Paper short abstract:

This study examines various social and linguistic issues of 5 Japanese trans individuals through their narratives. Within the framework of transgender theory advocated by Nagoshi and Brzuzy, it investigate how trans people navigate non-monolithic identities within their actual lived experiences.

Paper long abstract:

The field of transgender studies has produced much interesting research since the 1990s. Incorporating feminist theory, queer theory, and poststructuralist theory, transgender theory provides a means to analyze trans people’s life experiences by emphasizing aspects of physical embodiment in gender and sexual identity. This research adds to this body of work by examining Japanese trans individuals' gender identity in relation to their linguistic practice. It rejects the essentialist view of gender and challenges a poststructuralist view of understanding gender only as a social construct. It analyzes how “a fluid self-embodiment and a self-construction of identity” interact linguistically “in the context of social expectations and lived experiences" (Nagoshi and Brzury 2010: 435).

This study examines the gender history of trans individuals in Japan, reflecting a diverse community: some want to stay within the binary system whereas some prefer to be outside of it. I ask, what does it mean to be transgender in Japan? How are trans people understood in Japanese society? What is the process of their transition and how does it affect their relations with other people? How does the transition influence the way they present themselves socially and linguistically? I further address these questions: How do trans people understand gendered speech in Japanese? Why and how do they apply certain grammatical categories (e.g., polite speech or tag question) that are often discussed in relation to “women’s language” to index their new gender? I present answers by describing the ways trans interviewees narrate their life experiences, all of which were actual (recorded) utterances through group and individual interviews. I examine the linguistic experiences of trans people who live with their past and new gender identities. I argue that trans people manipulate gendered speech differently by contextualizing their subjectivity, and that they expand the notion of gendered speech by reworking the binary system in their own way.

Nagoshi, L. Julia, and Stephan/ie Brzuzy. 2010. “Transgender Theory: Embodying Research and

Practice.” Journal of Women and Social Work 25, no. 4: 431–43.