Making of Trans Body: A Study of Trans Narratives

Abstract

This paper focuses on male to female transsexuals (Trans women) and makes an attempt to interrogate the process of ‘making of trans body’. What does it mean for transsexuals- ‘making of a body’? Is it their resistance to the gender binary or the force to confirm to the gender roles? Or is it the desires that make them construct their bodies? And what are the ways through which they achieve the sense of ‘complete body’ are some of the seminal issues raised in the paper. Transsexuals believe that surgery is a dominant tool to alter and construct their bodies. But the paper argues that surgery can never be a tool in making of a ‘complete’ Trans body. The paper also examines how and what role does the surgery play in bringing the ‘completeness’ to the Trans bodies. This paper is limited to the discussion and problematization of the issue of castration and surgery. The study is done in Indian context and uses Trans theory and surgery as a theoretical framework. This proposed paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by revealing the fact that more than their resistance to the gender binaries and their desire it is the force of the society that makes them to confirm to the gender roles. That is the reason why these gender deviant persons try to fit into the boxes of heteronormativity and mimic the gender binaries. The paper, at the end uncovers the fact that surgery is an ‘incomplete’ tool to bring ‘completeness’ to their minds and bodies.