ABSTRACT
This final chapter of Part II outlines the particular use this study makes of the methodology of grounded theory and provides the framework for the more detailed grounded theory work that follows in Part III. It introduces the basic social process of ‘male femaling’ and its attendant sub-processes-those of ‘displaying’, ‘disclosing’, ‘passing’, ‘reading’ and ‘pretending’. It introduces the social structural unit of the ‘masked awareness context’ and sets forth its importance as a ‘near core’ social structural process within which male femaling is played out. The sub-units of the masked awareness contextthose of ‘private’, ‘closed’, ‘open’, ‘suspicion’ and ‘pretence’ masked awareness contexts-are explained with reference to a number of illustrative vignettes. Finally, the chapter returns to the basic social process of male femaling and delineates its major modes before introducing the phased ideal-typical male femaling career path which forms the organising principle of the subsequent ‘mainly practice’ chapters.
