Debating Trans masculinities: a literature review on trans masculinities in Brazil

Abstract

Our study analyzes articles, theses and dissertations that discuss trans masculinities in Brazilian reality with a sociocultural approach. The search was conducted between June 2018 and February 2019 in two brazilian academic databases, the Portal Regional da Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde (BVS) and the Banco de Teses e Dissertações da Capes. To interact more deeply with the data, the material was approached by thematic content analysis. This analysis generated three main themes: Transmasculine identity construction; (In) visibility of Trans Men; and Body, health and hormones. A residual theme was also identified: Family and reproductive decisions. Regarding the problem of trans identity, the major conflict seems to be the widening or delimitation of the meaning of the category man. About invisibility, there was an increase of the researches about the theme, and there is a clear tension in between passing as cis man and contribute as public figures on social movements. Regarding access to health, the problems are related to the low coverage and to the failure of health teams in dealing with the specificities of trans men. Finally, reproductive questions are still being sown, casting more questions than answers.