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ETD Abstract Container

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Doing Cisgender Vs. Doing Transgender: An Extension of Doing Gender Using Documentary Film

Johnson, Austin Haney
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374765386

Abstract Details

2013, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology.
Trans men have been the subject of many empirical studies in recent years that focus primarily on their engagement with masculinity within interaction. By highlighting the experiences of trans men, researchers argue that the persistent and often invisible experiences of gender inequality, specifically those of cisgender women, are made more visible. While scholars studying trans men in these scenarios categorize these interactions under the general heading of doing gender, I argue that these studies highlight experiences of doing cisgender, defined in this paper as individuals' accomplishment of gender within interaction according to cisnormative standards. However, the generalized moniker of doing gender is complicit in the marginalization of trans individuals' experiences of gender because it marks the dominant gender identification, cis, as the unnamed norm and eclipses trans-specific experiences of gender. While understanding how trans people do cisgender is an important contribution to the literature, I argue that doing cisgender is one component of trans people's experience of doing gender. My primary contention in this paper is that trans people also do transgender; that is, they are held accountable to transnormative standards that police and enforce the medical/legal/social access to trans as an identity category. To illustrate the differences between doing cisgender and doing transgender, I conduct a qualitative content analysis of nine documentary films featuring trans men, highlighting instances in the films of trans men doing cisgender and doing transgender.
Clare Stacey (Committee Chair)
Rebecca Erickson (Committee Member)
Nicole Rousseau (Committee Member)
53 p.
Sociology
Gender; Transgender; Authenticity; Documentary Film

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, A. H. (2013). Doing Cisgender Vs. Doing Transgender: An Extension of Doing Gender Using Documentary Film [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374765386

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, Austin. Doing Cisgender Vs. Doing Transgender: An Extension of Doing Gender Using Documentary Film. 2013. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374765386.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, Austin. "Doing Cisgender Vs. Doing Transgender: An Extension of Doing Gender Using Documentary Film." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374765386

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1374765386
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.