Transmen and Ftms: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities

by Jason Cromwell

Book Overview

Writing as an insider and an anthropologist, Jason Cromwell presents the first in-depth examination of what it means to be a female-bodied transperson. Through extensive participant observation and open-ended interviews, Transmen and FTMs allows female-to-male transsexuals to speak for themselves and reveal aspects of female gender diversity that do not fit into the ready-made categories of male and female.

In clarifying how transmen...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252068254
• ISBN13: 9780252068256
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Ethnography of Female Men

Cromwell provides an interesting ethnography of female men from a FTM perspective in a time when the transgender community is calling for scholarship about transpeople by transcholars. He gives an insider's perspective of a fairly homogenous type of group of transmen that capably provides a few new glimpses into female men's stories.It's a much understudied population, no matter which discipline is framing the work. Also interesting to consider is how US anthropology is more well versed in gender studies of other cultures, so this ethnography provides stories from home that resist being ethnocentric. Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of the text is that it is not theoretically framed by the toxic God-like oppression of the psycho-medicalizing discourse that makes everyday transgender experiences fit into a disease model of gender identity disorder, body dysphoria, social deviancy, and personal deficiency.