The Policing of Masculinity Within the Transgender Community

Abstract

Gender identity is a concept that has been grappled with in current society, particularly in regards to how it coincides with pre-defined, traditional gender roles. Increasingly, western culture is relaxing some of these outdated standards and allowing people to live their lives more freely without needing to heavily adhere to being either the physically strong breadwinner or the timid, maternal instinct-driven housewife. We live in a heteronormative society that pressures us from a very young age to conform to specific “idealistic” expectations of men and women through adolescence and adulthood, often referred to as “gender roles”. Due to these societal pressures from family, media, and the general public, people who are transgender are more likely to have a difficult time understanding and coming to terms with their own gender identity and expression. With my research, through extensive content analysis of popular film media and social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Tumblr, I aim to highlight the ways in which popular media and the acknowledgement of the validity of the transgender community by well-known individuals (ie. celebrities) can have a positive impact on the mental health and the wellbeing of transgender people, while simultaneously rejecting the damaging ideologies of masculinity and femininity that have been ingrained in our minds from such a young age.