Dangerous Privilege: Trans Men, Masculinities, and Changing Perceptions of Safety

Abstract

This article examines the construction of masculinities in social interaction through in-depth interviews with trans men living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Interviewees' concerns for safety, particularly the threat of violence from other men, shaped their masculine practices, which led some men to practice defensive masculinities and, for others, constrained their ability to practice transformative masculinities. Respondents' concerns for safety, and their masculine practices, changed according to variation in transition, physical location, audience, and their physical stature. These findings have implications for the relationship between men's fear of violent victimization and accountability to situated gender expectations in interaction and the persistence of gender inequality. Theoretically, this article engages a complex understanding of accountability and multiple masculinities to argue that the perceived threat of violence shapes men's practices in interaction. The fear of violence encourages conformity and inhibits men's transformative practices.

Inequalities in Crowdfunding for Transgender Health Care

“…When taking into account the Facebook shares and Facebook friends, trans men overall raised more money and a higher percentage than trans women. These findings may be reflective of the relative degree of social privilege afforded to some (passing, normatively masculine) transgender men through sexism 37 and transmisogyny. 38 However, when comparing trans men and trans women with an equal number of Facebook shares, trans women raised more money.…”

Trans* Folks in Motion: Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals' Experiences of Transit and Transit Spaces

“…In light of the evidence that fear and perception of safety can alter women's behavior, it may seem natural that trans* individuals also engage in similar avoidance and defensive behavior in reaction to evaluations of safety. In fact, one study has shown how trans men feeling a lack of safety are compelled to alter their behavior, to perform defensive masculinities that uphold the gender binary (Abelson 2014). These dynamics are also likely to extend to how trans* individuals intellectually interpret, and emotionally and behaviorally react to their experiences on public transit.…”

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

“…In this sense, though there are already a number of studies about trans men (Green 2005), not many have discussed the problem of masculinities as constructed by csmm. We know that trans men's masculinities may be seen as contingent ( Blackwood 2009), defensive or constrained (Abelson 2014), hyper-masculine, women-hating and aspiring to the patriarchal hegemonic pattern (quite evident in trans exclusionary feminists; see Raymond 1979;and Jeffreys 2014) or, conversely, feminist (Hines 2002). However, regardless of all the plurality of masculinities enacted by trans men (and non-trans men), which has been portrayed in the studies of Devor (1997), Rubin (2003, Vidal-Ortiz (2002) or Green (2005), among others (Aboim 2016), there is still a gap to be bridged.…”