Theorizing Gender Ideologies Through Experiences of Misgendering

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

Abstract

Interactions are sites where gender beliefs are produced. In this paper, I unpack misgendering experiences to illustrate how, in interactions, perceivers privilege certain signs of gender we associate with biology – outward bodily appearance and gender assignment (which represents genitals) – over others and over gender signs typically classified as cultural (e.g. clothing). I next analyze how the interactive events where perceivers privilege these two gender criteria reproduce elements of hegemonic sex/gender/sexuality ideology – ideas that gender is bodily and immutable, that women are “victims,” that men and people with penises are “perpetrators,” and that gender minorities are “pretenders.” Finally, I investigate the role hegemonic sex/gender/sexuality ideology plays in misgendering interactions where perceivers privilege certain gender signs – outward bodily appearance and gender assignment – over others. Thus, I demonstrate how, even as the public is becoming more aware of trans individuals, many gender minorities still experience misgendering in everyday life; these misgenderings maintain cultural beliefs in outward bodily appearance and gender assignment as determinants of gender truth, dismissing the epistemic authority of selves.

Author

• Sonny M. Nordmarken, University of Massachusetts-Amherst