The Body as Contested Site of Identity in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt

The Body as Contested Site of Identity in Manhunt: A Thematic Analysis of Gretchen Felker-Martin's Novel 2021, English, US edition. This page examines the theme of the body as a contested site of identity in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt. The novel argues that in a world ravaged by a gendercidal plague, the physical body becomes a battlefield where identity is not simply expressed but fought over, inscribed, and weaponized. Characters must navigate the gap between who they are and what their bodies are made to mean, while external forces—the TERF regime, the virus, and the scarcity of hormones—attempt to dictate that meaning. The thematic claim is that identity is never fully owned by the individual; it is constantly negotiated through the body's material conditions, its transformations, and the violence others inflict upon it. This analysis traces that claim across three key plot movements, connects it to central characters and symbols, and addresses the novel's deliberate contradictions.

The Body as a Battleground for External Control

The most explicit contest over the body occurs in the TERF regime's project to define womanhood through biological markers. Teach, the leader of the Legion, uses the XX tattoo as a certification of authenticity. In chapter 12, Ramona receives the tattoo—two letters inked into her forearm—as a “chromosomal seal” that marks her as a “real woman,” in contrast to those who have “to pay doctors to saw and sand and bend” their bodies into a woman's shape. The tattoo is a visible inscription of identity, but it is also a tool of exclusion: it marks who belongs and who does not. Teach's rally in chapter 16 makes this logic explicit. She tells the assembled boys that “between your legs is a weapon of war” and that no amount of self-identification can make them women. She offers them a path: join the Maenad Corps, serve the sisterhood, and earn “the right to a new legal name, to our hormones, and to surgery to neutralize your body's threat.” Here, identity is not a matter of internal truth but of external approval, granted only after the body is brought into conformity with the regime's standards. The body is thus a site of coercion, where the promise of hormones and surgery becomes a leash.

The virus itself is another external force that contests identity. The plague transforms male bodies into monstrous “things,” as seen in chapter 28 when Teach encounters a creature that was once a woman but is now “not a woman at all.” The virus erases the person, leaving only a body that must be destroyed. This transformation is not chosen; it is a biological catastrophe that overrides any sense of self. The novel thus shows that the body can betray identity, turning a person into something unrecognizable to themselves and others.

The Body as a Site of Internal Struggle

For the protagonists, the body is not just a target of external control but a source of internal conflict. Fran, a trans woman, is haunted by the facial feminization surgery she never received. In chapter 3, she dreams of her pre-collapse life and the surgery that was denied to her. Her body, with its broken tooth and degraded estrogen medication, is a constant reminder of what she could not become. She chews licorice root as a substitute for estrogen, and later eats raw testicles to survive—a desperate act that commodifies the very bodies she hunts. Her identity as a woman is always provisional, dependent on the hormones she can scavenge and the surgeries she cannot access.

Robbie, a trans man, experiences a different kind of internal contestation. In chapter 13, he is acutely aware of his menstrual cup and the “faint throbbing of his lower back where his hips curved hatefully outward.” He feels his body defies his identity, and he struggles with the stares of the cis women in the bunker who try to “puzzle out whether he was white or not” and whether they want to fuck him. His body is read by others in ways that contradict his sense of self, and he must constantly perform masculinity to compensate. The novel shows that even within a community of trans people, the body is a site of judgment and self-doubt.

Beth, a trans woman, faces a similar internal battle. In chapter 12, after being rejected by a cis woman, she thinks, “I'm a girl until a real one decides I'm not.” Her body—tall, broad-shouldered, with a voice that doesn't “cry like a girl”—is a constant source of insecurity. She is hyperaware of how others perceive her, and her identity is fragile, dependent on the approval of cis women who can revoke it at any moment. The novel thus shows that the body is not just a physical reality but a social text that others read and judge, often cruelly.

The Body as Commodity and Survival Tool

The novel also treats the body as a commodity, particularly through the harvesting of testicles as a source of estrogen. In chapter 1, Fran and Beth hunt an infected man, and Fran harvests his adrenal glands and testicles, packing them in dry ice. This act is both survival and violence: the body of the infected man is reduced to raw material for the protagonists' own hormonal needs. The symbol of harvested testicles as estrogen currency underscores how, in this world, identity is literally bought and sold. The body of the enemy becomes a resource, and the line between hunter and hunted blurs. Fran's own body is also commodified—she eats raw testicles to maintain her estrogen levels, a practice that is both degrading and necessary. The novel forces us to see that in a world of scarcity, the body is not sacred but instrumental.

This commodification extends to the TERF regime as well. Teach's offer of hormones and surgery to the boys in the Maenad Corps is a transaction: they give up their autonomy and their bodies to the state in exchange for a semblance of womanhood. The body is thus a currency in a larger political economy, where identity is a reward for loyalty.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel resists a simple binary of victim and oppressor. Teach, the villain, is herself a product of a system that has mutilated bodies—she reflects on her brother's surgeries and her own disgust at trans bodies. Yet she is also a victim of the same patriarchal violence she claims to fight. The novel shows that the contest over the body is not clean; even the TERFs are caught in a web of bodily anxiety and fear. Ramona, who receives the XX tattoo, later betrays Teach and helps sink the Galbraith, suggesting that the regime's own logic is unstable.

The virus itself complicates the theme. It transforms bodies regardless of identity, and even trans people who have undergone surgery are not safe. In chapter 16, Teach displays a caged man who had attempted self-feminization, but the infection has “bubbled up along the lines of his attempted self-feminization,” turning his scars into grotesque keloids. This suggests that the body is not a stable foundation for identity; it is always in flux, always vulnerable to forces beyond control. The novel thus acknowledges that identity cannot be fully anchored in the body, because the body is never fully one's own.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the XX tattoo function as a symbol of contested identity in the novel?

The XX tattoo is a visible marker of biological sex that the TERF regime uses to certify who is a “real woman.” It is a tool of exclusion, distinguishing those who are “certified fresh” from those who have “paid doctors to saw and sand” their bodies. The tattoo is also a site of anxiety—Ramona's tattoo itches, and she wants to “scratch it off,” suggesting that even the marker of authenticity is not comfortable. The tattoo thus symbolizes the external imposition of identity, which can never fully align with internal selfhood.

1. In what ways does Fran's body become a site of both survival and loss?

Fran's body is a site of survival because she must scavenge hormones from the bodies of infected men to maintain her estrogen levels. She eats raw testicles and chews licorice root, turning her own body into a dependent organism that requires constant feeding. At the same time, her body is a site of loss: she never received facial feminization surgery, and her broken tooth and feverish dreams of her pre-collapse life highlight what she has lost. Her body is thus both a tool for staying alive and a reminder of the identity she cannot fully achieve.

1. How does Robbie's experience of his body challenge the idea that identity is purely internal?

Robbie's experience shows that identity is always mediated by how others perceive the body. He is acutely aware of his menstrual cup and his hips, which he feels “curve hatefully outward,” and he is conscious of the stares of cis women who try to categorize him. His body is read as ambiguous, and he must constantly perform masculinity to be seen as a man. This suggests that identity is not something one simply feels; it is something that must be negotiated with the world, and the body is the primary site of that negotiation.

1. What role does the virus play in complicating the relationship between body and identity?

The virus complicates the relationship by showing that the body can override identity entirely. Infected men become “things” that are no longer recognizable as human, and even trans people who have undergone surgery are not safe from the virus's transformations. The virus thus reveals that the body is not a stable foundation for identity; it is a biological entity that can be hijacked by forces beyond individual control. This undermines the idea that identity can be anchored in the body, suggesting that the body is always a contested and unreliable site.

1. How does Beth's killing of Teach in the final chapter reflect the theme of the body as a contested site?

Beth kills Teach after Teach speaks Beth's deadname, a verbal assault that reduces Beth to a name she has rejected. The deadname is a weapon that attacks Beth's identity by referencing her body's history. Beth's response—killing Teach with an arrow and then kicking her repeatedly—is a violent assertion of her own identity over Teach's attempt to erase it. The scene shows that the contest over the body is not just physical but linguistic; the deadname is a way of reasserting control over someone's identity through their body's past. Beth's violence is a desperate attempt to reclaim her own body from Teach's definition of it.