This research affirms previous findings that Tumblr continues to be a site of individual and collective identity formation for trans people. However, my findings suggest that digital trans spaces are not always counter-hegemonic, and in fact, that they can also be home to intense debate, division, hostility, toxicity, and lateral violence. By analyzing how these processes of exclusion play out, we gain critical insight into how trans communities define the boundaries of their identities in a struggle for visibility, resources, and respect. Situating these findings in the larger history of LGBTQ2+ battles over identity labels and definitions reveals how contested terminology can give way to community in-fighting and divisions. As transgender people are thrust into the media and academic spotlight—often leading to misrepresentations—this research challenges exclusionary models of trans identities and broadens conceptions of what transness looks like.
why does this matter?
• Anti-transmed users reject the
medical model of transness and embrace one rooted in bodily autonomy and self-definition, including counting non-dysphoric and non-binary individuals as trans. • The term tucute is also used, created
from the phrase “too cute to be cis”.
• Transtrender also sometimes appears
in reference to tucute and anti-transmed people, suggesting that such individuals are actually cisgender people who are pretending to be trans to get attention.
anti-transmed
tucute
two groups: a tumblr divided
Who Counts As Trans?
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Tumblr Posts
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Dr. Aaron Devor and Dr. Edwin Hodge of the
Sociology department, for keeping me on track and providing
insightful feedback. This research was sponsored by the Social
Justice Studies program and funded through a 2020 Jamie Cassels
Undergraduate Research Award at the University of Victoria. The
author can be reached at
hjacobsen@uvic.ca
.
Exactly! Being trans
means having
dysphoria, which
means you hate your
body and have a
mental illness.
You need dysphoria to
be trans!
No, euphoria is just
what you feel when
you don’t have
dysphoria.
Real trans people have
dysphoria. Non-binary
and non-dysphoric people
are transtrenders!
Nope, anyone who
identifies as trans is
trans, whether they
have dysphoria or not!
Not necessarily! Some
people are trans because
they have euphoria (joy
in their gender) or just
incongruence with their
assigned gender!
Trans people have all
sorts of relationships
with their bodies.
Your experience isn’t
universal!
Stop excluding
people! All trans
people are valid, no
questions asked!
• Transmedicalist or transmed, refers
to the group’s view of trans identity as a medical diagnosis.
• The term truscum is also used, combining true transsexual and
scum. Originally coined as a
derogatory term, the term has been reclaimed by some users.
• While dysphoria is often understood as intense bodily hatred, some users redefine the term to include more mild experiences of distress. This absorbs critiques and reinforces and legitimates transmed’s criteria of transness.
transmed
truscum
Polyphony and the dialogue post
• A significant number of posts are written as invented dialogues. In these posts, the author establishes several competing voices (such as History, Tucutes, or Psychiatrists) and stages an interaction between them in order to prove a point or create an effect. In these posts, both sides strategically exaggerate their opponents’ views in order to make them look ridiculous.
Personal experience as evidence
• Users position lived experience as a valuable source of data, often drawing upon their own experiences to illustrate a broader theory. Medical discourses
• Interestingly, both transmeds and anti-transmeds use medical discourses to legitimate their claims, despite anti-transmeds claiming to be against the medicalization of trans identities.
• This suggests that medical discourses remain a structuring force in trans people’s lives, leading many trans folks to internalize medical models of transness.
Register, tone, typography
• Many users adopt a conversational tone, using tools such as all lowercase text, erratic punctuation, textspeak abbreviations, and fractured syntax. This style is popular on Tumblr and grants an author authenticity and therefore credibility.
• In general, the tone of transmed posts was more formal and declarative, while anti-transmed relied more on humour and playfulness.
rhetorical strategies
Why Tumblr?
• Tumblr is a social media site that uses a blog-style, follower-based format. Previous research has established that Tumblr serves as an important platform for LGBTQ2+ community building, especially among transgender youth.
• Users are constantly coining new terms to describe sexual orientations and gender identities, and forging collective meanings.
• My research considers how online trans communities may re-inscribe transnormativity in addition to disrupting dominant discourses and ideologies.
Critical Discourse Analysis
• Using criterion-based purposive sampling, I selected 40 Tumblr text posts that referenced a definition or criteria for identifying as trans.
• I conducted a critical discourse analysis, using open inductive coding to identify the key content of each post and the rhetorical strategies employed. I then compared and analyzed the posts as a whole, considering how transnormativity and power structures are both reproduced and resisted on Tumblr.
methodology
The standard model of transgender identity is someone who is distressed about being “born in the wrong body”, but medically transitions to the opposite binary gender and integrates into mainstream society. In order to gain access to medical care, many trans patients present a hyper-binary self-narrative that emphasizes bodily distress and minimizes any uncertainty or gender nonconformity. Medical and community discourses coalesce into a normative model that is upheld as the only image of trans identity, thereby excluding those who do not fit the narrative.
introduction
“Gender dysphoria is manifested in a variety of ways, including strong desires to be treated as the other gender or to be rid of one’s sex characteristics, or a strong conviction that one has feelings and reactions typical of the other gender.” (APA, 2013)
Hanna Jacobsen, Department of Sociology. Supervised by Dr. Aaron Devor
Cai tl yn J en ner Laverne Cox
Johnson terms this normative model transnormativity: “an ideology that structures trans identification, experience, and narratives into a realness or trans enough hierarchy that is heavily reliant on accountability to a medically based, heteronormative model” (2016, p. 467-468). These narratives are one way that trans people can make previously marginalized and unstable identities “legible and solidified through the interactional practice of narrative formation” (2016, p. 470). However, individuals who fail to conform to these transnormative medicalized narratives—such as non-binary and non-medically transitioning people— may have their claims to authenticity rejected by both medical providers and other transgender people, subjecting them to micro-aggressions, accusations of being “not trans enough”, and exclusion from community spaces (Hudson, 2017). This is precisely what has occurred on Tumblr.
the theory: transnormativity
Icon image credits:
lullindo on https://picrew.me
Works Cited
Johnson, A. H. (2016). Transnormativity: A new concept and its validation through documentary film about transgender men. Sociological Inquiry, 86(4), 465-491. doi:10.1111/soin.12127
Hudson, W. J. (2017). Not trans enough: How perceptions of others, normativity, and horizontal transphobia create false
transgender authenticity (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (10275063).
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Gender Dysphoria.
https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/educational-resources/dsm-5-fact-sheets Ja zz Je nn ig s
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