Hetero-cis-normativity and the Gendering of Transphobia

• In Event: 035 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Trans Identities

Abstract

A persistent finding in past research reifies a “gendered” cisnormative bias whereby heterosexual men (compared to heterosexual women) have been found to be overwhelmingly less supportive of transgender individuals in quantitative studies conducted in the U.S. as well as in Canada, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. I suggest that this finding reflects a synergistic relationship between “transphobia” and “homophobia” or put another way, an overarching presence of hetero-cis-normativity whereby it is “normal” to be both heterosexual and cisgender and it is not normal (and therefore acceptable to be prejudiced toward) non-heterosexual and non-cisgender individuals. Using this hetero-cis-normative framework in the current study, I use quantitative survey data from college-aged students (N= 775; average age 22; 78 percent White), at a University in the southern U.S. to investigate attitudes toward transgender individuals in three ways. First, I explore how hetero-cis-normative assumptions lead to gender differences in attitudes toward male-to-female and female-to-male transgender individuals. Next, I examine perspectives in opposition to hetero-cis-normativity, namely feminist identity and supportive attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, to explain why men (compared to women) have more negative attitudes toward transgender individuals. Finally, I explore how non-heterosexuals’ attitudes may further elucidate the relationship between gender and attitudes toward transgender individuals. Overall results provide support for using a hetero-cis-normative framework to understand transphobia.

Author

• Meredith Gwynne Fair Worthen, University of Oklahoma