Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia

One of the limitations of gender theories is the lack of emphasis on the phenomenon of gender crossing. While debates on sex and gender surrounding issues of biological and/or social constructions of identity/ies have intended to explain the differences between men and women; transgenderism is highl...

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Main Author: Michelle Lee Guy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2003
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/1/1.pdf
id ukm-3131
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-31312016-12-14T06:33:41Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/ Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia Michelle Lee Guy, One of the limitations of gender theories is the lack of emphasis on the phenomenon of gender crossing. While debates on sex and gender surrounding issues of biological and/or social constructions of identity/ies have intended to explain the differences between men and women; transgenderism is highly under-emphasised, if not ignored. This paper intends to explore the pheno-menon of transgenderism in Malaysia by looking at male-to-female transgenderists, popularly known as mak nyah. A few questions are posed and examined, they are: what are the stages of gender crossing? What are the processes and social changes incurred during the transformation? To what extent such transformations affect and are affected by various social aspects? In relation to this, a few essential social institutions are investigated, such as religion, family, tertiary education, peer group, etc. In depth interviews and life stories of transgenderists are utilized to reveal personal perceptions and experiences of gender-crossing and identity reconstruction. These stories also show the strategies of adaptation, seclusion or conversion adopted by transgenderists in reaction to mainstream’s stigmatisation and expectations. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2003-07 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/1/1.pdf Michelle Lee Guy, (2003) Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia. AKADEMIKA, 63 (5). ISSN 0126-5008 http://www.ukm.my/~penerbit/akademika/arkib.html
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description One of the limitations of gender theories is the lack of emphasis on the phenomenon of gender crossing. While debates on sex and gender surrounding issues of biological and/or social constructions of identity/ies have intended to explain the differences between men and women; transgenderism is highly under-emphasised, if not ignored. This paper intends to explore the pheno-menon of transgenderism in Malaysia by looking at male-to-female transgenderists, popularly known as mak nyah. A few questions are posed and examined, they are: what are the stages of gender crossing? What are the processes and social changes incurred during the transformation? To what extent such transformations affect and are affected by various social aspects? In relation to this, a few essential social institutions are investigated, such as religion, family, tertiary education, peer group, etc. In depth interviews and life stories of transgenderists are utilized to reveal personal perceptions and experiences of gender-crossing and identity reconstruction. These stories also show the strategies of adaptation, seclusion or conversion adopted by transgenderists in reaction to mainstream’s stigmatisation and expectations.
format Article
author Michelle Lee Guy,
spellingShingle Michelle Lee Guy,
Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
author_facet Michelle Lee Guy,
author_sort Michelle Lee Guy,
title Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
title_short Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
title_full Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
title_fullStr Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in Malaysia
title_sort ungendering gendered identities? transgenderism in malaysia
publisher Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2003
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3131/1/1.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:37:55Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:37:55Z
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