Negotiating transgender identities on the internet - a South African study1

1. This research was part of a larger project called Erotics undertaken by the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) into sexuality and the internet over five countries (SmKee, 2011).

abstract

The initial celebratory response that hailed the internet as some kind of utopia, both liberatory and democratic, has been tempered and gender scholars increasingly interrogate the internet in relation to gender politics. There is a scarcity of work that engages with non-normative identities, particularly transgender. Through the lens of gender theory and literature relating to the internet, the Article investigates the engagement of transgender people, both male to female (MTF) and female to male (FTM), as they negotiate their sexed and gendered identities on a single South African transgender online site, Gender DynamiX. This includes a critical discourse analysis of the postings on the forums, Boy Talk and Girl Talk, which is supplemented with interviews with members of the site about the relevance of the internet for them. While allowing that the gender constructions articulated can be viewed as conserving patriarchy in significant ways, the Article argues the significance of such sites for transgender people.

Keywords:

• Transgender
• gender and identity
• GLBTI
• internet
• South Africa

Notes

1. This research was part of a larger project called Erotics undertaken by the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) into sexuality and the internet over five countries (SmKee, 2011).

2. The failure of bodies to map according to a heterosexual matrix of intelligibility draws attention to the indeterminacy of “where the body ends and construction begins” (Brady & Shirato 2011:88).

3. The dates of interviews are not noted here or in the original report. A more detailed account exists in SmKee (ed) 2011.