Writings
Naked Truths: Transmasculine Sexuality and Intimacy (2025)
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This thesis examines the representation of transmasculine sexuality and intimacy. Focusing on the bedroom as a politically charged space, it analyzes how the private sphere is shaped by social norms. Drawing on gender and trans theory, as well as personal experience, it questions heteronormative structures that regulate embodiment and desire.
Through case studies of contemporary visual artworks by transmasculine people, this research explores how the material body is represented and can be reimagined. Central to this study is the investigation how transmasculine bodies challenge dominant assumptions of masculinity, particularly those tied to biological determinism and the phallus. By examining the use of the dildo, and sexual acts that deviate from normative expectations, the thesis argues for alternative ways of understanding sexuality and intimacy.
Centering transmasculine experiences, this study challenges institutional power structures and positions representation as a critical site of conversation and connection. The concept of the body as an ‘archive’ is employed to bring these embodied experiences into public discourse, emphasizing the entanglement of the personal and the political.
My place of calmness
My place of happy moments
My place of pleasure
My place of hardships
My place of sad moments
My place of hiding
My place of comfort
It is my place of intimacy
In particular, being a transmasculine person who has gender dysphoria, the bedroom is a place of both comfort and discomfort. There have been many times when I have hid myself in my room not wanting to socially interact because of dysphoria. However, it has also been the space in which I could discover my own body and sexuality before and during my medical transition. Nevertheless, my body did not seem to fit my own image, in reference to the image I had of transmasculinity. The examples I could relate to were quite limited. Moreover, I also did not know where to look. Specifically in relation to being intimate, being sexually comfortable with your body, and the sexual possibilities to which one can relate to have been few and small-scale.
It was the billboard work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres in combination with my lived experiences of intimacy, and the lack of transmasculine visibility that were the inspiration of this research. The empty bed depicted on Untitled (billboard of an empty bed) (1991) of Torres resonated with me, as my bed has been my safe space, where I get to choose who to share what with. In addition, as he showcased his bed within the streets of New York, his private vulnerability and intimacy became part of the public sphere; which emphasizes the political character of the bedroom. This made me recognize the importance of the inclusion of personal and intimate experiences within public dialogues. The visibility of this moment he shared, touches upon topics in relation to sexuality, intimacy, and community which people not often publicly talk about. It entices engagement in the known discussion of public versus private, and the argument of how the personal is important within sociopolitical discussions.
Focusing on the private sphere in relation to transmasculine people, my aim is to initiate the inclusion of transmasculinity within dialogues of politics, specifically concerning structural power of normative forms within sexuality and relationships. On the basis of visual works by different artists, I look at transmasculine intimacy within the private sphere, specifically the bedroom (“intimate” setting), in relation to architectural politics. By means of architectural practices, the materiality of the body becomes produced and constructed as gendered. It is used as a disciplinary power classifying and categorizing people, which determines the intelligibility of an individual institutionally. However, through the visibility of bodies which are perceived to be less valuable, these power systems can be contested.[2]
Through the use of visual art, I intend to represent the ambivalence of transmasculine intimacy and sexuality. The artists, who are transmasculine themselves, depict lived experiences revolving around different forms of the transmasculine body; as well as diverse forms of intimacy. On grounds of gender theory, specifically trans theory, the visual works function as examples that show how the transmasculine body can function as an important tool showcasing alternatives to heteronormative social structures. By focusing on the construction of gender and the categorization of what is perceived to be masculinity and femininity, I lay claim that transmasculinity does not adhere to this construction; and challenges the division based on “biological” assumptions.
The marking of the body as gendered comes with being placed in a category, which has shaped the discourse revolving around the medical transition of trans people. It has created multiple assumptions and expectations about trans people’s desires concerning the physical body, as well as their behavior and relations.[3] However, through an increase in documentation of the intimate and sexual trans body, a more diverse perspective is being given. It takes the focus away from hegemonic assumptions of trans people having to reach a certain body based on cisgender standards.
Concerning masculinity, the phallic is often perceived as dominant signifier of a masculine body. When the transmasculine body gets compared to a cisgender masculine body, the phallic is the main focus point. This has impacted the inclusion of transmasculine people within the category of masculinity.[4] Consequently, transmasculine bodies without surgically constructed penises have been denied as “real men.”[5] However, through visibility of sexual transmasculine bodies, with or without a surgically constructed penis, the constructed identity of genitals becomes evident. In addition, as transmasculine people engage in sexual acts using their genitalia for their own as well as other people’s pleasure, the definition of masculinity becomes subverted.
In this thesis, I will focus on the dildo as object which contests the “biologically” assumed status of genitals. In relation to sex, the strap on/ dildo is often associated with heteronormativity. Moreover, a common connotation is that it tries to imitate masculinity through appropriating on of its dominant signifiers.[6] However, as it is an object which people can attach to their body for the use of desire and pleasure, it can signify a fabrication of the body and identity.[7] When the dildo/ strap on becomes part of the construction of a body, it becomes an addition to how a person expresses themself sexually in that moment. This does not make a person more masculine, or less feminine; it does, however, question the idea of organic embodiment. Furthermore, it is an object that can come in many forms and can be used for numerous different expressions of pleasure.
While transmasculine people have been exploring different forms of sexuality within the private sphere for longer, there has been a recent increase of visibility concerning transmasculinity in sexual context. A form of visual imagery in which this visibility has specifically increased is pornography. The sexually explicit imagery functions as educational tool for people to explore different sexualities and expressions of it.[8] Porn can give people an insight to different body types, as well as a diverse range of sexual pleasures, which have been underrepresented in visual media. In context of transmasculinity, it allows for a plurality of expressions concerning sexual acts which are not the “conventional” norm.
The visual imagery of transmasculine bodies, in relation to sexuality and intimacy form a representation which has not gotten much attention, specifically in relation to sociopolitical discussions. However, through focusing the attention on transmasculinity, conventionalized and biologically assumed characteristics of sexuality can be questioned. By means of trans-art representing transmasculine bodies in the private sphere, intimacy and sexuality becomes visible in the public sphere, which offers a counternarrative to heteronormative discourses concerning the sex/ gender system.
[2] Paul B. Preciado, “Architecture as a Practice of Biopolitical Disobedience.” Log, n. 25, 2012.
[3] Jason Cromwell, “Queering the Binaries: Transsituated Identities, Bodies, and Sexualities,” in The Transgender
Reader Studies, ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle (Routledge: New York, 2006).
[4] Jason Cromwell, “Queering the Binaries: Transsituated Identities, Bodies, and Sexualities.”
[5] Jason Cromwell, “Queering the Binaries: Transsituated Identities, Bodies, and Sexualities,” 518.
[6] Paul B. Preciado, Countersexual Manifesto (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018).
[7] Paul B. Preciado, Countersexual Manifesto.