LAUSR

In 2013, Karma Ch avez observed that communication scholars who study transgender identity have largely been excluded from communication journals, a point I have echoed in my own work (Spencer, 2015; Spencer & Capuzza, 2016). Resisting the field’s cisnormativity, matthew heinz offers a thorough explication of transmasculinities in his groundbreaking monograph, Entering Transmasculinity. The singular noun in the title is misleading because readers immediately learn that transmasculinity is not monolithic. Rather, heinz focuses on a vast number of transmasculinities, more different than alike, yet united by some degree of shared identification with the constellation of concepts captured by the term. An especially notable contribution of Entering Transmasculinity is the exploration of the tensions between academic theorizing about trans lives and the actual priorities of trans men. For example, heinz acknowledges how language such as “born in the wrong body” represents an unpalatable theoretical concession for many scholars because of its totalizing and pathologizing potential. Nevertheless, he explains how and why this language resonates for many trans men in their everyday lives. Another notable strength is heinz’s ability to analyze myriad trans experiences across multiple contexts. To deconstruct how transmasculinities performatively and discursively work, he moves smoothly from interviews with transmasculine-identified people to news stories about Chaz Bono and Thomas Beatie to representations of trans men in popular culture, including film, television, Reddit, Tumblr, novels, and memoirs. Entering Transmasculinity’s introduction does the complex work of offering definitions without rigidly categorizing identities. Some survey respondents, for instance, identify as men and trans men, while others did not identify publicly as trans. Chapter 1 theorizes trans men’s interactions with medical professionals in medical contexts. The author underscores the tensions between academic critiques of overmedicalizing trans identities and the reality that many trans men express a need or desire for medical technologies or interventions. Even transmasculine perspectives that repudiate medicalization cannot absolutely avoid it. As heinz explains: