著者

鶴田 幸恵

出版者

社会学研究会

雑誌

ソシオロジ (ISSN:05841380)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, no.2, pp.21-36,157, 2004

---

The past studies on passing practice have accounted for the interaction about ones appearance and recognition of it. But these studies started their argument from the point that one already has a "normal appearance," and did not account for how it is accomplished that one has a "normal appearance" in the viewers recognition. The aim of this article is to argue that such a way of accounting of past studies can not adequately account for passing practices of transgenders who intend to accomplish being a "normal natural female," using the transcript data from interviews of Male-to-Female transgenders, because accomplishing that appearance is the most important problem for them. For this, I focus on "viewing" as an action. First, I discuss the logic used in Goffmans Stigma and Garfinkels famous paper on "Agnes," who is transgender. Through this work, it is found that the person who is passing is categorized in two ways. One is "categorization at a glance" which is an immediate and spontaneous practice. The other is "categorization from inductive judgment," which is conscious judgment by clues in ones appearance. Second, it is found from data that the person who is passing refer to "categorization from inductive judgment" to accomplish being categorized as "normal" with "categorization at a glance." Third, it is only when the question for instance, "Is that person is male or female?" is relevant that "categorization from inductive judgment" usually arises. So, for transgenders, to be categorized with the way of "categorization from inductive judgment" is to fail passing. This means that accounting for achievement or failure in passing must distinguish two ways of categorization. Through that consideration, I conclude that being categorized as a "normal natural female" with the way of "categorization at a glance" is necessary for transgenders to pass as normal. That is, on the one hand, the first step to passing, and on the other hand, the endless practice for transgender people.