Gender citizenship and sexual rights in Europe: transgender lives from a transnational perspective

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Publications

Other genders: (Un)doing gender norms in Portugal at a microsocial level

Publication . Merlini, Sara

Departing from an analysis of alternative views and practices to gender-dominant norms, we focus on the construction of gender difference at a microsocial level. By looking at those who intentionally transgress and distance themselves from gender mainstream conventions and beliefs, we aim to deepen the understanding of the continuities and changes in gender regulation mechanisms and processes. For this, we will carry out a critical analysis of qualitative data from a sub-sample of transgender individuals who do not identify unambivalently with the binary categories of man/woman. Based on the Portuguese data collected within the TRANSRIGHTS Project, we will show how gender norms are being mobilized, transformed and resisted to in micro-interactions. To carry out this analytical exercise, we confront two of the fundamental theoretical currents in the study of gender norms. As we seek to bridge the gap between action and structure, our results provide insight into how gender is being (un)done in the Portuguese context. We identified three main groups that practice gender beyond the binary and their relation to the dominant norms. Given the growing visibility and greater tolerance for ‘non-binary’ genders in western societies, this study is both relevant and necessary.

2018Journal article

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Trans masculinities: embodiments, performances and the materiality of gender in times of change

Publication . Aboim, Sofia; Vasconcelos, Pedro; Merlini, Sara

In recent years, the increased visibility of the category, transgender – or simply trans – has brought new challenges to light and, most importantly, led to the formation of a new lexicon for the naming of privilege and oppression (Boellstorf et al. 2014; Marciano 2014). While women and femininity remain subaltern in contemporary societies, the affirmation of the rights of gender minorities and the expansion of plural gender identities beyond normative definitions of hegemonic masculinity and femininity (Plummer 1996) can be seen as one of the most challenging forms of resistance to the limits imposed by binary systems of gender that oppose men and women.

2018Book part

Open access

Contestation, instrumental resistance and strategic conformation within the diagnostic process of gender dysphoria in Portugal

Publication . Hilario, Ana Patricia

This article aims to provide insights into the ways in which trans people (i.e. those whose gender identity or expression do not align with their assigned sex at birth) in Portugal make sense of the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 10 trans men and 9 trans women carried out by the TRANSRIGHTS team, we identified three major themes: (a) contestation of gender dysphoria as a (mental) illness, (b) instrumental resistance to complete demedicalisation of gender dysphoria and (c) strategic conformation to gender essentialism within the diagnostic process of gender dysphoria. We found that the need to access medical treatments leads some trans people to approach the diagnosis strategically. While almost all trans people were in favour of the depathologisation of gender dysphoria and at the same time were against its demedicalisation, mainly for instrumental reasons, a few demonstrated contrasting positions whether by agreeing with the idea of gender dysphoria as a pathology or by rejecting medicalisation. The study offers a more nuanced perspective on gender dysphoria than that described in previous sociological and transgender literature.

2017Journal article

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Rethinking trans identities within the medical and psychological community: a path towards the depathologization and self-definition of gender identification in Portugal?

Publication . Hilario, Ana Patricia

This study intends to shed light on the ways in which medical practices surrounding Gender Dysphoria (GD) might enforce or challenge the pathologization of trans identities. Drawing upon a qualitative research approach, in-depth interviews with 12 practitioner specialists in the field of GD in Portugal were carried out by the T team. Our findings suggest that trans identities continue to be pathologized by a group of practitioners who appear to follow an essentialist model of gender. The need for expert knowledge and evaluation to access trans-specific healthcare is illustrative of the gatekeeping practices employed by medicine and the power given to medical discourses over trans identities. Nevertheless, the centrality given to medical and psychological practitioners regarding the definition of who is the authentic trans person is being challenged inside the medical community, as some practitioners are allowing room for trans people to define themselves in their own terms. The findings provide novel insights to the literature in Portugal by showing a more nuanced perspective on the depathologization and self-definition of gender identification within the medical community than that previously described.

2018-11-08Journal article

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What does it Mean to be a Man? Trans Masculinities, Bodily Practices, and Reflexive Embodiment

Publication . Aboim, Sofia; Vasconcelos, Pedro

Confronted with the centrality of the body for trans-masculine individuals interviewed in the United Kingdom and Portugal, we explore how bodily-reflexive practices are central for doing masculinity. Following Connell’s early insight that bodies needed to come back to the political and sociological agendas, we propose that bodily-reflexive practice is a concept suited to account for the production of trans-masculinities. Although multiple, the journeys of trans-masculine individuals demonstrate how bodily experiences shape and redefine masculinities in ways that illuminate the nexus between bodies, embodiments, and discursive enactments of masculinity. Rather than oppositions between bodily conformity to and transgression of the norms of hegemonic masculinity, often encountered in idealizations of the medicalized transsexual against the genderqueer rebel, lived bodily experiences shape masculinities beyond linear oppositions. Tensions between natural and technological, material and discursive, or feminine and masculine were keys for understanding trans-masculine narratives about the body, embodiment, and identity.

2022Journal article

Open access