Nothing to Hide: Selfies, Sex, and the Visibility Dilemma in Trans Male Online Cultures

This chapter considers the juxtaposed images of Dowling/Levine as its point of departure in order to address the dilemmas that trans men face in seeking to create images of themselves as male and as sexually desirable. In their own virtual communities, trans men have developed a range of strategies for navigating this visibility paradox, the most noticeable of which is self-documentation through both video blogging and the selfie. Within Dowling's image, the current social mediascape intersects with a neoliberal technology of subjectivity, giving rise to an entrepreneurial or "enterprising self" that advocates the use of technology for identity creation and presentation, rooted in the contemporary idea that the self is – or should be – constantly improving. Dowling's selfies typically situate him in a domestic setting or at the gym. For example, this selfie epitomises Dowling's selfie production while self-reflexively underscoring the "labor" that goes into creating and marketing himself as an attractive trans male object.