CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Gercio, Hender |
|---|---|
| Title | Looking for that 'Special' Lady: Exploring Hegemonic Masculinity in Online Dating Profiles of Trans-attracted Men |
| Summary | The scarcity of existing academic material that deals with trans attraction confines this configuration of desire mostly within the marginal/marginalizing discourses of psychiatry and mental illness, bars and sex work, pornography and fetish, and HIV/AIDS risk behaviors. This proposal to analyze and problematize trans attraction within the robust lens of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ formulated by Raewyn Connell (1987, reformulated in 2005) provides a novel framework in which to situate this phenomenon and also posits a new direction in the production of gendered knowledge on hegemonic masculinity. Through critical discourse analysis of trans-attracted men's dating profiles obtained from the top-ranked transsexual dating websites trasgenderpersonals.com and mytransssexualdate.com, as well as through reflexive inputs from the author’s personal narrative as a trans woman who has experience in online dating, the author explores how hegemonic masculinity is legitimated in transsexual dating websites, which aspects of trans attraction may be seen as complicit to hegemonic masculinity's cultivation, and which practices may hold transformative potential and can lead to hegemonic masculinity's contestation. The analysis demonstrates that it is difficult to predict what the full implications of trans attraction will be to hegemonic masculinity, since these men have been shown to perform masculine practices that were neither ‘thoroughly reproducing’ nor ‘thoroughly contesting’ hegemonic masculinity. Rather, there is a multiplicity of overlapping and sometimes contradicting practices and discourses that these men find themselves navigating, with some of them contributing to hegemonic masculinity’s propagation and some of them to its contestation. On one hand, trans-attracted men can be seen to challenge hegemonic masculinity via the adoption of such strategies such as the ‘average nice guy’ discourse; showing emotional expressiveness/vulnerability, availability and kindness; expanding in a situated way the intelligibility of the category ‘woman’ by including trans women; and the openness to further sexual exploration (i.e. role playing, kink, BDSM). On the other hand, trans-attracted men can be seen as complicit to hegemonic masculinity through such practices as insisting on femininity and ‘passability’ (as a cis woman) as a partner requirement; rejecting feminism and upholding traditionally gendered relationship roles; fetishizing trans women; and the continued affirming of heterosexuality as an identity, which can lead to the marginalization of (male) homosexuality and homophobic remarks directed towards male-identified cross-dressers and possibly masculine-looking transwomen. Future exciting directions of inquiry include studying how trans women are being resistant or complicit to hegemonic masculine practices, as well an exploration of other configurations of trans attraction. |
| Supervisor | Barát, Erzsébet |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/gercio_hender.pdf |
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