“I Get Fire Inside Me That Tells Me I’m Going to Defy.”: The Discursive Construction of Trans Masculinity in Cape Town, South Africa

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.

In(ex)clusion of transgender students in South African higher education institutions

“…Transgender is understood as an umbrella term that refers to people whose gender assigned at birth does not correspond with gender behaviour and attributes labelled as restrictively masculine or feminine (Monakali & Francis 2022). The affirmation of and support for transgender identities in South Africa are underpinned by the constitution (Act no.…”