Queering Gender Identity Work: A Life History of a Black Transgender Woman

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the identity work of a black transgender woman through life history research. Identity work pertains to the ongoing effort of authoring oneself and positions the individual as the agent; not a passive recipient of identity scripts. The findings draw from three life history interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following themes emerge: institutionalisation of gender norms; gender and sexuality unintelligibility; transitioning and passing; and lastly, gender expression and public spaces. The discussion follows from a poststructuralist conception of identity, which frames identity as fluid and as being continually established. The study contends that identity work is a complex and fragmented process, which is shaped by other social identities. To that end, the study also acknowledges the role of collective agency in shaping gender identity.

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

“…Studies have also explored the lives of transgender people and how they navigate coming out (Van der Wal 2016), transgender identity work (Monakali 2017), transgender masculinity (Francis 2014), and the experiences of transgender refugees in South Africa (Camminga 2019). Though this body of work is small, these studies draw attention to the complexity of navigating livable transgender subjectivities in South Africa, the influence of culture and religion on transgender people’s decision to come out publicly, and transphobia (Francis 2014; Monakali 2017; Van der Wal 2016). In his life history study of how a rural transgender man in South Africa “enacts, negotiates, resists and reproduces dominant understandings of gender and sexuality,” Francis (2014, 554) found that “masculine essentialism” is misleading.…”