Identity Negotiation Within the Family: How Transgender TV Characters Challenge Gendered Family Roles

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Abstract

Using a symbolic constructionist theoretical framework, this in-process content analysis of four television shows that feature transgender characters in a family setting—Transparent, I Am Jazz, I Am Cait, and Becoming Us—examines how traditionally gendered family roles and expectations are challenged when a member of the family begins a gender transition and how these processes are portrayed in entertainment media.

Authors

• Rhonda Gibson Hester, U of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Chris Etheridge, U of North Carolina - Chapel Hill