Transmasculinities in Nonbinary Autobiographical Writing

Abstract

This article discusses the representations and narratives of transmasculinities in selected works by contemporary Anglophone nonbinary writers assigned female at birth. After briefly introducing the primary sources, I explain how this selection of texts allows for an analysis that contributes to widening the conventional conceptualisation of masculinities as related only to biological men and trans men, and I specify the kinds of masculinities discussed in the article. I then concentrate on three prominently featured themes in the analysed narratives: rejection and erasure within the lesbian and feminist communities, confusion caused by the authors’ identities in their everyday lives, and nonbinary parenting-related issues. Exploring how the authors write about these themes illuminates not only how they textually construct their diverse masculinities but also some of the key challenges they navigate: identity unintelligibility, invisibility, and the threat of involuntary complicity in the patriarchal order.

Keywords

• transmasculinities
• masculinities
• queerness
• nonbinary
• genderqueer
• life writing
• autobiographical writing
• nonbinary parenting
• identity