Male Femaling: A grounded theory approach to cross-dressing and sex-changing

by Richard Ekins

The glamour of transvestite fashion is the epitome of 90s style, but the significance of cross-dressing and sex-changing goes much deeper than the annals of fashion. Ekins vividly details the innermost desires and the varied practices of males who wear the clothes of women for the pleasure it gives them (cross-dressers), or who wish to change sex and are actively going about it (sex-changers). This unique and fascinating book transforms an area of study previously dominated by clinical models to look instead at cross-dressing and sex-changing as a highly variable social process. Giving precedence to the processual and ermergent nature of much cross-dressing and sex-changing phenomena, the book traces the phased femaling career path of the 'male femaler' from 'beginning femaling' through to 'consolidating femaling'. Based upon seventeen years of fieldwork, life history work, qualitative analysis, archival work and contact with several thousand cross-dressers and sex-changers, the book meticulously and systematically develops a theory of 'male femaling' which has major ramifications for both the field of 'transvestism' and 'transsexualism', and for the analysis of sex and gender more generally. Male-Femaling provides social and cultural theorists with a lively case study for the generation of new theory. Social psychologists and sociologists interested in seeing grounded theory applied to a particular case study will be well rewarded. It will be essential reading for students of gender studies who seek to explore the interrelations between sex, sexuality and gender from the informants' point of view.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, Transgender

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 1996

Reviews

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best academic monographs I've read: an outstanding, tight linkage of theory, methodology, deep research (17 years of fieldwork) to produce a strong, coherent schema for distinguishing among a range of complex and inter-related phenomena.

While many pre-21st Century works on gender, particularly on cross-gender presentation and performance, are painful to read, Ekins (despite predating certain current linguistic uses in gender studies) does a phenomenal job, aided by a commitment to "grounded theory," a rigorous data-analysis approach that works to minimize the role of pre-conception and ideology.

Ekins' final note is that his schema may be useful for a needed project of understanding "femaling" and "maling," both within and across biological sex. I couldn't agree more: his work is a beautiful fit with my data on construction of avatarized identity, where verifiable information on the biological sex of the creator is difficult or impossible to obtain.

This book was both the source of a theoretical insight and methodological inspiration, and generally an outstanding example of scholarly work product.