Personal and collective trans-mythologies: creative attitudes to gender incongruence among transgender individuals

Embedded within the biographies of some transgender people are narratives elements more frequently found in culturally-specific legends settings and the interplay of mythological figures. Individuals who specifically identify as transsexuals (unlike other, non-binary or gender-queer transgender people) sometimes report the wish, the dream, and/or the desire to understand or alleviate their experienced gender incongruence in a surprisingly creative way: through some type of magical transformation. Calling upon recently collected interviews, this study examines those narratives and their use of such elements, noting their reliance on binary gender formations. Through philosophical and cultural-anthropological analyses, we suggest that these fields grant powerful and imaginative personal allowances, opportunities and perceptions to transsexual identifying transgender individuals – magical transformations and justified transpositions to alleviate dysphoria, a surrender of personal responsibility to unseen universal forces, and especially an inherent wisdom gifted during transitional liminality – that neither scientific nor academic evaluations of gender transition can. While these creative allowances are fictive, fantastical, and temporary, they nevertheless articulate a need if not an imperative for understanding, expression and ultimately action on behalf of the transitioning individual. Santrauka Naratyviniai elementai, vis dažniau aptinkami kultūriniu požiūriu specifinių legendų steigiamame fone ir sąveikaujant mitologinėms figūroms, yra įtraukti į kai kurių translyčių žmonių biografijas. Asmenys, kurie specifiniu būdu identifikuoja save kaip transseksualus (skirtingai nei kiti transseksualūs asmenys – nebinarinės lyties ar lytiniai keistuoliai), kartas nuo karto praneša apie norą, svajonę ir / ar troškimą suprasti ar sušvelninti jų patiriamą lytinį neatitikimą stebėtinai kūrybišku būdu – stebuklinga tam tikro pobūdžio transformacija. Remiantis neseniai surinktais interviu, šiame tyrime nagrinėjami tie naratyvai ir jų elementų naudojimas, atkreipiant dėmesį į jų priklausomybę nuo binarinių lyties struktūrų. Pasitelkiant filosofinius ir kultūrinius-antropologinius tyrimus, teigiama, kad šios sritys teikia paveikių ir kūrybiškų asmeninių išlygų, galimybių ir suvokimų individų, save identifikuojančių kaip translyčius, atžvilgiu: stebuklingos transformacijos ir pagrįsti perkėlimai, siekiant sušvelninti disforiją, asmens atsakomybės kapituliavimą universalių dvasinių jėgų akivaizdoje ir ypač prigimtinę išmintį, suteiktą pereinamojo liminalumo, o to neteikia nei moksliniai, nei akademiniai lyties keitimo vertinimai. Nors šios kūrybinės išlygos yra pramanytos, neįtikimos ir laikinos, vis dėlto jos artikuliuoja supratimo, išraiškos ir galiausiai jei ne imperatyvo, tai bent veiksmo pereinančiojo asmens atžvilgiu poreikį. Reikšminiai žodžiai: kūrybinis požiūris, lyties neatitikimas, stebuklinga transformacija, perėjimo ritualas, translyčiai asmenys, transseksualūs asmenys, „netinkamo kūno“ diskursas

Towards a ritualized public space above divisions: creative (re)construction of children’s rites of passage

The article refers to anthropological, sociological and pedagogical aspects of reframing – in a creative way – the rituals addressed to children at the threshold of puberty. Based on a presentation of a new ritual of farewell to childhood, the paper is a theoretical reflection on the need of introducing new rituals that create ground for animation-educational practice. This practice – by revivifying creativity in areas considered so far closed and exclusive – makes it possible to overcome socially unfavourable structures of performance, and the inceptions of new, legitimized and empowering forms of subjective representations. Ritual’s creative qualities – in Victor Turner’s conceptualization – have inspired the authors to emphasize the need to replace a hegemony of thinking with a heterogeneity of thinking about the rites of passage. This undertaking is directed towards creating a space in social consciousness for rituals that are other than religious ones. Following Gert Biesta’s thinking, we argue that the farewell to childhood in the form we propose can be seen as an expression of pedagogical interruption and a practice of commonality which is a common good, one endlessly fragile and requiring cultivation. The secular children’s rite of passage and other secular rituals that arise not in opposition to religious rituals, but alongside them, are such common goods

Researching Vulnerable Groups: Definitions, Controversies, Dilemmas, and the Researcher’s Personal Entanglement

The article aims to describe vulnerable groups in the context of qualitative research in social science with special attention to ethical and methodological dilemmas. This is a theoretical study, which does not aspire to offer solutions or guidelines, but rather show elements worth taking notice of and analyzing when research is planned and carried out. We argue that in the social sciences, vulnerability is relational and crucial. However, social science researchers perceive the category of vulnerability as ambiguous and nuanced. This article shows that ascribing research participants univocally to a vulnerable group may lead not only to them being stereotyped and deprived of individuality but also to a situation where the research act itself disempowers them. We also argue that apart from issues often raised concerning the protection of participants from vulnerable groups, the researcher and their protection are also pivotal, particularly when the researcher, due to their involvement, abandons the out-group perspective or when they belong to the vulnerable group