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Situational Gender: A Qualitative Study of Gender Performativity in Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals in Burlington, Vermont
Friends, Julian
Friends, Julian
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In this study, I apply Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity (1988; 1990; 1993; 2004; 2015; 2024) to the lived experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) individuals in order to foster greater understanding of those experiences within academia. At the same time, I aimed to assess whether Butler’s theory of performativity can be aptly applied to the experiences of transgender and GNC people or whether those lived experiences provide conflicting evidence against the theory of performativity. I collected data from a survey (n = 95), interviews (n = 4), and experiences from my own life through autoethnography in order to create a rigorous qualitative exploration into the experiences of transgender and GNC individuals. Participants’ deliberate actions to create their gender could generally be categorized as either conforming to or subverting gender norms and roles, and were generally motivated by what participants found comfortable, in avoidance or response to discomfort, or in pursuit of genuine expression of oneself. These findings show that performativity theory might be a helpful theoretical tool for thinking through the actions, motivations, and structures of gender, even for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. I also argue for a theory of situational gender, in which one’s use of space is constrained by how they are seen and gendered in a given moment by a given person.
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2026-02-17
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Department of Geography and Geosciences