Being Trans: Is it a “White” Thing?

Perhaps you have heard of the name “Thomas Beatle”.  Ring any bells?  That is what the world-famous pregnant man renamed himself as.  He was born a girl, underwent sex reassignment surgery, but kept his internal reproductive organs intact.  He became famous after he stopped taking hormone drugs and became pregnant through artificial assimilation as a man. 

What is interesting is that when he transitioned into a man, he chose a “white” name, rather than an Asian name, as his heritage and facial characteristics would suggest.

            In “Why You Don’t Have to Choose A White Boy Name To Be A Man In This World,” Kenji Tokawa, talks about the way names are gendered.  Different cultures have different ways of interpreting names.  One name may be feminine in one culture, while also be masculine in another culture.  In this culture, it is “white” names that carry the advantage when renaming oneself.  According to Tokawa, “culture of white supremacy presents the white male body as what is normal for masculinity.  Along with the body comes the acceptable set of names.  Along with a presumed whiteness comes respect.  Along with this respect comes confidence and safety to move about in this world as masculine self-identified” (210).  Tokawa mentions this in retrospect after the awkward encounter with Kristen, where she mistakes his name and calls him “Benji” like the popular Americanized dog in the late 1900s movies.  While it is natural to associate things with ideas that we have learned from our culture, it is important to realize that a feminized name does not mean a male gender, and vice versa. 

            Culture does play a huge role in how names are interpreted.  For example, Tokawa says “ko” is perhaps a lucky traits in a name for tomboy” (209)  in a Latinized linguistic environment.  On the other hand, in Japan, his previous name was a “very flowery, feminine Japanese name” (209), which means “Joy and beauty” (209).  Indeed, when he went to college, more Japanese girls had his name, and he needed to change his feminine name to a more masculine one.  He purposefully choses Kenji, which is a Japanese name in a video game, hoping that people will recognize it as Japanese and male.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  In essence, the lesson to be learned here is to take a second look before you assume a person’s gender.