Trans Maternal Bodies as Biopolitical Sites: Medicalized Embodiment in Close-Knit (2017) and Midnight Swan (2020)
Keywords:
Trans motherhood, Biopolitics, Medicalized embodiment, Japanese cinema, Discourse-Historical ApproachAbstract
Motherhood in Japan has been grounded in biologically female bodies, rendering trans parenting socially ambiguous and institutionally fragile. While existing studies on transgender representation in cinema often focus on identity and visibility, limited attention has been paid to how trans maternal bodies are regulated through biomedical regimes. This study examines trans maternal bodies as biopolitical sites in Close-Knit and Midnight Swan. Drawing on Foucauldian biopolitics and theories of medicalized embodiment, the analysis employs Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach to situate cinematic representations within Japan’s socio-historical norms of gender and caregiving. Methodologically, this study contributes by applying DHA to trans embodiment in Japanese cinema, focusing on hormone therapy, surgical transition, and social surveillance. The findings highlight how discursive strategies of nomination, predication, and argumentation contribute to the differential recognition of trans maternal subjects. The findings also reveal a contrast between biopolitical becoming and conditional maternal embodiment. Nagisa is constructed through bodily suffering produced by medical compliance, where femininity is achieved at the cost of corporeal vulnerability. In contrast, Rinko embodies trans motherhood only after undergoing bodily normalization, yet remains subject to social scrutiny. This study demonstrates that contemporary Japanese cinema frames trans motherhood not as an autonomous caregiving identity, but as an embodied negotiation shaped by biomedical authority, economic precarity, and affective governance.
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