This piece is a bit of a thought experiment.  Its a reflection on my transition through the application of a number of contemporary sociological theories.  I use these theories to think about the process of my own transition through a sociology of the self.  With this exercise I hope to highlight a critical sociological understanding of some of the processes involving “being” beyond the binary of colonial gender normativity.  Think of this as an essay that presents a ‘trans self’ through a sociological lens.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Symbolic interactionism is a microsociology that is concerned with interpretive and modification processes that happen in every person’s consciousness to generate different kinds of subjectivities.  Herbert Blumer’s understanding of symbolic interactionism is based on the three principles.  The first principle is that people act toward things on the basis of the meaning those things have for them.  The second principle argues that the meaning of things arises from interaction between individuals.  The third principle is that we each separately go through our own modification and interpretive process in our mind. So while social interaction is crucial to finding meaning, we also form our own ideas and thoughts about the meaning.  This means that “meaning producing activity” goes through modification and interpretive act and then generates differences in subjectivities.

Goffman’s dramaturgical method becomes especially useful as we see the social world as filled with fields for people to play games and take on roles based on the conditions of the situation.  Goffman allows us to see the social world through his interpretation of social interaction as a dramatic performance.  People then have a “front” and “back” stage through which they have to perform particular roles based on their status and the conditions of the situation.  While Mead saw the self as constructed by the interactions between the “I” and the “Me”; Goffman’s dramaturgical method allows us to then see the social world as constructed by the dramaturgical performance of actors attempting to be a dramaturgically disciplined performer.  Goffman’s front stage is the field of play where people play roles that we don’t always consciously think about.  Anne Rawls (1987) argued that Goffman understood the self as a performer that is the product of many interactions.

In these performances, actors have to maintain face and perform in ways that get particular responses out of others.  In Interaction RitualErving Goffman presents a theory of action where action/behavior is maintained through patterned attitudes through the coordination with face and line based on the face and lines presented to you by others through interaction within particular conditions/circumstances.  Through norms (rules about behavior) like the rule of self-respect and the rule of considerateness which come to influence people’s conduct in face-to-face interaction as well as mediated interaction.  Much of these interactions are shaped by particular intent, goals, etc.. but they do communicate a particular form of assumed willingness whether intentionally or not.  The aim in this balancing act of face-to-face interaction is then to maintain a particular face and line that aims to get a particular reaction out of other parties and these are regulated by norms which provide the rules of such interactions and present a series of lines that one can take within human interaction.  Thus the maintenance of face is a condition of interaction not its objective.

So much of human interaction can be described as saving face (aiming to not lose face) which Goffman refers to as “face work”.  Face work is composed of actions that are taken by a person to make whatever they are doing consistent with face.  Face saving actions are often habitual and standardized practices.  Face work requires that a person be aware of the interpretations that others may place on their actions meaning that they must exercise perceptiveness. There are multiple ways to maintain face and avoid ritual disequilibrium (disgrace) including: the avoidance process and the corrective process.  Aggressive face work will go beyond utilizing face-work to for communication alone but will utilize face-work to anticipate and influence the actions of the other person.  This is possible to do while being able to rely on a number of ways to save face if you do lose face (being forgiven, or it’s a small offense so overlooked, etc.).  If there is a threat it is of secondary importance who does the face work (the offender or the person whose face is threatened).  The lack of effort from one party induces the compensative efforts of others.  Resolution of the situation to everyone’s satisfaction is the primary concern also known as consensus.  Blaming the appropriate party is a secondary consideration.  Cooperative face-work includes tacit cooperation like reciprocal self-denial and hints.  Cooperative face-work within social etiquette.  This kind of face-work is one through the language of hint (innuendo, ambiguities, well placed pauses, carefully worded jokes, etc.).  Hints don’t need to be faced up to.  Hints provide a means through which a person can be warned that their line or situation is leading to a loss of face without the warning itself becoming an incident/event/situation.  This is then a game of checks and balances that reveals the obligations and rights of interacting parties to try to prevent them from abusing their role as the self (double definition)/an object of sacred value.

MY “SELF” AS A CASE STUDY

Agents of socialization are institutions through which we come to be socialized.  Socialization is a process through which society molds its members into “proper” social beings.  Sociologist Charles Cooley said that the family is the most important agents of socialization in society.  It is through intimate interaction with primary group members that we come to learn how to be a proper/normal member in society.  I grew up in an abusive, Christian, working poor home.  The the values and beliefs that my family members have are quite reflective of the historical events that came to shape the conditions of their socialization as well.  Needless to say, despite the normative conditions of my socialization through familial interactions, I am still none the less a transman.

***More details about my gender socialization can be found HERE.***

I was misgendered at birth. A gender was ascribed onto me without me actually doing anything to communicate what my gender was/is. Gender is the activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities approp for one’s sex category. A newborn has had absolutely no chance to engage in activity of managed situated conduct. Those normative conceptions are taught. As children grow up they are taught those normative conceptions. & thus I spent a lot of time being told I was not behaving lady like. Which I swore was a compliment bc I was like well yeah, cause I’m a boy. I was very nonchalant about it all until the age of seven. Around the age of seven I started getting into more trouble for not engaging in normative feminine behavior.  I was yelled at, beat, shamed, insulted because I wasn’t ‘girly’ enough. I have never been a woman. I was brutally socialized and forced into performing as one out of fear because of colonial conceptions of gender. My gender did not change. I have had to perform one that wasn’t mine for survival purposes, yes. But it was not mine.   Its a set of assumptions about how an infant with a particular set of genitalia were placed upon me at birth. What changed is one day I became more afraid of not being who I am than being who I am. I am a man. Being treated like a woman because society is patriarchal does not make me less of a man and is not a conflation. Trans women are women. Being misgendered and treated like a man because society is patriarchal and transphobic doesnt make them less of a woman.  What changed is our willingness to perform the binary gender society forced on us in the first place. The BINARY of sex and gender are why we are even referred to as trans. Basically, trans and non-binary gender people get mislabeled at birth. This society’s Eurocolonial patriarchal obsession with the control of the genitalia of others is why we’re in this situation. It’s important to understand that gender is based on a person’s actions/activity/performance and not based on how society treats that person.