Abstract

In this chapter, I look at the complex encounters transpeople have with ontological claims made by experts within medical and legal institutions, and how transpeople dynamically shape their negotiations with them. I will be using the term ‘medicolegal’ following Butler (1993) to conceptualise the relationship between medical and legal regulatory norms, which function to constitute ‘authentic’ transmen and ‘authentic’ transwomen in society. Transpeople often foster relationships with medicine in order to negotiate aesthetic interventions through technology, and/or to receive legal recognition in their acquired gender. During these relational negotiations, both transpeople and medicolegal representatives construct, deconstruct and reconstruct various narratives of (trans) authenticity, deserving of medical interventions and legal recognition.