"I think journalists sometimes forget that we're just people": Analysing the effects of UK trans media representation on trans audiences

The increased focus on trans lives across a variety of media has brought to light the difficult relationship between trans audiences of this media and the content produced about trans people. The print and digital content of newspapers is an important site for investigation because it can be readily accessed and shared quickly across a variety of platforms and there is a significant volume of content produced about trans people. In order to critically engage with the content produced about trans people in UK newspapers the views of trans audiences are important to assess the impact this media has on their daily lives. Academic work addressing trans lived experiences has been invaluable in understanding healthcare and relationships (Girshick, 2008; Hines, 2007) but there has been comparatively little specific work on trans media representation. The work that has been done found patterns of misrepresentation of trans identities (Kermode and TMW, 2010). This notable absence presents a potential barrier to understanding the ways in which trans media coverage impacts trans lives. With qualitative interviews at the centre of this research methodology, this paper considers trans representation in UK newspapers and analyses the effects on trans audiences. Interviews and focus groups were conducted online with self-defining trans people as experts on the ways newspaper reporting affects their lives. Online methods are useful for media reception research because of the amount of media consumption that occurs online. In the specific case of trans audiences online methods become necessary as a means to work with harder-to-reach communities with concerns about participating in research. The questions asked of trans audiences were influenced by a critical discourse analysis of trans coverage in UK newspapers over the period of one year to provide a snapshot of content. This initial search also provided example articles. During this period the newspaper complaints body issued guidelines on trans reporting so questions on the effectiveness of these were also asked. Participants were interviewed online across online focus group and instant message software. The findings that emerged from interviews revealed newspapers repeatedly influenced daily lives especially in relation to transphobia, misgendering and misrepresentation which were highlighted frequently. Some participants focused on the sensationalist nature of reporting which led to feelings of othering, whereas others were more focused on opportunities for resistance to the tropes about trans people produced. This paper considers these interviews in the current context in which they are produced and the wider discourse of trans media representation to address the impact this media has on trans audiences. By critically reflecting on the ways trans newspaper coverage affects trans audiences, this paper offers a unique and community influenced perspective that seeks different trans media representation that does not cause harm for trans readers

Review of Matthew Heinz, Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse (Bristol: Intellect, 2016)

No abstract available

Who's here? Who's queer?

Welcome to the 2021 special edition of Intersectional Perspectives: Identity, Culture, and Society, entitled 'Who's Here? Who's Queer?’. In asking these two questions we are asking who feels they belong in LGBTQI+ spaces and who claims the language of queer. 1 This idea of belonging, and its related concept community, underpins the articles in this special issue. Theoretically we draw on the work of Vanessa May, who states that 'an individual's sense of belonging is affected by collectively negotiated understandings of who 'we' are and what 'we' stand for, and who gets excluded as the 'other''. As May highlights the notion of belonging contains within it the shadow of those that do not belong. A singular understanding of inclusion and exclusion of LGBTQI+ people does not fully account for greater nuance in relational elements of these experiences. Experiences of inclusion and exclusion are necessarily interpersonal, relational, and context-dependent. As such one's inclusion or exclusion depends both on an individual's embodied state, and the relations between individuals, contexts and other agents. Individuals' experiences of being included or excluded vary across settings and times, and a binary concept of inclusion or exclusion does not allow for this nuance

“Pitching a virtual woo”: Analysing discussion of sexism in online gaming

Issues of sexism and gender-based harassment have been divisive within online gaming communities with contested understandings of the presence of these issues, prevailing explanations and potential solutions. This report was prompted by the discrepancy between problematic representations of women observed in online gaming community discussions of these issues and women’s rich and complex accounts of their gameplay. Poststructural theory facilitated exploration of the construction of women gamers as important in the reproduction of and resistance to problematic gendered discourses. Analysis illustrates the politics of (in)visibility that women gamers negotiate: limited possibilities for women as “active” subjects and little recognition of women’s desires in gaming motivations. Findings highlight a need to engage with both the re-inscription of women as denoting a “secondary status” and the poverty of discursive resources available in discussion of these issues for transforming existing understandings

Co-producing trans ethical research

We employ a critical appraisal of the limitations of existing concepts and tools we have to engage ethically with trans subjectivities and co-researchers with trans, non-binary and queer identities and for challenging cisgenderism and transphobia. The issues we discuss draw from fieldwork within UK and Australian contexts which involved a range of methods approached with critical community psychology and sociologies of gender perspectives. The key issues we negotiated concern: formulating progressive, consent-giving practices that avoid problematic inscriptions of dominant identity categories; facilitating safer research spaces; rethinking crude characterisations of trans subjects as vulnerable/risky; and promoting enhanced engagement with research accounts produced. This piece does not offer an exhaustive ethical review or proposed guidelines, but instead reflects upon how challenges emerged in our practice and were negotiated. These discussions contribute to an ongoing dialogue about how we create ethical contexts for engagement in our research

Review of Matthew Heinz, Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse (Bristol: Intellect, 2016)

No abstract available

The Research Interview

Reply from publisher: AAM open from publication date: Add VoR: 02/09/22: JC Dear John, Many thanks for your email, we appreciate you getting in touch to confirm these details. We can confirm that we are happy for Harvey to have the piece listed on NRL, but we do ask that this is held back until we have published the issue (will be in the next few weeks). This will also mean you can directly access the correct, reviewed, and downloadable piece on our website (and therefore, also retrieve the correct URL). We operate under Creative Commons (Licence 4), if that helps. I hope that clarifies our position. Do let us know if you have any further questions. Best, Lauren Cultivate Associate Edito

Review of Matthew Heinz, Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse (Bristol: Intellect, 2016)

No abstract available

“We are finding our voice is so unheard that it’s being erased by these bigger voices”: Investigating relationships between trans and intersex activists in Australia, Malta and the UK

Much of the literature on intersex lives has focused on medical experiences, with the language of Disorders of Sex Development illustrating the pathologising narratives emerging from this work. There has been sociological work focusing on the lived experiences of intersex people outside of a medicalised focus. However, this predominantly focuses on the experiences of intersex individuals across the United States of America. There is even less sociological literature outside of American contexts considering the lives of intersex activists. Trans lived experiences, including the lives of trans activists, have been more considered within sociological literature in recent years with considerations outside of American contexts. However, considerations of trans activisms alongside intersex activisms remains an underexplored area of research. The relationships between trans and intersex activists is similarly underexplored particularly outside of American contexts. This thesis addresses these gaps in the literature with an investigation into relationships between trans and intersex activists across fieldwork sites in Australia, Malta and the United Kingdom. Activism provides the setting of the research through which to explore the negotiation of identities and language use by trans and intersex individuals. The central themes of relationships, identities, and representation are explored through this consideration of trans and intersex activist relationships. Language and discourse underpin these explorations and provide a means through which these themes can be understood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with trans activists, intersex activists, parent activists, and LGBTI activists working in fieldwork sites in Australia, Malta and the UK. The presentation of the qualitative data from these interviews takes the form of an ethnodrama that also functions as a form of analysis demonstrating the ways these relationships were experienced by participants. This ethnodrama reveals the tensions within these relationships and explores the contestations of language and negotiation of identities across different trans and intersex groups and different contexts. A further analysis is presented side by side with the scenes of the ethnodrama to tease out the nuances within the participants’ text focusing on analysing their linguistic choices. This analysis also relates these findings back to the sociological literature on trans and intersex lives. Through a focus on the ways in which trans and intersex activists interact, and through a focus on the language they use, this thesis finds personal relationships within and across trans, intersex, and LGBTI activist groups shape trans and intersex activism. These personal relationships were fraught, and frustrations emerged relating to a lack of shared meanings ascribed to important terms. This was most acute with the contested language of identities. The contestations of identity terms, and related boundary work of who counts as trans and intersex, led to experiences of exclusion for some activists with feelings of inauthenticity in relation to identities for those experiencing exclusion. Furthermore, these fraught relationships have consequences in other spheres including access to funding; stakeholder relationships; and the development of activist work across support, visibility, legal and healthcare contexts. These discrepancies across understanding of contested terms seep into political discussion and the language of the law in relation to legal recognition of trans and intersex identities further complicating relationships. This thesis demonstrates these unequal representational relationships foster further complexities across the contestation of language, relationships and identities within and across trans and intersex activism

Podcast #33 : Meet some academics : Dr Harvey Humphrey and Prof Yvette Taylor

In this podcast episode, we speak to Dr Harvey Humphrey and Prof Yvette Taylor about the event "We're queer, we're here: Making space for Queer Early Career Researchers in Academia", co-organised by Harvey and Hazel Marzetti, with the help of the British Sociological Association. We discuss the exclusive character of the neoliberal university, but also explore what we can learn from those who have traditionally been pushed to the margins of academia about alternative practices opening spaces of creativity and resistance