Rethinking At-Risk Narratives: Trans Youths’ Stories about Embodiment and Intelligibility

• In Event: 133 - Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. Intersectional Approaches to Trans Studies (co-sponsored with LGBT Caucus)

Abstract

Trans embodiment is always narrative work because the transformation and everyday life experiences of the body take on a narrative shape in the lives of trans people (Prosser 1998). Building from Jay Prosser’s analysis of trans narratives as a vital part of the trans person’s transition, and drawing on my own research with trans youth, I look to the stories trans youth tell about their body and intelligibility. Current research about trans youth often describes then as at risk of various mental health issues (Rasmussen 2006) and while it is important to recognize the challenges trans youth face, the unique context and complexity of the experiences of each trans youth is lost in the push to frame all trans youth as at risk, marginalized and vulnerable (Driver 2008). This paper presents an opportunity for thinking differently about the lives of trans youth and the narratives they tell about themselves. In this paper, I explore a story one young trans person told me about an experience he had at school. I provide a close reading (Love 2013) of his story, attending to the description of the event and the way he constructs his narrative of the experience. I find that his narrative resists being framed as one about suffering and I explore how his story offers a different way to think about trans youth and the complex ways they negotiate their identity, body, and intelligibility.

Author

• Julia Sinclair-Palm, York University