Synthesis
At the start of this blog, I framed my reflection and research with a question: what is the relationship between masculinity and transphobia? I found that this is a complicated question to answer. To conclude the explorations that I have engaged in here, I would like to first summarize and synthesize what I have learned. The hegemonic construction of masculinity has a vested interest in upholding the gender binary and a biologically-deterministic definition of gender. It is from this binary system that men enacting hegemonic forms of masculinity derive their privilege. For some, the existence of trans identities threatens this fundamental construction of gender that is both exclusively binary and cisgender; a construction which puts men at the top of a gender hierarchy. The existence of trans individuals, then, threatens the privilege some men receive from upholding this construction. I explored two distinct means in which dominant Western society seeks to uphold this constructio