Parents, trans children, and agency: The constitution of trans identities in childhood
Presenter Title/Affiliation
Arizona State University; University of Pittsburgh
Start Date
22-5-2021 10:00 AM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
12
Panel Chair Name
Ártemis López
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/98275740059
Zoom Meeting ID
982 7574 0059
Abstract
Recent work in trans studies suggests that trans childhoods offer particularly useful occasions for the exploration of evolving discourses of gender, including not only understandings and embodiments of trans and gender non-conforming identities, but also evaluations of those identities (Gill-Peterson, 2019; Meadow, 2018). Trans children begin life under a unique set of constraints due to the beliefs and actions of parents or legal guardians, political and educational policies, access to medical resources, and other types of formal and informal influence. Trans childhoods give researchers a promising (but unsettling) opportunity to look at the co-construction of transness and childhood in interaction and to trace trans kids’ ability to exert agency over their own gendered self-understandings vis-à-vis the understandings of adults in their lives. In this project, we used Membership Categorization Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (Stokoe, 2006; Fairclough, 1995) to examine the role of parents in discursive constructions of trans childhoods and to investigate the meanings and boundaries of agency in relation to trans children. Using data sets that include interactive parent-child talk from three documentaries about trans children (PBS’s "Growing Up Trans," National Geographic’s "Growing Up Trans and Mormon," and Them’s "Kai Shappley: A Trans Girl Growing Up in Texas"), we argue that traditional and dominant discourses of transness (i.e. “being born in the wrong body”) are used to normalize trans children’s gender identities and allow parents to accept their child’s transition without fundamentally altering their understanding of the membership categorization device for cis-heteronormative gender (consisting of the members ‘man’ and ‘woman’). We contend that discourses surrounding the parenting of trans children should question the assumed subversiveness of trans identities and push for conceptualizations of transness centered around liberation from rather than assimilation to hegemonic gender discourses.
Presenter Contact
agilber8@asu.edu
SEN40@pitt.edu
Parents, trans children, and agency: The constitution of trans identities in childhood
Recent work in trans studies suggests that trans childhoods offer particularly useful occasions for the exploration of evolving discourses of gender, including not only understandings and embodiments of trans and gender non-conforming identities, but also evaluations of those identities (Gill-Peterson, 2019; Meadow, 2018). Trans children begin life under a unique set of constraints due to the beliefs and actions of parents or legal guardians, political and educational policies, access to medical resources, and other types of formal and informal influence. Trans childhoods give researchers a promising (but unsettling) opportunity to look at the co-construction of transness and childhood in interaction and to trace trans kids’ ability to exert agency over their own gendered self-understandings vis-à-vis the understandings of adults in their lives. In this project, we used Membership Categorization Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (Stokoe, 2006; Fairclough, 1995) to examine the role of parents in discursive constructions of trans childhoods and to investigate the meanings and boundaries of agency in relation to trans children. Using data sets that include interactive parent-child talk from three documentaries about trans children (PBS’s "Growing Up Trans," National Geographic’s "Growing Up Trans and Mormon," and Them’s "Kai Shappley: A Trans Girl Growing Up in Texas"), we argue that traditional and dominant discourses of transness (i.e. “being born in the wrong body”) are used to normalize trans children’s gender identities and allow parents to accept their child’s transition without fundamentally altering their understanding of the membership categorization device for cis-heteronormative gender (consisting of the members ‘man’ and ‘woman’). We contend that discourses surrounding the parenting of trans children should question the assumed subversiveness of trans identities and push for conceptualizations of transness centered around liberation from rather than assimilation to hegemonic gender discourses.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/saturday/9
