|
The
‘Self-Made Man’ as Risky Business: The
Impact of Neo-liberal Discourses on Trans Masculinities
and Politics
Dan
Irving
Institute
of Interdiscipinary Studies
Carleton
University
Ottawa,
Ontario Canada
The
possibilities of transgressing hegemonic borders have
consistently captivated scholar-activists researching
within Trans Studies.
Intellectual commentators have “struck back”
against radical feminist commentary positing
transsexuality as a regressive sex/gender identity (Stone,
1991). Other
scholars assert that freedom from medical and
psychological gatekeepers opens spaces for transcending
hegemonic sex/gender and heteronormative orders (Stryker
1994; Rosario 1996; Bornstein 1994).
Additional commentators focus on the political,
legal, colonial obstacles challenging the development of
transgressive sex/gender variant identities and politics
that offer alternatives to the contemporary social order (Towle
& Morgan 2006; Aizura 2006).
There has little commentary concerning the
relationship of the economy to trans subjectivities.
My
paper addresses this lacuna.
I seek to address current debates on the formation
of trans subjectivities and the ways that sex/gender
identities are mediated, and governed, by power relations.
Working within the framework of critical political economy,
this paper focuses on neo-liberalism and its impact on the
ways that many FTM’s
understand ourselves as (trans) men.
Contributing to recent debates regarding
‘alternative’ masculinities (Halberstam 1998; Hale
1998; Noble 2006), I critique the concept of the
‘self-made man’ as it pertains to the formation of FTM
subjectivities in contemporary North America. (Rubin 2003;
Green 2004).
I
argue that the FTM as ‘self-made man’ reveals tensions
within theorizing counter-hegemonic and transgressive sex/gender
identities. The
usage of this economic parlance to assert the mutability
of sex and the agency of trans individuals to determine
the embodied masculinities can counter progressive trans
theorizing and the functioning political organizations
aiming to achieve justice for trans people.
Expressions such as ‘self-made man’ have a
particular resonance within neo-liberal contexts.
As critical and feminist political economists (Gill
& Bakker 2003) demonstrate, neo-liberal socio-economic
policies and discursive efforts have shifted
conceptualizations of citizenship away from the social and
towards self-sufficient and individualized
“market-man” (Gill 1995).
The
narrative of the ‘entrepreneurial individual’ (within
which the phrase ‘self-made man’ makes Gramscian
‘common sense’) serves a disciplinary function.
This mode of governance fusing masculinity with
self-sufficiency limits the formation of transgressive
trans identities, and fragments trans communities along
class, ‘race’ and gendered lines marginalizing further
the most vulnerable community members.
This
paper has three sections. The first discusses
neo-liberalism with particular emphasis on socio-economic
discourses that have accompanied the shift to the
minimalist state and the decline of social welfare.
The second section reviews the way ‘self-made
men’ denotes independence, and strength within trans
commentary on FTM identities. The third section ties these
seemingly unrelated subjects together through a critical
analysis of the ways in which hegemonic socio-economic
discourses contribute to the “gender order” (Connell
1987). The
concrete impact that socio-economic discourses such as
conceptualizations of the ‘self-made man’ have on
trans theorizing and politics will be expanded upon here.
|
