Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 34:3 (2024) ► pp.319–346

Interactional and categorial analyses of identity construction in the talk of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals in Japan

ORCID logo
This study explores the identity construction of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals, utilizing membership categorization analysis and multimodal conversation analysis. ‘Identity’ in this study indicates a person’s display of category membership or ascription to category membership, which emerges in social actions. The study illustrates how participants make categories and associated features visible in their social actions through the use of multimodal resources. In particular, the study focuses on the participants’ orientation to Pn-adequate devices, particularly gender as a binary. The analysis shows that the participants’ orientation to gender ideologies, such as gender’s Pn-adequacy, plays a significant role in how they construct their FtM transgender identities.
Keywords: female-to-male (FtM), transgender, identity construction, conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, Japanese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies on transgender identities
  • 3.Gender, categories, and identities in CA and MCA research
  • 4.Data, methods, and research questions
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Self-introduction as an FtM transgender person
    • 5.2Self-introduction with a catchphrase 1: “Previous female”
    • 5.3Storytelling: Recalling the past
    • 5.4Self-introduction with a catchphrase 2: “My body is female, my heart is male”
    • 5.5Self-identification in response to clarification request
    • 5.6Self-identification in response to a ‘gender-free’ question
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20066.fuk
References (36)
References
Antaki, Charles, and Sue Widdicombe. 1998. Identities in Talk. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Burch, Alfred Rue, and Gabriele Kasper. 2016. “Like Godzilla: Enactments and Formulations in Telling a Disaster Story in Japanese.” In Emotion in Multilingual Interaction, ed. by Matt Prior, and Gabriele Kasper, 59–85. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cromwell, Jason. 1999. Transman and FtMs: Identities, Bodies, Gender, and Sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Galbraith, Patrick W., and Jason G. Karlin. 2012. “Introduction: The Mirror of Idols and Celebrity.” In Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture, ed. by Patrick W. Galbraith, and Jason G. Karlin, 1–32. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Getsuyoo kara yofukashi [Monday late show]. 2017, November 6. Directed by Naohiko Maeda. Written by Shinichi Sakurai. Nippon Television Network Corporation.Google Scholar
heinz, matthew. 2016. Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse. Bristol, UK: intellect. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John. 1984. “A Change-of-State Token and Aspects of Its Sequential Placement.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by Maxwell J. Atkinson, and John Heritage, 299–345. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hines, Sally. 2007. TransForming Gender: Transgender Practices of Identity, Intimacy and Care. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Ishida, Vandy. 2017, July 9. “ Kokoro wa otoko karada wa onna geenin Manjiroo-san [His heart is male, his body is female, a comedian Manjiroo].” YouTube video, 10:06. [URL]
Jackson, Clare. 2012. “The Gendered ‘I.’” In Conversation and Gender, ed. by Elizabeth Stokoe, and Susan A. Speer, 31–47. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Austin H. 2016. “Transnormativity: A New Concept and Its Validation through Documentary Film about Transgender Men.” Sociological Inquiry 86 (4): 465–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katsiveli, Stamatina. 2021. “‘It Is This Ignorance We Have to Fight’: Emergent Gender Normativities in an Interview with Greek Transgender Activists.” Gender and Language 15 (2): 158–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kitchannel. 2017, June 1. “ Bucchake kiitemitai shitsumon besuto 5 [Five questions we frankly want to ask].” YouTube video, 3:57. [URL]
Lerner, Gene H., and Celia Kitzinger. 2007. “Introduction: Person-Reference in Conversation Analytic Research.” Discourse Studies 9 (4): 427–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
lgbtq+ primary hub. n.d. “Heteronormativity and Cisnormativity.” Accessed on October 22, 2021. [URL]
Lunsing, Wim. 2005. “The Politics of Okama and Onabe: Uses and Abuses of Terminology Regarding Homosexuality and Transgender.” In Genders, Transgenders, and Sexualities in Japan, ed. by Mark McLelland, and Romit Dasgupta, 81–95. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Maree, Claire. 2013. Oneekotoba ron [Queer language]. Tokyo: Seedosha.Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenzo. 2018. “Multiple Temporalities of Language and Body in Interaction: Challenges for Transcribing Multimodality.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 51 (1): 85–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1986. “Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims.” Human Studies 91: 219–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
RationalWiki, n.d. “Transgender Glossary.” Accessed on October 22, 2021. [URL]
Raymond, Chase W. 2019. “Category Accounts: Identity and Normativity in Sequences of Action.” Language in Society 481: 585–606. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roever, Carsten, and Gabriel Kasper. 2018. “Speaking in Turns and Sequences: Interactional Competence as a Target Construct in Testing Speaking.” Language Testing 35 (3): 331–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1972. “An Initial Investigation of the Usability of Conversational Data for Doing Sociology.” In Studies in Social Interaction, ed. by David Sudnow, 31–74. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
. 1992. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Schutz, Alfred. 1970. On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Speer, Susan A. 2009. “Passing as a Transsexual Woman in the Gender Identity Clinic.” In Theorizing Identities and Social Action, ed. by Margaret Wetherell, 116–138. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stanley, Eric A. 2014. “Gender Self-Determination.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 1 (1–2): 89–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya. 2008. “Stance, Alignment, and Affiliation during Storytelling: When Nodding Is a Token of Affiliation.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (1): 31–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth. 2003. “Mothers, Single Women and Sluts: Gender, Morality and Membership Categorization in Neighbour Disputes.” Feminism & Psychology 13 (3): 317–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth, and Frederick Attenborough. 2014. “Gender and Categorial Systematics.” In Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality, ed. by Susan Ehrlich, Miriam Meyerhoff, and Janet Holmes, 161–179. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ward, Katie. 2020. “Understanding Gender Categorisation in a Binary Society.” In Gender Equality in Changing Times: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Struggles and Progress, ed. by Angela Smith, 107–128. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watson, Rod. 1978. “Categorization, Authorization and Blame-Negotiation in Conversation.” Sociology 12 (1): 105–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yoshimoto Koogyoo Channel. 2009, May 12. “ Yukichi no jikoshookai [Self-introduction of Yukichi].” YouTube video, 1:19. [URL]
Zimman, Lal. 2019. “Trans Self-Identification and the Language of Neoliberal Selfhood: Agency, Power, and the Limits of Monologic Discourse.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2561: 147–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Fukuda, Chie
2024. Female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals’ multimodal and interactional practices in Japanese. Journal of Japanese Linguistics 40:1 ► pp. 59 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.