Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on 50+ transgender women’s performances of gender, sexuality, intimacy and (older) age in digital spheres. Centralizing embodiment of these performances in counter-hegemonic discourses could help us challenge ageist and cissexist normativities of sexiness and (online) intimacy.

Paper long abstract:

In dominant discourse, ageing is conceptualized in heteronormative ways. Longevity, generativity and heteronormative sexual attractiveness are centralized and, for women in particular, dominant notions of beauty are connected to maintaining a youthful appearance. At some point, signifiers of an ageing body can no longer be masked and as a result, sexy feminine women’s clothing and wearing certain types of make-up are part of appearances that are suddenly deemed “too sexy” for women with ageing bodies. For 50+ transgender women, this means that it may become particularly difficult to make their gender performances intelligible, because presenting more androgynously may be unhelpful for them in “passing” as women, but more feminine or sexy clothes are deemed inappropriate for their age.

This shows how the embodied intersections of gender, sexuality and (older) age work together in structuring 50+ transgender women’s position in society. In preliminary work that centralizes 50+ transgender women, attention is mostly paid to transitioning processes, while sexuality and intimacy are sidelined. Additionally, self-representation is rarely taken into account. For 50+ transgender women, social networks and dating sites may be spheres in which they have more agency over their own representation. A new materialist approach allows me to gain insight in how expressions of sexuality and intimacy are embodied in counter-hegemonic performances of gender, sexuality and (older) age in digital spheres in Belgium. Ultimately, looking into these self-representations could be helpful in gaining insight in how dominant notions of sexuality, sexiness and attractiveness, and (online) intimacy could be challenged and redefined.