As transgender identity has been cemented as universal and modern through colonial hierarchies ( Jarrín 20), kathoey identity is marginalized as a local and traditional GNC identity in the Global South that does not fit this hegemonic notion based on race or culture. The hegemonic concept of transgender identity, which originated in the Global North ( Valentine 2007), presumes a white subject and does not align with conceptualizations of gender variance “outside of Euro-American definitions of gender” ( Aizura 2018:145), including those, like kathoey, in which medical transition figures less prominently. Kathoey also face oppression in a global community of transgender and GNC people. Despite Thailand’s international reputation as a haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) tourists, research has found that kathoey face oppression in many social contexts ( Winter 2011 Winter et al. 2 In Thai society, cisgender identity, in which binary feminine and masculine genders correlate with sex ( West and Zimmerman 1987), is dominant, and GNC identity is marginalized. In this article, I demonstrate the enduring utility of Du Boisian double consciousness and contribute to these underexplored areas of inquiry by analyzing the role that two forms of oppression play in the self-formation of kathoey, 1 gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals in Thailand who are assigned male at birth (AMAB) and transition to living as women. Despite this resurgence of interest, sociologists have not fully explored whether other forms of systemic oppression produce double consciousness or how double consciousness could aid in studying self-formation beyond the Atlantic world. In recent years, scholars across disciplines have expanded Du Bois’ concept to examine the doubling of self which is produced by oppression of sexual identity ( Orne 2013), multiracial identity ( Bonilla-Silva 2010), and racialized gender identities ( Falcón 2008 Welang 2018), or to study self-formation related to oppression in transnational or non-American contexts ( Bell 2004 Falcón 2008 Gilroy 1993 Moore 2005). Du Bois uniquely accounts for the role of oppression in self-formation by positing that racism produces an inner struggle between “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings” ( 1990:8) that leads black Americans to experience double consciousness. While concepts of self from Cooley ( 1902) and Mead ( 1934) inform many studies, Du Bois’ ( 1990) concept of double consciousness has been largely omitted from sociological thought ( Itzigsohn and Brown 2015 Morris 2015). Self-formation has long been an area of sociological inquiry. Thailand, double consciousness, gender, self-formation, postcolonial feminist theory The first veil divides self-formation between kathoey and dominant cisgender worlds within Thai society, which produces “gender double consciousness.” The second veil divides self-formation between kathoey and dominant transgender worlds within a global community, which creates “transnational double consciousness.” Drawing upon participant observation, in-depth interviews, and content analysis, I propose an extension to double consciousness called “paired double consciousness.” This framework explains how cisnormative and neocolonial oppression lead kathoey to experience two veils. Kathoey are gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals in Thailand who are assigned male at birth and live as women. This article addresses these gaps by merging postcolonial feminist theory and the concept of double consciousness to analyze kathoey self-formation. Sociologists have not adequately explored how Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness could be used to study the role of cisnormative oppression in self-formation or how it could enrich studies of self-formation beyond the Atlantic world.
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