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.

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May 22nd, 10:00 AM May 22nd, 10:30 AM

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