Performing Gender: A Study of Gender Fluidity

The subjective quality of identity and the relativistic nature of gender are subjects that continue to bemuse and attract social scientists. In this study I examine gender fluidity – an inconsistent gender identity – within the framework of Western ontology. By analyzing narratives, I note that my informants recognize this gender identity as fluctuating feelings (which I call the feelings of gender) that influence how they perceive and interact with their bodies. Furthermore, I examine other important elements that may have influenced my informants\u27 understanding of their gender identities and bodies: upbringing, previous relationships and interactions, communities, and language

Intersectionality and identity: shared tenets and future research agendas for gender and identity studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Special Issue developed from a joint research seminar of the Gender in Management and Identity Special Interest Groups of the British Academy of Management, entitled “Exploring the Intersectionality of Gender and Identity”. It also presents an introductory literature review of intersectionality for gender in management and identity/identity work researchers. The authors highlight the similarities and differences of intersectionality and identity approaches and introduce critiques of intersectional research. They then introduce the three papers in this Special Issue. Design/methodology/approach – The authors review the intersectionality literature within and outside management and organisation studies and focus their attention on three intersectionality Special Issues (Sex Roles, 2008, 2013 and the European Journal of Women’s Studies, 2006). Findings – The authors outline the ongoing debates relating to intersectionality research, including a framework and/or theory for identity/identity work, and explore the shared tenets of theories of intersectionality and identity. They highlight critiques of intersectionality research in practice and consider areas for future research for gender in management and identity researchers. Research limitations/implications – The authors provide an architecture for researchers to explore intersectionality and to consider issues before embarking on intersectional research. They also highlight areas for future research, including social-identities of disability, class and religion. Originality/value – Gender in Management: An International Journal invited this Special Issue to make a significant contribution to an under-researched area by reviewing the shared and different languages and importantly the shared key tenets, of intersectionality, gender, identity and identity work from a multidisciplinary perspective

Gender Identity and Sense of Self Sufficiency

This study examines the effects of gender identity on sense of safety on a college campus. Data was collected through an online survey sent out to students at the University of New Hampshire. Students answered nominal and ordinal questions about their gender identity, as well as Likert-scale questions regarding opinions on safety while walking on campus. The results of the survey showed correlation between gender identity and sense of safety while walking alone at night, however, the survey showed no correlation between gender identity and sense of safety while walking at night with a friend. Collecting data from a larger and more representative sample would improve findings on students, specifically those who identify as transgender and non-conforming

Gender Identity Formation Of Indonesian Woman Efl Teachers: Because Womb-man Does Exist

This study aims at investigating the gender identity formation of some Indonesian women EFL teachers as they had experiences in advancing their study abroad. The study adopted a qualitative methodology within a feminist framework. The data were generated from some women who had been teaching English in Indonesia for at least two years prior to coming to another country to further their education. Through self-completion questionnaires and focus group interviews, the participants shared their lived-experiences and their adjustments as they were exposed to different cultural movements transnationally, between Indonesia and another country. How these women EFL teachers construct their gender identity during their transnational movement and how English actually influences these processes is the focus of the study. The findings reveal how the processes of gender identity construction were formed through governmental policy and socio-cultural values in the society. The findings also show how for these women EFL teachers their professional milieu was a site of contestation for women to promote their status in the society and gender equality. Finally the study highlights that English language is viewed as a benefit to elevate women\u27s social status as it facilitated their socialization in professional and educational contexts when they furthered their study in another country. Drawing on the findings, further research is suggested around the issue of gender identity construction of men EFL teachers in order to get more comprehensive picture

Stealing a car to be a man : the importance of cars and driving in the gender identity of adolescent males

Nationally vehicle theft is associated with approximately 40 fatalities per year with an estimated annual cost of one billion dollars. During 2000 - 2001 almost 139,000 motor vehicles (cars, motor cycles, campervans, and trucks) were stolen across Australia. Vehicle theft is an overwhelmingly adolescent male crime yet gender has not been considered in either policy or program initiatives.----- This thesis used Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory to examine the relationships between vehicle theft, offending, and adolescent male gender identity. Four central research questions were posed:----- 1. Is vehicle theft a gendered behaviour, that is, do some adolescent males engage in vehicle theft to create a particular adolescent male gender identity?----- 2. Do vehicle theft offenders engage in other offending behaviours?----- 3. Are these other offences also used to create a particular adolescent male gender identity and----- 4. Will the use of a variety of gender-related scales to measure gender identity support Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity Theory that gender identity is multifactorial?----- Study One Parts A and B provided the empirical basis for Studies Two and Three. Part A of Study One examined the &quotmaleness" of vehicle theft and two other problem behaviours: problem drinking and traffic offence involvement. Cross-sectional and longitudinal methodologies were used to investigate a representative sample of 4,529 male high school students in relation to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement as a novice driver. Results indicated that &quotmaleness" was significantly related to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement. Subsequent analyses, based on Jessor's Problem Behaviour Theory, found a significant relationship between vehicle theft offenders and problem drinking. Study One Part B examined the relationship between masculinity as measured by the Australian Sex Role Scale (ASRS) and problem drinking in a rural sample of 1,248 male high school students. Using a cross sectional methodology, Masculine students were more likely than students in the other gender trait groups to report a range of problem drinking behaviours. Contrary to previous research, both socially desirable and socially undesirable masculine traits were significantly related to most problem drinking behaviours.----- Having established significant relationships between &quotmaleness" and vehicle theft and masculinity and the adolescent problem behaviour of underage drinking, Study Two qualitatively examined the perceptions of adolescent males with histories of vehicle theft in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". Using semi-structured interviews, 30 adolescent males, clients of the juvenile justice system were asked &quotwhat do you have to do to be a man?" Vehicle theft was clearly identified as a masculine defining behaviour as were other offending behaviours. Overall, participants nominated very traditional behaviours such as having a job and providing financially for families as essential behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity". It was suggested that in the absence of legal options for creating a masculine gender identity, some adolescent males adopted more readily accessed illegal options. Study Two also canvassed the driving behaviour of adolescent males in stolen vehicles. Crash involvement was not uncommon. Speed, alcohol, and the presence of other adolescent males were consistent characteristics of their driving behaviour. Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants were similar in their responses.----- Study Three compared the gender identity of offender and non-offender adolescent males as measured by three gender-related measures: the ASRS, the Toughness Subscale of the Male Role Norm Scale (TSMRNS) and the Doing Masculinity Composite Scale (DMCS). While the ASRS measured gender traits, the TSMRNS measured masculinity ideology. The DMCS was developed from the responses of participants in Study Two and sought to measure how participants &quotdo masculinity". Analyses indicated vehicle theft was endorsed by just over a third of the sample as a masculine defining behaviour. Overall, offenders were again very traditional in the behaviours they endorsed. When compared to non-offenders, offenders were more likely to endorse illegal behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity" while non-offenders were more likely to endorse legal behaviours. Both offenders and non-offenders strongly endorsed having a car and the ability to drive as masculine defining behaviours.----- In relation to gender traits, non-offenders were more likely than offenders to be classified as Masculine by the ASRS. Surprisingly offenders were more likely to be classified as Androgynous. In relation to masculinity ideology, offenders and non-offenders were similar in their results on the TSMRNS however offenders were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Overall Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders were similar in their responses though Indigenous males were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory was supported in that the relations between the three gender-related measures were significant but low.----- Results confirmed that vehicle theft was endorsed by a minority of participants as a gendered behaviour. Other offending behaviours were also endorsed by some adolescent males as means to create masculine gender identity. Importantly though both offenders and non-offenders endorsed very traditional behaviours in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". The implications for policy and program initiatives include the acknowledgement of gender identity as an important component in relation to vehicle theft and offending and the desire of adolescent male offenders to engage in legal, traditional male behaviours. In the absence of legal avenues however, some adolescent males may use illegal behaviours to create gender identity. Cars and driving also feature as important components of gender identity for both offenders and non-offenders and these needs to be considered in relation to road safety initiatives

Misleading Aesthetic Norms of Beauty: Perceptual Sexism in Elite Women's Sports

The history of gender challenges faced by women in elite sports is fraught with controversy and injustice. These athletes' unique physical beauty creates what appears to be a paradox yet is, in fact, scientifically predictable. Intense training for the highest levels of competition leads to unique bodily strength and rare beauty associated with specific anatomic changes, leading top athletes to be singled out as exceptions from their gender and even excluded from competing. Authorities like the IOC and IAF, as well as coaches and fellow athletes, use traditional and sometimes racialized aesthetic norms as the basis for ungrounded judgments of "gender mis-identity." Misjudging the gender identity of elite athletes exemplifies a biased cognitive framework, a form of erroneous and damaging categorical perception that we call "perceptual sexism." We argue that perceptual sexism has a long history within aesthetic and competitive realms and is still perpetuated by popular culture. Correcting this will reduce injustices created by gender identity controversies

Gender violence, poverty, migration, identity, xenophobia

Xoliswa had returned earlier from the nearby shebeen drunk, which was not unusual for her. Now, she needed to go to the toilet, which was a communal arrangement for hundreds of people from the neighbouring shacks. She had left her husband Justice and daughter P. asleep. It was several hours later that Justice was called to the toilets – Xoliswa was unconscious and bleeding profusely from head wounds likely inflicted with the gory rocks discarded alongside her. It was clear she had also been raped. The police and an ambulance were called, but in the hours-long wait, Xoliswa died. The ambulance crew refused to venture into the Zandspruit settlement and the policemen who came refused to treat her death as a murder until the pathologists had thus determined. In the meantime, the community had begun their own investigation and several witnesses directed them to a group of three men and a woman who had been drinking with Xoliswa earlier that night. The vigilantes soon found two of the three men who quickly confessed.Published versio

Corporeal gender : feeling gender in first person trans* narratives

In the field of gender studies, the connection between physical being and identity is a point of passionate debate. The way people relate to their physical selves and society’s interpretation of their corporeal body can often constitute the very cornerstone of identity. Whilst the destabilization of relations between sex, gender, sexuality, and identity has been vital to social progress, this theoretical framework does not fully engage with the importance of corporeal feeling. This neglect is most starkly clear in the interaction of trans* autobiographical literature with wider discourse; when the body before the mirror does not connect with your inner sense of self, your investment in the connection of physicality and identity is deep. In this paper, I engage directly with the notion of feeling gender, the importance of the material body, and the difficulties of articulation of a feeling that may not initially be understood. I will explore the issue with reference to specific trans* autobiographies, including Emergence by Mario Martino, Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, and Katherine Cross’s current blog Nuclear Unicorn (www.quinnae.com). When there seems to be no vehicle for communication of emotion, new languages of feeling are created. It is this new language of feeling both gender and the body that must now demand our attention.peer-reviewe

We Walk Among You:Trans Identity Politics Goes to the Movies

Recent legal and social acknowledgement of (some) trans citizenship claims demonstrates the continuing evolution of trans politics and identity and the relationship between socio-political identities and popular culture. This article examines current debates over trans citizenship and identity and argues that certain kinds of identity and citizenship claims have cultural currency in contemporary representations of sex/gender. In order to address these issues, this article highlights key disputes and tensions in contemporary debates about transgender identity, citizenship, and claims to legal rights by examining the ways in which sex/gender identity is portrayed in three films—Cabaret, Transamerica, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Each film demonstrates various ways of interpreting and reworking the constraints of heteronormative binary notions of sex/gender, and these struggles over meaning are also reflected in the ways in which different articulations of trans identity and citizenship claims have been legally and culturally recognized. The article explores the ways in which particular accounts of trans identity are given primacy within law and how film can help us to reflect upon questions about which sexed/gendered people get to count as legal citizens. The article concludes by reminding us that despite discourses of recognition, it is important to remember the exclusionary, as well as the inclusionary, tendencies of law. </jats:p

Playground of gender : cross-dressing and self-mutilation as negation of gender identity in Tanja Duckers’s Spielzone (1999)

Although it is an outstanding example of writing life as negotiation of gender roles as well as exploration of the body as site of identity constructs, Tanja Dückers’s novel Spielzone, published in 1999, has not yet received the critical attention it deserves. The novel displays an interesting aesthetic technique of representing the milieu of two Berlin districts and their inhabitants, whose identity conflicts can be shown to reflect the state of construction of the urban space before its homogenization through gentrification. Especially with regard to gender identities, Dückers portrays the search for a different lifestyle, which is expressed through a striking focus on aesthetic differentiation and cross-dressing. The protagonists stage masculinity and femininity through a theatrical masquerade, which reveals the construct of gender identities and advocates a postmodern transgender existence. The negotiation of a new identity without binary gender attributions ranges from the negation of traditional role assignments to self-mutilation. In the following paper, Dückers’s text will be analysed as uncanny playground of gender between masquerade and brutal gender embodiment, which nevertheless, with all its negations of conventional values, eventually moves near to a return to traditional patterns.peer-reviewe