Sentirsi ‘UOMO’ An Emblematic Case of Desired Transsexuality in a Migratory Context

Abstract

This paper argues, through the analysis of an episode of desired transsexuality by an Italian-Australian girl in the early 1960s, that migration history must not overlook the way the body was lived, spoken and silenced by individual migrants and by their ethnic community. It particularly focuses on the impossible dialogue attempted by the girl with her family and her community, illustrating some of the cultural, religious and medical means of control and repression through which the Italian respectability in Australia has been constructed. This article has been peer-reviewed. Show more