Search

This article examines the experiences of 25 persons who were assigned female status at birth but do not wish to live as women and take on a masculine or queer gender identity. We employ the concept of 'gendered embodiment' and introduce the concept of 'sexualized embodiment' to highlight what is involved in this process. We ask how experiencing a masculine gender identity is reflexively tied to a trans man's sexuality and the ways in which these two embodiments are tightly, moderately, or loosely coupled. For example, a tight coupling appeared when trans men began to use testosterone and obtained surgery such as breast removal; a moderate coupling was found where gender validation was sought from a sexual partner (with this being related to sexual preference identities as well as the interpretation of vaginal penetration); the loosest coupling of the gender-sexuality embodiments was linked to the liberality of the locale and whether 'queer' identities could be easily adopted. In sum, our research demonstrates the link between gender and sexuality as a result of the body work trans men do and the historical and geographical situations in which they find themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are numerous ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, the Mende and Temne together account for approximately 60% of the total population. To see if genetic differences could be observed among ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, the nucleotide sequence of the hypervariable 1 (HV1) region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was determined from samples of the two major ethnic groups, the Mende (n = 59) and Temne (n = 121), and of two minor ethnic groups, the Loko (n = 29) and Limba (n = 67). Among these 276 HV1 sequences, 164 individual haplotypes were observed. An analysis of molecular variance indicated that the distribution of these haplotypes within the Limba sample was significantly different from that of the other ethnic groups. No significant genetic variation was seen between the Mende, Temne, and Loko. These results indicate that distinguishing genetic differences can be observed among ethnic groups residing in historically close proximity to one another. Furthermore, we observed some mitochondrial DNA haplotypes that are common among the Sierra Leone ethnic groups but that have not been observed in other published studies of West African ethnic groups. Therefore, we may have evidence for mtDNA lineages that are unique to this region of West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]