Interactional and categorial analyses of identity construction in the talk of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals in Japan
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.
Publication history
Table of contents
- Abstract
- Keywords
- 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
- 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
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- References
- Appendix
- Address for correspondence
- Biographical notes
1.Introduction
This study explores identity11.Although this study employs membership categorization analysis (MCA) and conversation analysis (CA), it follows a line of non-CA/MCA transgender research in employing the concepts and terminology of ‘identity/identification’ in addition to those of ‘category/categorization.’ Section 3 clarifies how these sets of concepts and terms are related. construction of female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals,22.This study uses the terms ‘FtM transgender individuals/people’ to refer to the transgender participants because of the participants’ emphasis in the data on the transition from female to male, regardless of their medical/legal status. There are many terms to refer to transgender individuals, who are generally defined as people whose gender identity (the gender with which an individual identifies) does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth (SAAB). ‘Cisgender’ or ‘cis’ refers to those whose gender identity aligns with their SAAB. utilizing membership categorization analysis and multimodal conversation analysis. In this study, ‘identity’ is a person’s “display of, or ascription to, membership of some feature-rich category,” made sequentially relevant to interactional business/social actions, and visible in the use of resources such as the structures of conversation (Antaki and Widdicombe 1998Antaki, Charles, and Sue Widdicombe 1998 Identities in Talk. London: Sage., 2–3). Following this definition, the study illustrates how participants use categories, their features, and multimodal resources (e.g. interactional features, gestures) to accomplish social actions through which identities emerge.
Recent transgender studies have emphasized practices of self-identification (Stanley 2014Stanley, Eric A. 2014 “Gender Self-Determination.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 1 (1–2): 89–91. ). However, as Zimman (2019)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 256: 147–175. pointed out, analyzing identities that participants claim is not sufficient; rather, it is necessary to examine how identities are claimed and how such identities are treated by interlocutors in talk-in-interaction to pursue better understanding of identity construction and gender recognition in society. Conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA) conceive gender and other identities as emerging not only through explicit self-identification (e.g. self-introduction, self-reference), but also through social actions accomplished using categorial and interactional features. Among these features, this study focuses on the participants’ orientation to Pn-adequate devices, particularly those related to gender and based on the ideology that gender is binary and Pn-adequate – that is, that two gender categories can describe all members of a society.
Furthermore, most previous transgender studies’ data are research-generated, with spontaneously produced data limited to text (e.g. autobiographies, blogs). However, the growing visibility of the LGBTQ+ movement and recent technological developments have made available spontaneous data of interaction produced by transgender individuals in media such as YouTube videos and Vlogs. Applying multimodal CA and MCA to such data in the context of Japan, this study examines how the participants evoke, orient to, display, and negotiate their FtM identities in the visible use of categorial and interactional resources. The study thus contributes to transgender and CA/MCA research, as well as to better gender recognition in Japanese society and elsewhere.
2.Previous studies on transgender identities
Criticizing the early clinical-psychology research in which transgender “identities [are] pathologized and controlled by cis people’s impressions, irrespective of individual preferences” (Zimman 2019Zimman, 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 256: 147–175. , 151), Zimman pointed out the problem of researchers’ (etic) views overwhelming individuals’ (emic) ones. Theoretical gender studies (e.g. Butler 1993Butler, Judith 1993 Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.) have discussed individuals’ multiple gender identifications but tend to lack empirical data of participants’ lived experiences. More recent research has started to examine such experiences and identities using ethnography, self-reports, and qualitative/quantitative surveys (e.g. Cromwell 1999Cromwell, Jason 1999 Transman and FtMs: Identities, Bodies, Gender, and Sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.; heinz 2016heinz, matthew 2016 Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse. Bristol, UK: intellect. ; Hines 2007Hines, Sally 2007 TransForming Gender: Transgender Practices of Identity, Intimacy and Care. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.). These studies show transgender people exercising self-determination, asserting alternative identities, and challenging hegemonic gender ideologies such as binary gender, cisnormativity,33.‘Cisnormativity’ is “a discourse based on assumption that cisgender is the norm and privileges this over any other form of gender identity” (lgbtq+ primary hub, n.d.lgbtq+ primary hub n.d. “Heteronormativity and Cisnormativity.” Accessed on October 22, 2021. https://www.lgbtqprimaryhub.com/heteronormativity-cisnormativity). and transnormativity.44.‘Transnormativity’ can be defined in different ways, but here indicates a discourse “that structures transgender experience, identification, and narratives into a hierarchy of legitimacy that is dependent upon medical standards” (Johnson 2016Johnson, Austin H. 2016 “Transnormativity: A New Concept and Its Validation through Documentary Film about Transgender Men.” Sociological Inquiry 86 (4): 465–491. , 465), or more broadly, “the idea that there is only one, normative way to be trans: to pass completely as the opposite binary gender” (RationalWiki, n.d.RationalWiki n.d. “Transgender Glossary.” Accessed on October 22, 2021. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Transgender_glossary).
However, these studies consist of researchers’ descriptions of participants’ challenges and/or conformity to gender ideologies and do not include interactional data from emic perspectives. This is the reason Zimman (2019)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 256: 147–175. suggested focusing on identification as an action to achieve identities in interaction, rather than on identity itself. As discussed below, CA and MCA research has provided some interactional analyses of identity construction through categorial practices from emic perspectives.
3.Gender, categories, and identities in CA and MCA research
As defined above, identity in this study is the display of, or ascription to, category membership to accomplish social actions. It emerges through the visible use of categories and multimodal resources, such as categorial terms, adjacency pairs, repair sequences, and gestures. CA and MCA are systematic methods to explore the use of such resources and the social actions they accomplish. A category consists of a collection based on a ‘membership categorization device’ (MCD), which “unites them [categories] into a team” (Antaki and Widdicombe 1998Antaki, Charles, and Sue Widdicombe 1998 Identities in Talk. London: Sage., 3). For example, categories of ‘father,’ ‘mother,’ and ‘child(ren)’ constitute a collection (or team) based on an MCD of ‘family.’ Once in a category, all members are normatively expected to share certain attributes or characteristics, which Watson (1978)Watson, Rod 1978 “Categorization, Authorization and Blame-Negotiation in Conversation.” Sociology 12 (1): 105–113. called ‘category-bound predicates’ (CBPs). For instance, mothers are normatively expected to take care of children (action/obligation), to be responsible for children’s conduct (responsibility), and so forth. We also use CBPs to explain and describe others or ourselves as incumbents of a category. In this sense, categories have an ‘inference-rich’ nature (Sacks 1992 1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.), in that we can infer many characteristics of a person based on commonsense knowledge about a category to which we consider that person to belong, or vice versa.
Many CA and MCA studies examine the interactional achievement of gender identity, analyzing participants’ actions that make gender relevant in talk-in-interaction. Stokoe and Attenborough (2014Stokoe, 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. , 171) discussed how a ‘category-relevant environment’ is generated in the sequences of an interaction. For example, a first pair part of a question-answer adjacency pair (e.g. ‘What sort of people have visited?’) makes relevant a categorial answer (e.g. ‘gentlemen’). They also argued that gender categories are made relevant in the ‘category-based accounts’ speakers produce in interaction. For example, ‘I do not hit women’ is a category-based account if it occurs in a post-expansion slot following the adjacency pair ‘Did you hit her?’ ‘No.’ By moving from the particular (‘her’) to the general (‘women’), the speaker makes gender categories relevant. Stokoe and Attenborough pointed out that such categorizations are understandable only in a culture where men frequently hit women, arguing for the occasionality of category.
Raymond (2019)Raymond, Chase W. 2019 “Category Accounts: Identity and Normativity in Sequences of Action.” Language in Society 48: 585–606. also offered analyses of category-based accounts. In one example, a TV commercial, a boy is asking a mascot character, Lottie, if she has various toys: Hot Wheels, Nerf balls, and Barbie dolls (turn 1). Lottie shows perplexity (turn 2) and initiates repair on the last item: ‘Barbies?’ The boy then provides a category-invoking account, ‘for my sister’ (turn 3); Lottie accepts this account (turn 4), and goes back to the main sequence. Raymond (2019Raymond, Chase W. 2019 “Category Accounts: Identity and Normativity in Sequences of Action.” Language in Society 48: 585–606. , 592, emphasis original) contended “these participants have COLLABORATIVELY categorized the boy’s asking about Barbie dolls AS ACCOUNTABLE, while also normalizing and legitimizing his asking about them.”
Speer (2009)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. discussed the central role of the recipient of a gender display in a consultation at a gender identity clinic. She analyzed how a transsexual woman waiting for a psychiatrist’s approval for sex-change surgery displayed her female gender identity to him. In such a situation, participants strive to have their displayed identities ratified by others, using various strategies such as ‘appearance attributions’ (references to what one looks like) and gestures considered feminine (e.g. self-grooming). The study demonstrated that the psychiatrist’s various responses (ignoring, rejecting, co-participating, aligning) shaped the patient’s next interactional move. For example, after the psychiatrist does not display explicit alignment with her report of compliments on her appearance accompanied by a self-grooming gesture, the patient produces a downgraded self-assessment. CA has demonstrated that first assessments are often followed by agreement and upgraded second assessments. In this example, the patient exploits this sequentially normative feature to attempt to secure this kind of recipient uptake.
Sacks (1972)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. used gender to exemplify a ‘Pn-adequate collection’ of membership categories. This is a collection consisting of two categories considered adequate for categorizing all members of a population. While gender can no longer be considered a Pn-adequate collection, in 1972, Sacks’s assertion that the entire population could be categorized as male or female may have seemed commonsensical. In fact, the commonsense understanding of gender in various societies is still tied to the gender binary; it is one of the gender ideologies that people orient to, follow, and/or resist, including the participants in this study. Transgender people often struggle with this binary, which is imposed by culture and society (Ward 2020Ward, 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. ).
There are a few CA/MCA studies on transsexual women and MtF transgender individuals (Katsiveli 2021Katsiveli, 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. ; Speer 2009Speer, 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. ; Ward 2020Ward, 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. ), but none specifically focusing on FtM transgender participants, to my knowledge. This study therefore offers a first analysis of the identity construction of FtM transgender individuals, focusing on their orientation to gender-based Pn-adequate categorial devices and other gender ideologies.
4.Data, methods, and research questions
This study adopts multimodal CA, which explores “all relevant resources that are mobilized by participants to build and interpret the public intelligibility and accountability of their situated action” (e.g. grammar, lexicon, gesture, gaze) relative to the organization of the action (Mondada 2018Mondada, Lorenzo 2018 “Multiple Temporalities of Language and Body in Interaction: Challenges for Transcribing Multimodality.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 51 (1): 85–106. , 86). Research taking this approach has demonstrated that embodied and other features co-occurring with talk play an important role in achieving social actions, such as displaying affective stances.55.‘(Affective) stance’ indicates “the teller’s affective treatment of the event he or she is describing” (Stivers 2008Stivers, 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. , 37), which can be displayed through multi-semiotic resources and interactional practices (Burch and Kasper 2016Burch, 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. ). MCA is also utilized because participants’ orientation to categorial knowledge and inference affects talk’s sequential organization and recipient design,66.‘Recipient design’ refers to the fact that participants design their talk for specific recipients (Sacks 1992 1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.), producing utterances including categorizations in accordance with the presumed knowledge of the other speakers (Stokoe 2003Stokoe, Elizabeth 2003 “Mothers, Single Women and Sluts: Gender, Morality and Membership Categorization in Neighbour Disputes.” Feminism & Psychology 13 (3): 317–344. ). and categories regularly co-occur with other features of talk (Stokoe and Attenborough 2014Stokoe, 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. ).
This study’s data are Japanese YouTube videos and a segment of a TV show. In Japan and elsewhere, with the rise of the LGBTQ+ movement in the 2010s, FtM transgender individuals started to appear in public discourses. Some of the data are produced by third parties, while some of them are produced and shared by FtM transgender people themselves. This study selected data in which FtM transgender participants identify themselves as such and their interlocutors treat them as such in the sequence of interaction (except for Extract [1], a monologue consisting of a multi-unit turn).
The study also analyzes the role of post-production techniques (Maree 2013Maree, Claire 2013 Oneekotoba ron [Queer language]. Tokyo: Seedosha.), including thumbnails and telops (television opaque projectors).77.‘Telops’ are screen captions used in visual media to emphasize specific facts or phrases from the video, to give contextual information, and to create emotional effects (Galbraith and Karlin 2012Galbraith, 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. ). This term is not commonly used outside of East Asia (e.g. Japan, Korea, Taiwan). In some of the YouTube videos, post-production editing is also a resource for self-expression because it is mobilized by the participants themselves, reflecting their own intentions and recipient design, unlike products of a third party (e.g. TV shows). The study addresses two research questions:
-
How do the participants use categories, associated features (in particular, Pn-adequate devices), and multimodal resources (e.g. structures of conversation, gestures) to accomplish social actions through which FtM identities emerge?
-
What role do gender ideologies (e.g. the gender binary) play in such identity construction?
5.Analysis
5.1Self-introduction as an FtM transgender person
Extract (1) is from a YouTube channel introducing an FtM transgender entertainer, Yukichi, uploaded in 2009. It is a promotional video created by an entertainment agency, Yoshimoto Koogyoo.88.This data likely is edited to reflect the agency’s intentions in addition to Yukichi’s. The video is Yukichi’s self-introduction without an interlocutor, thus apparently not interaction but a monologue consisting of a multi-unit turn. It is nevertheless a social action of speaking to an imaginary audience, which “require[s] recipient design of talk” (Roever and Kasper 2018Roever, 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. , 350).
In the thumbnail and the very beginning of the video, a telop ‘the first onabe 99.The term onabe can be derogatory. However, what any term signifies varies depending on the context and changes over time (Lunsing 2005Lunsing, 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.) – which is why analyzing how a term is used in interaction is important. [FtM transgender] entertainer of Yoshimoto, Yukichi’ is displayed. The categorial term onabe with the MCD of transgender status and his male-specific name, Yukichi, orient audiences to him as such. As Jackson (2012)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. discussed, category terms are used to describe people in order to draw attention to their categorial membership. The word ‘first’ also works as an attention-drawer. Such a beginning builds ‘topical relevance,’ where an object (in this case, FtM transgender identity) becomes ‘thematized’ or made the ‘topic at hand’ (Schutz 1970Schutz, Alfred 1970 On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press., 26). In Extract (1), Yukichi’s self-introduction appears to be designed to orient to the topic established as relevant by the initial telop and to the categorial knowledge of an imaginary audience.
In this study’s transcripts, embodied actions are shown in the line above the Japanese utterance so readers familiar with Japanese can easily see when they occur (the doer of the action is indicated by the lowercase initial). Transcript conventions and interlinear gloss abbreviations appear in the Appendix.
Y = Yukichi; Tel = Telop
01 Tel: yoshimoto hatsu no onabe tarento desu.
Yoshimoto first LK FtM entertainer Cop
(The first onabe [FtM] entertainer of Yoshimoto Koogyoo)
02 Y: yoshimoto koogyoo no yukichi to
Yoshimoto koogyoo LK Yukichi QT
03 [mooshimasu.
say
I’m Yukichi of Yoshimoto Koogyoo.
Tel: [yoshimoto hatsu no onabe tarento Yukichi
(The first onabe [FtM] entertainer Yukichi)
04 Y: boku no koto, o shiranai kata ga hotondo da to omou
I LK thing O not.know people S almost.all Cop QT think
05 nde(0.2)kantanni jikoshookai sashitemoraitai to omoimasu.
because briefly self-introduction want.to.do QT think
I would like to briefly introduce myself because most of you don’t know me, I think.
06 e:, toshi wa nijuuyon-sai.
FIL age Top 24.years.old
Well, I’m 24 years old.
07 seebetsu wa, >ano<
gender/sex Top FIL
Speaking of my gender/sex, um,
+lowers gaze----------+*shifts gaze to camera
08 +danshi to iitaitokoro+*na n desu kedo
male QT want.to.say Cop Nom Cop but
I want to say male, but
+shifts gaze upward*shifts gaze to camera
09 +josee::: *de
female Cop
I’m a female, and
10 maa, onabe tteyuu koto na n desu
FIL FtM QT Nom Cop Nom Cop
+lowers gaze and shifts gaze upward
11 kedomo+(0.3)
but
well, I’m a so-called onabe [‘FtM transgender’].
+shifts gaze to camera, sits up *shifts gaze to side
12 +ma, shoorai no yume wa desu ne,*ano: onna no hito to(.)
FIL future LK dream Top Cop IP FIL woman LK person with
Um, my future dream is, to a woman,
+shifts gaze to camera
13 +[josee to kekkonsuru koto ga yume desu. ((smile))
female with get.married Nom S dream Cop
getting married to a female is my dream.
Tel: [josee to kekkon suru yume
(The dream of getting married to a woman)
14 Y: ato, jibunjishin ((smile))
also myself
15 obaachan janakute ojiichan ni narit(h)ai desu.
grandma not.but grandpa to want.to.become Cop
Also, I myself want to become not a grandma but a grandpa.
16 e:, geenoo katsudoo o, shiteiku uede desu ne,
FIL entertainment activity O will.do regarding Cop IP
Uhm, speaking of my future entertainment activity,
17 ma, ima nyuuhaafu, hh san (0.2) ga >kekkoo ano<
FIL now MtF san S pretty FIL
18 terebi ni >deteru to omou n desu kedomo<
TV on appear QT think Nom Cop but
there are many MtF celebrities on TV now, but
19 ma, onabe no kata ga (0.2) deteinai toyuu koto de((smile))
FIL FtM LK people S have.not.appear QT Nom Cop
FtMs haven’t appeared, so
20 ma boku:: ga onabekai o (0.2)
FIL I S world.of.FtM O
21 moriageteiketaranaa to >omottemasu.<
hope.to.be.able.to.liven.up QT think
I hope to be able to liven up the world of FtM celebrities.
After giving his name and age, Yukichi introduces the topic of seebetsu (line 7), which can signify ‘sex,’ ‘gender’ or both in Japanese. Considering that such a topic is uncommon in a self-introduction, Yukichi’s topic selection appears designed to preface his upcoming talk about his transgender status, orienting to the established topical relevance and the audience, whom he treats as not knowledgeable about the FtM transgender category. By so doing, he makes the MCD of sex/gender and relevant categories consequential to the following self-introduction.
When producing utterances about his sex/gender (lines 7–9), Yukichi first displays a category-bound affective stance (‘I want to say male,’ line 8) with a categorial term, otoko ‘male/man.’ This formulation implies his non-male status and that something prevents him from identifying himself as male. Hence, ‘male/man’ in line 8 is hearable as a category of ‘cisgender men’ who have male gender identity and male SAAB; Yukichi expresses that he wishes to be a member of this category but can claim only the gender identity. While producing this utterance, he lowers his gaze from the camera, showing a lack of confidence to assert himself as male on the basis of his gender identity alone. Then, returning his gaze to the camera, Yukichi adds the contrast marker kedo ‘but’ and produces another categorial term, josee ‘female,’ thus describing his incumbency in the ‘female’ category based on the MCD of SAAB. This stance formulation (‘I want to say … but’) displays a conflict, in that his SAAB does not allow him to assert a male identity, thereby constructing his identity as a ‘female-bodied man’ (Cromwell 1999Cromwell, Jason 1999 Transman and FtMs: Identities, Bodies, Gender, and Sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.). When producing the word josee ‘female,’ he averts his gaze from the camera and delays an affirmative copula de by elongating the final vowel of josee. These embodied actions and the delayed copula demonstrate his reluctance to identify himself as female.
Yukichi’s utterances show his orientation to a Pn-adequate collection of membership categories, specifically binary gender. In this categorization, both MCDs of gender identity and SAAB consist of categories of male and female, with no room for alternative categories. Yukichi’s utterance design (‘I want to say male, but I’m a female’) indicates ‘if not male, then female,’ which excludes those who assert non-binary gender identities.
Furthermore, this utterance and hesitation show that these categorizations do not allow for incongruence between the MCDs (gender identity and SAAB), thereby demonstrating Yukichi’s orientation to cisnormativity. Orienting to this Pn-adequacy (as normal) and his deviation from it (as non-normal), as displayed through features of talk design (topic selection, stance formulation) and embodied hesitation and reluctance, he categorizes himself as an incumbent of a non-normative category of onabe ‘FtM transgender’ (line 10).
After the 0.3 second pause during which he averts his gaze from the camera, from line 12, Yukichi displays more confidence in several ways: he returns his gaze to the camera, straightens his back, smiles, and starts giving further information about himself. He asserts his desire to marry a woman, with emphasis in a louder voice on the word ‘woman.’ Getting married to a woman is considered a category-bound activity (CBA) of a heterosexual man with a sex/legal male identity based on MCDs of sexual orientation and sex/legal status.1010.Note that it cannot be a CBA of a homosexual woman in Japan, where, as of 2023, same-sex marriage is not legal, and a legal sex change requires medical intervention. Just like the reference to his sex/gender in line 7, the topic of a marriage partner’s gender/sex is uncommon. Consequently, this topic selection is a way of claiming an identity as a heterosexual transgender man. Then, Yukichi describes another desire of his, to be not a grandma but a grandpa. This contrastive pair (whose MCDs are sex/gender and age/life stage) is also based on the Pn-adequacy of gender categories.
Finally, Yukichi concludes his self-introduction with his wish to liven up the FtM entertainment world as an incumbent of the category of onabe entertainer. In lines 18–19, he produces a contrastive pair of nyuuhaafu ‘MtF transgender’ and onabe ‘FtM transgender’ based on the MCD of transgender status. This pair also constitutes a Pn-adequate collection of ‘FtM’ and ‘MtF.’
In this extract, Yukichi is situated in a task of self-introduction with limited time and specific topical relevance. Orienting to this task, Yukichi elaborates on his incumbency in the onabe category, namely, onabe identity. Therefore, Yukichi produces further utterances relevant to this identity, rather than other personal information. Such topicalization of onabe identity may also reflect the invisibility of FtM transgender people in Japan as of 2009, as indicated by the description of Yukichi as the ‘first’ onabe entertainer. Similar uses of categorial terms in thumbnails and at the beginnings of videos are observed in the following extracts.
5.2Self-introduction with a catchphrase 1: “Previous female”
Some FtM YouTubers orient to audiences unfamiliar with transgender individuals (recipient design) by using categorial terms in thumbnails and phrases positioned at the beginning of each episode as a ritualized way to introduce themselves. A phrase used in this way is called kyacchifureezu ‘catchphrase’ in Japanese.1111. Kyacchifureezu is a Japanese cultural item despite the name coming from the English ‘catchphrase.’ Meaning a simple but ‘catchy’ phrase, it originated in advertising slogans, and is also used for/by celebrities to symbolize the person, like Steve Martin’s “just a wild and crazy guy.” Extracts (2) and (3) are from a serialized YouTube video, Kitchannel, created by two FtM transgender YouTubers, Eito and Kanata. In the first episode, when they explain why they started the channel (not shown), they say they hoped to inform audiences of the existence of moto joshi ‘previous females’ toward better societal understanding of FtM transgender individuals. With this explicit explanation of its purpose, the channel established topical relevance in its first episode, making transgender categories more relevant than others, and thereby generating a category-relevant environment. The thumbnail of the episode from which Extract (2) comes says ‘Top five candid questions we/audience members want to ask previous females.’
E = Eito; K = Kanata; Tel = telop
01 Tel: bucchake kininaru moto joshi genzai danshi
to.be.frank curious previously female currently male
02 shitsumon shitai koto
question want.to.ask Nom
(To be frank, we audiences are curious about those who are previously female and
currently male. Here are some questions we want to ask.)
03 E: hai doomo. kittochanneru no ojikan desu.
hi PM kitchannel LK time Cop
Hello and welcome. It’s time for the Kitchannel.
04 [<moto> joshi no eito to
previous female LK Eito and
I’m previously female Eito and
Tel: [moto joshi eito
(Previous female Eito)
05 K: [moto joshi no Kanata desu.
previous female LK Kanata Cop
I’m previously female Kanata.
Tel: [moto joshi kanata
(Previous female Kanata)
The opening telop (lines 1–2) includes the phrase moto joshi genzai danshi ‘previous(ly) female, current(ly) male,’ demonstrating the two speakers’ orientation to the Pn-adequacy of gender/sex categories and to their transition from female to male. In the first episode (not shown), Eito and Kanata informed audiences that they had both undergone medical/legal sex changes. Therefore, the MCDs of this phrase, ‘previous female (current male),’ are medical and legal sex status (and time). Throughout the series, they begin each episode with this phrase accompanying the telop. In addition to this position (i.e. recurrent opening), the phrase’s two contrastive pairs of male-female (MCD: sex/gender) and past-present (MCD: time) with the rhyme of -shi make it hearable as a catchphrase (i.e. it is ‘catchy’ and symbolic).1212.My thanks to a reviewer for this observation. As in Extract (1), the use of categorial terms at the beginning of a talk establishes topical relevance and tends to produce a category-relevant environment, as seen in Extract (3).
5.3Storytelling: Recalling the past
In Extract (3), Eito and Kanata answer one of their audience’s five most frequently asked questions.
E = Eito; K = Kanata; Tel = telop; SE = sound effect
01 E: itsukara otoko ni naritai to omotteita no? desu ne. hh=
since.when man to want.to.become QT thought Q Cop IP
The first question is “Since when did you want to become a man?”
02 K: =meccha [kikareru.
very.often be.asked
This is very often asked.
03 E: [hahaha.1313.
Hahaha indicates laughter, as does fufufu in Extract (4).
04 SE: ((chime))
05 E: [maa kore wa akumademo bokutachi no hanashi tte koto o ne,
INT this Top just our LK story QT Nom O IP
Well, this is just limited to our particular cases.
Tel: [bokutachi no baai no hanashi desu.
(Our particular cases).
06 K: un.
yeah
Yeah.
07 E: >oboetoite moraetara to omou n desu kedo<
remember have.you QT think Nom Cop but
I would like you to remember that.
08 boku wa、>sansai kurai< monogokorotuita toki ni
I Top 3-year.old around ever.since.remember when at
09 jibun no koto o otoko da to omotteite
self LK Nom O man Cop QT think.and
In my case, I’ve thought of myself as a boy ever since I remember, around three years old,
and,
10 K: un.
yeah
Yeah.
11 E: [nande boku no randoseru ga aka na n da?
why I LK bookbag S red Cop Nom Co
Why is my school bookbag red?
Tel: [nande randoseru ga aka na no?
(Why is my school bookbag red?)
12 K: unun.
uh-huh
Uh-uhm.
13 E: dondon otona ni natteiku nitsurete
more.and.more adult to will.become along.with
14 seijinin ga >hakkirishita toki ni<
gender.identity S become.clear when at
When my gender identity became clear, as I was becoming more and more of an adult,
15 [a, onna, yatta n ya:=
oh woman Cop Nom Cop
“Oh, I’m a woman.”
Tel: [“a … onna yatta n ya …”
(“Oh … I’m a woman…”)
16 K: =un.
uh-huh
Uh-huh.
17 E: otoko janai n ya, otoko ya to omotteta noni na,
man not.be Nom Cop man Cop QT was.thinking but IP
“Not a man. Even though I was thinking of myself as a man.”
18 tteyuu tokoro kana?
QT Nom wonder
Something like that.
19 K: [jibun ga onna tteyuu no wa wakatteta.
self S woman QT Nom Top knew
I knew I was a girl.
Tel: [onna da toyuu koto wa wakatteita yooshooki
(My childhood knowing I was a girl.)
20 K: otoko, onna tteyuu koto o anmari kangaeta koto ga nakute:=
man woman QT Nom O hardly thought Nom S not.and
I hardly thought of being a man or woman, and
21 E: =hoo.
oh
Oh.
22 K: renai taishoo ga
romance target S
23 E: un.
yeah
Yeah.
24 K: ˚onnanoko yatta toki [ni:˚
girl Cop when at
When I had romantic feelings toward girls,
25 E: [haihaihai.
yeah.yeah.yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26 K: mawari, no >onnanoko wa< minna [otoko ga sukide:
around LK girl Top all boy O like.and
girls around me, all of them liked boys, and
27 E: [oo, oo, oo.
yeah yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28 K: sore ga futsuu:, mitaina.
that S normal like
It’s like, that’s normal.
29 K: [jibun no kimochi ga otoko na n ya tte
self LK feeling S man Cop Nom Cop QT
30 kiduiteitta tte toko kana.
come.to.realize QT Nom wonder
That’s how I realized my gender identity as a man.
Tel: [otoko toshite onnannoko ga suki to kiduku.
man as girl O like QT realize
(I realized my gender identity as a man who is attracted to women.)
31 E: naruhodo ne. ironna hito ga iru to omou n de:,
I.see IP various people S exist QT think Nom Cop
I see. I think there are a variety of people, so
32 maa, akumademo sankoo teedo ni.
INT just for.your.information degree to
our stories are just for your information.
The question using the phrase otoko ni naritai ‘want to become a man’ (line 1) initiates a category-relevant environment, because it is recipient-designed specifically for an answerer who wanted to become a man. The question thus reveals the answerers’ non-man status in the past, as analyzed in Extract (1). Otoko ‘man/male’ in the question is hearable as a category of male whose MCDs are sex and legal status, which Eito and Kanata actually changed. By answering this category-specific question, Eito and Kanata affirm their incumbency in an FtM transgender category.
In line 8, Eito starts talking about his childhood to answer the question. Given his claim that he never doubted he was a boy and later recognized his deviation from that category (line 17), his use of otoko ‘man/male’ here (line 9, ‘boy’ in translation) refers to a category of cisgender male, with male sex and legal status. Eito then produces further turns to describe his early gender dysphoria, displaying his stance of wondering about the incongruence between his gender identity and his red bookbag (a cultural gender index: in Japan at the time, bookbags were red for girls and black for boys).
Eito then displays his affective stance of disappointment when he realized he was not a man. Considering that he realized this at puberty, when his gender identity became clear, onna ‘woman/female’ in line 15 is a category whose MCD is SAAB. This stance is evidenced in the utterance emphasized by the telop ‘oh (…) I’m a woman’ (line 15). The change of state token a ‘oh’ (Heritage 1984Heritage, 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.) and the pragmatic marker n da (n ya in the transcript, a Western Japan dialect form) index his noticing and surprise. In line 17, Eito further displays his disappointment when he found himself not to be a man, using the conjunction noni ‘but,’ which indicates the speaker’s disappointment/dissatisfaction about something contrary to his/her expectation. Thus, by displaying affective stances of realization and disappointment about not being sexually and legally male but female instead, Eito shows his non-incumbency in either of the categories (i.e. cisgender male or cisgender female). Through such categorial deviation, he constitutes his identity as an FtM transgender individual.
In contrast to Eito, Kanata describes knowing he was a girl but hardly thinking about whether he was male or female as a child. Then, in line 22, he opens the topic of his romantic feelings toward girls. Kanata generalizes about the other girls around him, who liked boys, using the extreme case formulation (Pomerantz 1986Pomerantz, Anita 1986 “Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims.” Human Studies 9: 219–229. ) minna ‘all’ (line 26) and assessing them as futsuu ‘normal’ (line 28), thereby evoking the category of ‘heterosexual girl’ (with MCDs of sexual orientation and sex/gender) as normal and himself as non-normal. Like the desire to marry a female (Extract [1]), a romantic feeling toward girls is a CBP of heterosexual boys. In lines 29–30, Kanata claims he realized his gender identity as a man when he realized he possessed this CBP (sexual orientation) of heterosexual boys, a claim restated in the telop, ‘I realized my gender identity as a man who is attracted to girls’ (line 30). Thus, by claiming his deviation from the category of ‘heterosexual girls,’ Kanata displays his gender identity as a heterosexual boy with a female SAAB, thereby claiming FtM transgender identity. These stories reveal the speakers’ orientation to Pn-adequate categories, such as cisgender male/female and (heterosexual) boys/girls, from which they deviate.
From a CA perspective, the question ‘since when did you want to become a man?’ can be answered with one turn (e.g. ‘at puberty’) that completes the adjacency pair. Instead, both Eito and Kanata produce further turns (post-expansion sequences), orienting to the purpose of their channel. In particular, this question asks for the history of their transgender experience, which requires them to elaborate their answers.
In lines 5–7 and 31–32, Eito warns the audience that their stories are just two among many. This action indicates his awareness of the risk of overgeneralizing.1414.It may also suggest other gender variant categories not relying on Pn-adequate devices (e.g. non-binary, X-gender). It is also hearable as mild resistance to transnormativity. Extracts (4) and (5) also demonstrate such resistance, offered by an FtM transgender comedian, Manjiroo, through his self-identification practice.
5.4Self-introduction with a catchphrase 2: “My body is female, my heart is male”
Extracts (4) and (5) are from a YouTube video of a weekly radio show hosted by Vandy and an assistant, Aya, whose guest is Manjiroo. The topic of the day is diversity. The show begins with a thumbnail, ‘His heart is male, his body is female,’ thus invoking the FtM transgender category and orienting the audience to it. In the extract, this phrase reversed is used twice to describe Manjiroo, first by Aya, and then by Manjiroo himself. This repeated use of the same phrase in different forms in close proximity makes it hearable as a catchphrase for Manjiroo.
V = Vandy, host; A = Aya, assistant; M = Manjiroo, FtM comedian, guest
01 V: e:, kyoo no gesuto, chotto yuniiku na n desu kedo
FIL today LK guest a.bit unique Cop Nom Cop but
well, today’s guest is a bit unique.
02 A: hai.
Yes
Yes.
((lines omitted))
07 A: karada wa onna, kokoro wa[(0.1)]otoko
body Top female heart Top man
His body is female and his heart is male,
08 V: [hai ]
yes
Yes.
09 hai.
yes
Yes.
10 A: geenin no manjiroo-san ni okoshiitadakimashita.
comedian LK Manjiroo O have.him.come
We have a guest, the comedian Manjiroo.
11 V manjiroo-san [yoroshiku onegaishimasu:]::::.
manjiroo PM
Manjiroo, nice to meet you.
12 M [hai, ari[gatoo gozaimasu].
yes thank.you
Yes, thank you for having me.
13 A: [wa::::: ]
yeah
Yeaaah.
m +hand gestures---------------------+(see Figures 1 and 2)
14 M: +karada wa onna, kokoro wa otoko+, manjiroo[desu.
body Top female heart Top male manjiroo Cop
My body is female and my heart is male, I am Manjiroo.
15 A: [fufufu.
16 M: yoroshiku onegaiitashima::su.
PM
Nice to meet you.
In line 1, Vandy assesses today’s guest as ‘unique,’ which orients the audience to Manjiroo as such. Following Aya’s introduction citing his catchphrase (line 7), Manjiroo introduces himself by repeating it (line 14). The phrase refers to two categorial collections with different MCDs. One is gender identity (i.e. kokoro ‘heart’), and the other is SAAB (i.e. karada ‘body’), and both are used here as Pn-adequate, consisting of male and female categories only.
By clearly announcing his position between these MCDs (male gender identity and female SAAB), Manjiroo establishes his incumbency in the FtM transgender category and claims an identity as a ‘female-bodied man.’ Accompanying his words in line 14, he mobilizes common hand gestures in Japan that symbolize women (Figure 1; raised little finger) and men (Figure 2; raised thumb) to visually emphasize the incongruency between his gender identity and SAAB categories.
Manjiroo’s catchphrase exemplifies the emphasis, noted by Zimman (2019Zimman, 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 256: 147–175. , 162), on the “disalignment between gender identity and ‘biological sex’” that makes contemporary understandings of trans identity possible, in contrast to traditional transnormativity (see footnote 4). Manjiroo thus resists a transnormativity that requires a particular kind of body/sex along with a particular gender identity, as becomes clear in his storytelling in Extract (5).
5.5Self-identification in response to clarification request
Before Extract (5), Manjiroo told his personal history and Vandy provided an upshot of it, saying that he relocated from Hokkaido to Osaka, where he initially tried to pass as male while feeling guilty about doing so.
V = Vandy, host; A = Aya, assistant; M = Manjiroo, FtM comedian, guest
41 V: de:, (.)ima wa chi(h)gau to.
and now Top different QT
And, (you say) you’re changed now.
42 M: (u)ima wa moo:::::, bootoo de mo itta toori
now Top now beginning at also said as
Now, as I said at the beginning, too,
43 karada wa onna, kokoro wa otoko tte yuu
body Top female heart Top male QT say
44 toransu:, no bubun o astukatta neta o omoni[shite]masu kara:,
transgender LK part O treat material O mainly do because
I’m mainly doing material focusing on transgender things, like ‘my body is female, my
heart is male,’ so
45 A: [hai ]
yes
Yes.
46 V: °aa::.°
ah
Ah.
47 M: ano:, aete, soko:, o, u:n,
FIL intentionally that O FIL
well, I, intentionally, u:m,
48 jibun wa karada ijittari suru wake de mo naku
self Top body alter.like do reason Cop even not
I don’t do things like altering my body,
49 shujutsu[shita]ri suru wake de mo naku[, ]
have.surgery.like do reason Cop even not
having surgery, or
50 A: [hai ] [hai]
yes yes
Yes, yes.
v +nods---+
51 V: +°a[h.°]+
ah
Ah.
v +drops jaw(Figure 3)------------------------+
52 M: [ano:],+horumon chuusha uttari suru wake >ja nai<+
FIL hormone shot get.like do reason Cop not
um, getting hormone shots.
53 akumademo neichaa.
thoroughly nature
I’m thoroughly natural.
54 A: hai.
yes
Yes.
55 M: shi[zenha ].
naturalist
I’m a naturalist.
56 A: [shizentai].
natural.being
Just being oneself.
57 M: hahahaha.
58 A: neichaa.
nature.
Nature.
59 M: shizenha toransujenda[a: ] na nde[: ]
naturalist transgender Cop because
I’m a natural transgender, so
60 A: [hai] [hai]
yes yes
Yes, yes.
61 V: u:n.
uhm
Uhm.
62 M: ano, do↑ko de, e, baransu totteikoo kana tte
FIL where at FIL balance continue.to.take wonder QT
63 [omotta] toki[ni ]
thought when
well, when I wondered how to find a balance somewhere,
64 A: [un. ]
yeah.
Yeah.
65 V: [un.]
yeah
Yeah.
66 M: >maa< owarai ni henkan shitara
FIL comic.performance to convert do.when
67 maa, jibun ga raku yatta tte [yuu] hanashi desu yo ne.
FIL self S easy Cop QT say story Cop IP IP
well, when I converted it to comic performance, well, that’s when I felt comfortable.
That’s the story.
68 A: [hai]
yes
Yes.
69 V: kore demo tsuyoi: toyuuka ne, ano::, ma,
this but strong PM IP FIL FIL
How should I put this? He is strong, or something like that, well,
70 jibun o ukeireru koto tte >moo< ichiban da↑iji ya mon ne.
self O accept Nom QT EMP most important Cop because IP
accepting ourselves as we are is most important, isn’t it?
71 A: hai.((nods))
yes
Yes.
72 M: unun.
yeah.yeah
Yeah, yeah.
Before this extract, Manjiroo displayed an affective stance of guilt about passing as a cisgender man, thus invoking his past orientation to cisnormativity and indicating that he has changed. Upon Vandy’s confirmation request (‘you say you’re changed now,’ line 41), Manjiroo does not provide an immediate response. Instead, in lines 42–44, he first produces an account that makes incongruence between gender identity and SAAB relevant to his current situation: his comedy now centers on transgender material. He continues to delay providing a direct answer by producing elongated vowels and fillers and finally abandoning the predicate/verb of his ‘intentional’ action (line 47). Then, in lines 48–49 and 52, he begins to respond to the confirmation request with a self-description. He first lists activities that he does not do, such as having surgery and getting hormone shots, which can be considered category-bound to transgender people. He thus partitions the transgender category into two kinds, those who alter their bodies and those who do not, and claims incumbency in the latter.
Upon hearing this, Vandy first acknowledges it (line 51), then displays surprise with a jaw-dropped facial expression (line 52, Figure 3), which may reveal his transnormativity, particularly the ideology that being trans requires medical interventions. By asserting his decision to keep his female body, and repeatedly announcing it through his catchphrase, Manjiroo challenges this transnormativity. In contrast to Vandy, Aya keeps acknowledging and aligning with Manjiroo’s disaffiliation with medical interventions by providing continuers.
In line 53, Manjiroo describes himself as ‘thoroughly natural,’ and identifies himself as shizenha (line 55), literally, ‘group/faction of naturalists.’ Aya affiliates with this term, using a similar word shizentai ‘just being oneself’ and repeating neichaa ‘nature/natural.’ This categorization as shizenha ‘natural transgender’ exemplifies what heinz (2016heinz, matthew 2016 Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse. Bristol, UK: intellect. , 218) called “transmasculine consciousness as being rather than becoming”: rather than becoming a man through medical interventions, Manjiroo appears to choose being a man by embracing male gender identity alone.
In line 59, Manjiroo again categorizes himself as shizenha toransujendaa ‘natural transgender’ and uses this categorization to account for his past difficulty in finding balance. He does not say what kind of balance, but given the category-based account (‘because I am a natural transgender’), it is hearable as balance between his female body and male heart. He further explains that performing comedy helped him find a balance between his gender identity and SAAB, and concludes the story by expressing his affective stance of relief once he decided to live with a female SAAB and male gender identity. Vandy affiliates with this ‘natural transgender’ identity, providing a positive assessment of Manjiroo’s acceptance of being himself as ‘strong,’ and an upgrade of self-acceptance as ‘most important.’ Thus, Manjiroo and the interlocutors co-construct his natural transgender identity, dismissing transnormativity.
5.6Self-identification in response to a ‘gender-free’ question
The data analyzed thus far have explicit topical relevance to FtM transgender experiences, which makes the category sequentially relevant in the interactions. However, this is not the case in Extract (6), in which gender categories are completely irrelevant until the participants make them relevant in interaction.
Extract (6) is from a variety TV show consisting of street interviews. In this episode, the interviewer asks passersby an open-ended question about their personally significant news in 2017. Thus, the first pair part of the adjacency pair is totally ‘gender-free.’ The interviewees in Extract (6) are, at a glance, a pair comprising a woman and a man (names unknown).
M = man; W = woman; I = interviewer; N = narration; A = audience; SE = sound effect; Tel = telop
01 M: kano(.)jo no, onii tomodachi daiichigoo ni nari[mashita.]
her LK onii friend first.one to became
I became her first onii friend.
w +smile-→
02 W: [+a:h, ]
INT
Yeah,
w smiles--------------+
03 W: soo na n desu yo.+ hh
so Cop Nom Cop IP
that’s right.
04 A: [((laugh))
05 I: [nani, onii tomodachi tte.
what onii friend QT
What’s an ‘onii friend’?
m +points to himself+
06 M: boku, o- +onee ja nakute + onii na n desu yo.
I onee Cop not.and onii Cop Nom Cop IP
I’m not ‘onee’ but ‘onii.’
07 SE: ((Drum))
08 N: [onee naranu onii.]
onee not.but onii
Not ‘onee’ but ‘onii.’
Tel: [onee naranu onii.]((in large font))
(Not ‘onee’ but ‘onii.’)
09 I: motomoto:, josee tte koto?=
originally female QT Nom
You mean you were originally female?
m +waves both hands outward+
10 M: =+moo massarana+ josee desu.
Emp completely.pure female Cop
I’m a completely pure female.
m +smiles------------------------→
11 I: ((to W)) +doo desu ka, sesshite mite.
how Cop Q hang.out.with try
How do you feel hanging out with him?
m smiles-----------→
12 W: yasahii, omoshiroi=
nice funny
He’s nice and funny.
m smiles---------------------------+
m +points to camera with thumbs-up+
13 M: =+iyaaaaaa.+
INT
Yeaaaaaah.
14 A: haha[haha.
15 I: [nani taberu no korekara?
what eat Q now
What are you guys on your way to eat?
16 M: nan da to omoimasu?
what Cop QT think
What do you think?
17 I: nabe kana?
nabe wonder
Maybe nabe [hot-pot]?
18 M: [>da↑↓re ga onabe ya.<((laughs))]
who S onabe Cop
Who’s calling me ‘onabe’!?
Tel: [dare ga onabe ya. ]((in larger font))
(Who’s calling me ‘onabe’!?)
19 I?: fuha[haha.
20 A: [hahahaha.
21 W: [((laughs)) umai:=
good
That’s a good one.
m +raises chin up+
22 M: =hh +onii da wa,+ ore wa.
onii Cop IP I Top
I’m ‘onii’!
23 A: [hahahaha.
Tel: [nani taberu no?
what eat Q
(What are you guys going to have?)
24 W: °udon.°
udon
Udon [wheat-flour noodles].
25 I: a, udon ne.
oh udon IP
Oh, udon.
26 ka(h)matama kana?
kamatama wonder
Probably kamatama [udon with eggs]?
m +quickly waves right hand side to side+
27 M: >oi< dare ga +[okama ja [nee yo.+
hey who S okama Cop not IP
Hey, who? I’m not ‘okama.’
Tel: [okama ja nee.((in larger font))
(I’m not ‘okama’)
28 A: [hahaha.
m +brandishes right hand at the interviewer+
29 M: [+ore wa onii da wa+, bakayaroo.
I Top onii Cop IP idiot
I’m ‘onii.’ Idiot!
Tel: [ore wa onii da.((in larger font))
(I’m onii.)
In answering to the ‘gender-free’ question, the man explains that he became the woman’s first FtM transgender friend, using a categorial term onii, and the friend aligns with this. This answer exemplifies how speakers “go categorial” (Stokoe and Attenborough 2014Stokoe, 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. , 167) or “move from the particular to the general via categorization” (ibid., 172) in a question-answer adjacency pair. By identifying himself with the categorial term, he categorizes himself as such through the MCD of transgender status. Given that he produces the term without any further explanation, he recipient-designs it, assuming the term onii to be known to the interviewer.
However, the interviewer displays a lack of knowledge and initiates repair (line 5). Instead of giving a definition, the man identifies himself as onii again, juxtaposing it to the better-known, opposite category, onee ‘MtF transgender.’ This contrastive pair, which is emphasized by the narration and telop repeating ‘not onee but onii,’ is Pn-adequate as analyzed in Extract (1).
This Pn-adequacy allows the interviewer to infer onii as the FtM transgender category. The interviewer requests confirmation by asking whether he is originally female (line 9). The phrase ‘originally female’ invokes the man’s transition from female to male, just like ‘previous female’ in Extract (2). In response to the confirmation request, the man describes himself as massarana josee ‘completely pure female’ with the embodied action of waving both hands outward. This gesture with the verbal description draws attention to his body, suggesting that he has not undergone physical alterations. He could have completed the adjacency pair with one word (e.g. ‘Yes’), but instead produces this description, which demonstrates his orientation to his SAAB and, possibly, disinterest in physical alteration. In contrast to Yukichi’s hesitation in Extract (1), this speaker produces his response immediately, suggesting his confidence in being an FtM transgender individual with a female body. And, as with Manjiroo’s remarks in Extract (5), this response is hearable as resistance to transnormativity.
In line 13, immediately after his friend’s positive assessment of his personality, he displays an affective stance of joy and boastfulness with an interjection, proud face, and thumbs-up gesture. These embodied actions demonstrate his stance of satisfaction with her assessment and by extension are hearable as joy in finding an ally, a category-bound affective stance of sexual minorities. In particular, his thumbs-up gesture to the camera appears to be showing off the positive assessment as her first onii friend to the public audience.
From line 15, the interviewer initiates a social action of teasing through wordplay (puns) with the man. In the middle of the question-answer sequence, the interviewee produces an ‘insertion sequence’1616.‘Insertion sequence’ is a sequence of turns that intervenes (or is ‘inserted’) between the first and second parts of an adjacency pair (Levinson 1983Levinson, Stephen C. 1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. , 304–305). and strongly negates the jokingly assigned onabe ‘FtM transgender’ and okama ‘MtF transgender’ identities, displaying (fake) anger. As Lerner and Kitzinger (2007)Lerner, Gene H., and Celia Kitzinger 2007 “Introduction: Person-Reference in Conversation Analytic Research.” Discourse Studies 9 (4): 427–432. discussed, speakers halt the progressivity of talk to repair ostensive trouble regarding self-reference. In this case, the categorial terms onabe and okama become such a trouble source.
After the confirmation request including the word nabe ‘hot-pot’ in line 17, the man refuses an assignment of onabe ‘FtM transgender’ identity1717. Onabe and onii ‘FtM transgender’ (literally, ‘hot-pot’ and ‘big brother’) were generated as back-formations from the better-known terms okama and onee ‘MtF transgender’ (literally, ‘rice-pot’ and ‘big sister’). Onabe and okama can be derogative or not, depending on context. with a rhetorical question (‘who is calling me onabe?’), which conveys stronger rejection than mere negation. Then, in line 22, he asserts his onii identity using an affirmative plain form of the copula da, an assertive interactional particle wa with falling intonation, and inverted word order. He also uses the embodied action of raising his chin along with this assertion. Thus, he displays his strong preference for onii over onabe.
Following a telop (line 23) that repeats the same question, in line 26, the interviewer starts another teasing sequence, alluding to okama ‘MtF transgender’ identity with the word kamatama ‘wheat-flour noodles with eggs.’ In lines 27–29, the man again strongly refutes the assigned identity in a similar manner as he denied onabe identity (with a rhetorical question and a plain form copula da). Along with this refutation, he mobilizes embodied actions, waving his right hand from side to side for negation, brandishing his right hand at the interviewer as if in anger, and uttering an assertive interactional particle yo. He also switches to rough linguistic forms considered (more) masculine, such as an interjection oi ‘hey,’ the contracted negative copula janee ‘be not,’ a male-specific first-person pronoun ore (line 29; instead of boku as in line 6), and a swear word bakayaroo ‘idiot.’ Throughout this exchange, the man resists the interviewer’s miscategorization of him as onabe or okama.
Because this is a segment of a variety show, some editing has been done by the producers to make the interaction laughable (e.g. setting up puns by repeating the question of what they will eat). Nonetheless, the ways in which the participant makes his FtM identity relevant in response to the ‘gender-free’ question, formulates finding an ally as newsworthy, and asserts his identity as onii appear not to be pre-scripted but his own practices of claiming his transgender identity.
6.Discussion and conclusion
Considering identity as participants’ display of, or ascription to, membership in a category, this study explored how FtM transgender individuals and their interlocutors (except in the monologue in Extract [1]) construct FtM identities. It demonstrated how they visibly use categories and associated features as they draw on multimodal resources to conduct the social actions through which these identities emerge. The study also showed the role of gender ideologies, with particular focus on the speakers’ orientation to Pn-adequate collections based on binary gender. This orientation is revealed in the use of categorial phrases (‘previous female, current male,’ ‘my body is female, my heart is male,’ and ‘originally female’) and contrastive categorial pairs (grandpa/grandma, FtM/MtF, cisgender male/female, and heterosexual boys/girls) of two mutually exclusive categories.
This orientation to Pn-adequate collections (gender identity, SAAB, sexual orientation, transgender status) plays an important role: the FtM individuals orient to their deviation from binary categories and to the incongruency between their gender identity and SAAB as categorizing devices, thereby constructing their transgender identities. In response to the displayed identities, interlocutors ask category-relevant questions; show affiliation, upgraded assessment, surprise, and lack of knowledge; and request confirmation, and through these actions shape the other speakers’ next actions and recipient design of their talk. Thus, the FtM speakers and their interlocutors co-construct FtM transgender identities in the sequence of interaction, utilizing various multimodal resources.
These practices are not simple self-identification; they also demonstrate the participants’ conformity and resistance to gender ideologies. All the participants oriented to a Pn-adequate collection of gender/sex categories and to the transition from female to male. For instance, Yukichi’s embodied hesitation and Manjiroo’s description of his guilt about ‘passing’ reveal their conformity to cisnormativity, and Vandy’s surprise that Manjiroo had not altered his body through medical interventions suggests Vandy’s transnormativity. On the other hand, Manjiroo and the onii interviewee, by openly acknowledging their female bodies, challenge cisnormativity and transnormativity. Eito’s warning not to overgeneralize his and Kanata’s cases as people who underwent medical and legal sex changes is also hearable as mild resistance to transnormativity. And for all the FtM speakers cited in this study, their clarifications and elaborations of their identities in post-expansion sequences reflect their invisibility, and the fact that they lack the privilege of cisgender people who do not ‘have to’ explain their gender identities.
As mentioned, while all the participants in this study orient to the Pn-adequacy of sex/gender, previous studies have observed many non-binary gender categories/identities (e.g. A-gender, X-gender, FtX, FtQ). In current social sciences, gender identity is considered a spectrum (heinz 2016heinz, matthew 2016 Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse. Bristol, UK: intellect. ), and some research has called for transgender individuals’ self-identification to “[take] center stage as a means of reframing gender categorization” (Zimman 2019Zimman, 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 256: 147–175. , 150). This study contributes to transgender studies and CA/MCA studies as the first interactional analysis of FtM transgender identity construction, but further empirical research is needed to explore the diversity, fluidity, and multiplicity of (trans)gender identities.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the journal editors and to Shigeko Okamoto, Momoko Nakamura, Gavin Furukawa, Yumiko Tateyama, Sean Forte, Lynn Lethin, Laurie Durand, and participants in the CA data sessions at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for their invaluable comments, advice, and assistance. Any remaining errors or misinterpretations are entirely my own.
Notes
References
Appendix
Transcription conventions
| [Wo]rd | Overlapping talk |
| Wo::rd | Phonological lengthening (each colon is approx. 0.1 sec.) |
| Wo- | Sound cutoff |
| Word | Emphatic stress |
| ((bows)) | Non-verbal actions and comments |
| (h) | Breath within a word |
| (1.2) | Silence in seconds and tenths of a second |
| (.) | Micro-pause (less than 0.2 second) |
| . | Falling intonation |
| , | Continuing intonation |
| ? | Rising intonation |
| °Word° | Reduced volume (double circles indicate greater reduction) |
| > word < | Faster than the speaker’s surrounding speech |
Interlineal gloss abbreviations
Copula
Filler
Interactional particle
Linking marker
Nominalizer
Object marker
Pragmatic marker
Question marker
Quotative marker
Subject marker
Tag question
Topic marker
Embodied conduct notation in transcripts
| + + | Descriptions of embodied movement are delimited between two identical symbols. |
| * * | |
| +-> | The action described continues across subsequent lines until the same symbol is |
| ->+ | reached. |
| --- | Full extension of the movement is reached and maintained. |