Hey everyone! It's Kinnon and it's been  quite a while since I shared a video
with you. It has been five years since I
started transitioning from female to
male.
You'll remember that my first
testosterone shot
was on December 20, 2010.
From the moment a female-to-male
trans man hits record on his video
camera device, he assumes the leading role in his transition narrative and gender identity
formation. For trans men, documenting this
transition via video blogs, is one way to
artistically express newly forming
masculine embodiments.
There is innate creativity as trans
people move their bodies from  one sex to
another. These video projects may serve a
deeper purpose than what can be
presented on screen.
For instance Orrin Gosselin suggests
that transsexual transition is an
artistic project, putting the subject in
a position of authoring his own destiny.
Regularly producing video blogs starring
the transforming body, allows trans men
to see their own aesthetic representations
featured on a screen, and then reflected back
to them.
This SSHRC-funded doctoral project
analyzes the acts portrayed in
self-made videos, produced by self-made
men. In particular I draw from the
psychoanalytic development theory of the 
mirror stage. The mirror stage holds that the mind needs a reflection of
the body to imagine itself in relation to
others. It is also the period in which
children begin to identify with the reflection
in the mirror. Transitioning is often referred
to as a rebirth and can also be
explained by the mirror stage. The
self-made video documentation process
similarly acts as a mirror, reflecting back
the subject's image as he hits record on
the video. As a glass mirror assists the
child and understanding himself and his
embodiment, the self-made transition
video may ground the trans man in both his
body and in trans culture. This research
uses narrative analysis in order to
gain a deeper understanding of my own
personal trans masculine identity formation and transition video blogs. Narrative
inquiry research can be helpful in
understanding the ways which stories
construct the self and create social meaning.
Narrative analysis is a self-reflexive
practice, acknowledging that researchers'
questions are always informed by their
ideas and experiences
