“Am I going to be alone forever?”
Trans men’s expectations about affective-sexual relationships
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2024.1.42121Keywords:
trans men, transmasculinity, sexuality, conjugal status, marital relationship.Abstract
This study aimed to know the expectations of trans men about their affective-sexual relationships after gender transition. Participated 15 trans men, aged between 20 and 41 years, in the process of hormonization. Individual interviews guided by a semi-structured script were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, and subjected to reflective thematic analysis. The participants recognized that, possibly, they will have more restricted possibilities to engage in affective-sexual relationships after the gender transition, as a result of the corporeal materiality divergent from cisnormativity. Another presumed source of discomfort is the social repudiation, which feeds abjection and sediments the imaginary of exoticization and fetishization of transmasculine bodies, fixing them in sporadic relationships. We conclude that the persistent fixation on the genitalia as the determining sign referent of sexuality shapes and regulates the search for an intimate partner. This perspective reinforces heteronormativity as a gender reassertion strategy.
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