Self-Made Men

Henry Rubin

Description

In Self-Made Men, Henry Rubin explores the production of male identities in the lives of twenty-two FTM transsexuals--people who have changed their sex from female to male. The author relates the compelling personal narratives of his subjects to the historical emergence of FTM as an identity category.

In the interviews that form the heart of the book, the FTMs speak about their struggles to define themselves and their diverse experiences, from the pressures of gender conformity in adolescence to being mistaken for "butch lesbians," from hormone treatments and surgeries to relationships with families, partners, and acquaintances. Their stories of feeling betrayed by their bodies and of undergoing a "second puberty" are vivid and thought-provoking. Throughout the interviews, the subjects' claims to having "core male identities" are remarkably consistent and thus challenge anti-essentialist assumptions in current theories of gender, embodiment, and identity.

Rubin uses two key methods to analyze and interpret his findings. Adapting Foucault's notions of genealogy, he highlights the social construction of gender categories and identities. His account of the history of endocrinology and medical technologies for transforming bodies demonstrates that the "family resemblance" between transsexuals and intersexuals was a necessary postulate for medical intervention into the lives of the emerging FTMs. The book also explores the historical emergence of the category of FTM transsexual as distinguished from the category of lesbian woman and the resultant "border disputes" over identity between the two groups. Rubin complements this approach with phenomenological concepts that stress the importance of lived experience and the individual's capacity for knowledge and action.

An important contribution to several fields, including sociology of the body, gender and masculinity, human development, and the history of science, Self-Made Me will be of interest to anyone who has seriously pondered what it means to be a man and how men become men.

Sujets

• Gender Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social movement

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826591739
• Langue: English

Extrait

SelfMadeMen

Self Identity and ade Transsexual Embodiment among Men Men H E N R Y R U B I N

V A N D E R B I L T U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

© 2003 Vanderbilt University Press All rights reserved First Edition 2003

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rubin, Henry, 1966- Self made men : identity, embodiment, and recognition among transsexual men / Henry Rubin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8265-1434-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8265-1435-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Female-to-male transsexuals. 2. Female-to-male transsexuals—Identity. TI.itle. HQ77.9 .R83 2003 305.9’066—dc21 2002155487

Dedicated with love to my mother and father

Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1.33The Logic of Treatment Chapter 2.Border Wars: Lesbian and Transsexual Identity 97 Chapter 3.141Betrayed by Bodies Chapter 4.174Transsexual Trajectories Chapter 5. Always Already Men 219 Conclusion 265 Notes 185 References 197 Index 207

Acknowledgments

This book has taken many shapes on its way to this, the final version. Though I alone am responsible for this version, I thank the countless eyes that read each successive draft, in part or in whole, and gave me priceless feedback and endless encouragement. It is to them that I owe what intelligibility I have achieved. Without them, I never would have completed this project. I am especially indebted to circle of Brandeis Ph.D.s who had the wisdom to form writing groups and the kindness to include me in them. Cameron Macdonald, PJ McGann, Joan Alway, Faith Ferguson, Jean Elson, Monisha das Gupta, Amy Agigian, Betsy Hayes, Janet Kahn, and Sadhana Berys have nurtured my writing and aided me in all my endeavors. The faculty at Brandeis, especially Peter Conrad, Gila Hayim, Maury Stein, and Karen Hansen also supplied advice and encouragement well after I finished the dissertation that was the basis for this book. I am immensely grateful to my students and colleagues in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University, in spite of the fact that they often ate up my pre- cious writing time. My involvement in the culture of Social Studies raised the intellectual and spiritual stakes of this project and of the foundations of my thought. To document the thesis of chapter one, I was lucky enough to have access to the Countway Medical Library at Harvard University. This collection’s rare books and extensive journal holdings made it possible to do this research on endocrinology and surgery in the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries in my own backyard. Christian

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