ABSTRACT
From the symbolic interactionist perspective of this study, the starting point of any analysis of ‘beginning male femaling’ is, necessarily, somewhat arbitrary. Conception, personhood, intra-uterine and post-partum life are variously conceptualised in different times and places; as are babyhood, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Throughout these various phases and stages, the particular mix of male and female, masculine and feminine, and their various interrelations, are subject to continually changing and differently phased and staged formulations and meanings to both self and other.
