Medicalizing Me Softly: An Autoethnography of Refusal
(2022) SIMZ21 20221Graduate School
- Abstract
- This autoethnographic study explores intra-community discursive boundary constructions around the category of transgender articulated by truscum trans men on Reddit. It does so through reflections on how the author negotiates the medical model of trans, his own gender identity, the medico-juridical interlock governing access to trans healthcare and trans livability, and tensions of closeness/distance to those they interview. Semi-structured and email interviews with truscum trans men are used to examine participants’ negotiations of the medical model, definitional disputes over transgender/nonbinary, medical transition technologies, and their subject position as truscum. Through the lens of transnormativity, poststructuralism and the... (More)
- This autoethnographic study explores intra-community discursive boundary constructions around the category of transgender articulated by truscum trans men on Reddit. It does so through reflections on how the author negotiates the medical model of trans, his own gender identity, the medico-juridical interlock governing access to trans healthcare and trans livability, and tensions of closeness/distance to those they interview. Semi-structured and email interviews with truscum trans men are used to examine participants’ negotiations of the medical model, definitional disputes over transgender/nonbinary, medical transition technologies, and their subject position as truscum. Through the lens of transnormativity, poststructuralism and the medical model, the construction of the transsexual subject is described. The study finds truscum trans men on Reddit use the category of transsexual strategically to construct sameness in opposition to what is perceived as difference of non-normative/nonbinary trans identities, and therefore, as not trans. Truscum is articulated as a response to the medical model and a subject position entailing an affective/emotional dimension in providing care and community. Truscum subreddits, in building echo chambers, serve the function of simultaneously detaching from and articulating a critique of dominant trans discourse. A metaphysics of refusal, aided by the concept of liminality, is proposed, in which the author refuses to stabilize the category of transgender in tension with their interview participants’ conceptualization of transgender. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- This moment of trans activism and studies is characterized by a push for self-determination, legal reform, and de-pathologization. But while being trans (roughly an experience in which one does not identify with the gender assigned at birth but, as I will argue, much broader than that) is gaining more visibility and representation, there also appears to be increased anti-gender, conservative backlash and the cutting down of trans rights. More so, tensions within the trans community become apparent – and definitional disputes over who gets to claim the label and experience of trans are the focus of this autoethnographic study.
Truscum, an online articulation of transmedicalism, is a subject position and response to the medical model that... (More) - This moment of trans activism and studies is characterized by a push for self-determination, legal reform, and de-pathologization. But while being trans (roughly an experience in which one does not identify with the gender assigned at birth but, as I will argue, much broader than that) is gaining more visibility and representation, there also appears to be increased anti-gender, conservative backlash and the cutting down of trans rights. More so, tensions within the trans community become apparent – and definitional disputes over who gets to claim the label and experience of trans are the focus of this autoethnographic study.
Truscum, an online articulation of transmedicalism, is a subject position and response to the medical model that draws on medicalized narratives of the body, transitioning, the requirement of gender dysphoria and gender binarism. Truscums, merging the derogatory “scum” with “true transsexual”, come together on truscum/transmedicalist subreddits online. Through my own autoethnographic reflections on navigating the medical model of trans, and the difficulty of nonbinary gender recognition in cisnormatively and transnormatively structured spaces I make visible the norms structuring and medicalizing trans identities. Four semi-structured interviews with truscum trans men are used to give insight into how truscum is constructing boundaries around the category of trans and participants’ emotional dimension in detaching from dominant trans discourse and activism while remaining online on truscum subreddits.
My autoethnography both demonstrates a valuable way of knowledge production through situatedness, and the tensions between closeness/distance in relation to my interview participants constructing transness differently. Throughout the text, I discuss the strategic use of the category of transsexual by truscum men to delineate borders between them as really trans and others as not trans. In using the platform Reddit, truscum is strategically placing itself into an echo chamber in opposition to dominant trans discourse and activism. I also find that to those agreeing with the trans experience predominantly being connected to gender dysphoria and medical transition, truscum subreddits provide an important online community that gives care in the form of passing tips and medical transition knowledge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9095692
- author
- Amm, Han LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SIMZ21 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- transmedicalism, truscum, transnormativity, nonbinary, autoethnography, refusal, liminality
- language
- English
- id
- 9095692
- date added to LUP
- 2022-10-10 13:38:50
- date last changed
- 2022-10-10 13:38:50
@misc{9095692,
abstract = {{This autoethnographic study explores intra-community discursive boundary constructions around the category of transgender articulated by truscum trans men on Reddit. It does so through reflections on how the author negotiates the medical model of trans, his own gender identity, the medico-juridical interlock governing access to trans healthcare and trans livability, and tensions of closeness/distance to those they interview. Semi-structured and email interviews with truscum trans men are used to examine participants’ negotiations of the medical model, definitional disputes over transgender/nonbinary, medical transition technologies, and their subject position as truscum. Through the lens of transnormativity, poststructuralism and the medical model, the construction of the transsexual subject is described. The study finds truscum trans men on Reddit use the category of transsexual strategically to construct sameness in opposition to what is perceived as difference of non-normative/nonbinary trans identities, and therefore, as not trans. Truscum is articulated as a response to the medical model and a subject position entailing an affective/emotional dimension in providing care and community. Truscum subreddits, in building echo chambers, serve the function of simultaneously detaching from and articulating a critique of dominant trans discourse. A metaphysics of refusal, aided by the concept of liminality, is proposed, in which the author refuses to stabilize the category of transgender in tension with their interview participants’ conceptualization of transgender.}},
author = {{Amm, Han}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Medicalizing Me Softly: An Autoethnography of Refusal}},
year = {{2022}},
}