Transmasculinity Beyond the Binary: Norms, Expectations and Recognition

Abstract

Non-binary transmasculine people occupy an uncomfortable position in debates about gender and transition. They are expected to fit clinical, social, and community frameworks that were not built with them in mind. This study examines how five non-binary transmasculine people in Portugal navigate that position: how they understand their own gender, make decisions about transition, and seek recognition in contexts that continue to organize gender around a strict binary. The research relies on qualitative interviews and analyses the data through the lens of performativity, hegemonic masculinity, and transmedicalist discourse. A recurring concern in the interviews is legitimacy: who counts as authentically trans, what kinds of bodies and identities are recognized, and on whose terms. Rather than treating participants' engagement with masculinity and medical transition as contradictory, this study argues that these tensions reflect the limits of a binary system that sets unequal conditions for recognition.

Portugal provides a specific context: a country with relatively progressive gender legislation but persistent conservative norms and a growing anti-gender political movement. The findings suggest that what appears to be inconsistency in the non-binary transmasculine experience is better understood as navigation – a set of situated responses to a system that demands conformity but does not distribute it equally.