting my dick off This essay considers how transgender and non-conforming people and their bodies are medically organised in society by surgery. The surgical normalisation of these bodies is not however enough for some in society. 'Once a man, always a man' claim those who oppose and abuse TGNC people and the UK daily press, radio and on TV routinely encourage and facilitate this abuse. This essay focuses on themes of genitalia, tattoos, self-harm, self-mutilation and auto-castration to understand how and why society and medical practices seem to be obsessed with normalising bodies. It does so in relation to one body, that of a non-binary individual. That body is my own and it is my hope that this essay will open up and add to literature on trans folk in organizational discourse whilst also introducing the issues of gender dysphoria and 'self-mutilation' as themes for further organizational research and debate. Bodies and flesh; self-mutilation; tattoos; auto-castration; transgender and non-binary.

Trans men doing gender at work

“…Despite key changes in legislation in England, which have provided some recognition and protection for transgender individuals (e.g., The Gender Recognition Act, 2004 and The Equality Act, 2010 [UK]), trans men's lives have operated against a background of risk, harassment and discrimination (see O'Shea, 2018, 2019, 2020 for personal accounts). UK‐based studies on trans men and women show discrimination originating from colleagues, managers, and Trade Unions (Barclay & Scott, 2006) with nearly 29% of trans employees reporting harassment or unsupportive management (Whittle et al., 2007).…”

Learning as moments of friction and opportunity: an autoethnography of ECR identities in queer time

“…Our (uncertain) answer is that, as other scholars of queer identity theory in MOS have highlighted, queer identities can be cyclical, they can have no future, they can lead nowhere (McDonald, 2013;O'Shea, 2018O'Shea, , 2019aO'Shea, , 2019bSteyaert, 2015). The moments we dedicated to writing, thinking and feeling the ideas in this paper were never intended to contribute to a progress or development or even a 'self-improvement' towards an ideal academic identity.…”

“…Even though this came from a desire to share our experiences with other like-minded scholars and connect to the 'quirky' (Bell and Bridgman, 2018) conversations in this journal -does our bringing of the political project of queer theory and time cause friction and/or are we undermining the impetus of queer theory by knowingly allowing ourselves to 'be (somewhat) straightened' by the norms of academic publication? Our (uncertain) answer is that, as other scholars of queer identity theory in MOS have highlighted, queer identities can be cyclical, they can have no future, they can lead nowhere (O'Shea, 2019a;O'Shea, 2019b;O'Shea, 2018;Steyaert, 2015;McDonald, 2013). The moments we dedicated to writing, thinking, and feeling the ideas in this paper were never intended to contribute to a progress or development or even a 'self-improvement' toward an ideal academic identity.…”

If I knew then what I know now

“…While there are an increasing number of accounts of trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in business, management, and organization studies (Brewis et al., 1997; Muhr & Sullivan, 2013; Muhr et al., 2015; O’Shea, 2018, 2019b; Pullen et al., 2017; Pullen & Rhodes, 2013b; Schilt & Connell, 2007; Thanem, 2011; Thanem & Knights, 2012; Thanem & Wallenberg, 2015) with the exception of O’Shea (2019a) the organization of actual GAS. O’Shea's (2019a) work recounts a period prior to a surgery but which they have yet to experience. This article thus adds a novel account to this academic literature in that it is about transmedicalized assumptions surrounding surgery.…”