Flourishing in a Binary World: The Creation of Transgender Alternative Narratives

Abstract

The master narrative of gender within contemporary U.S. culture is that there are two mutually exclusive categories of men and women. This leaves transgender individuals with the precarious position of creating alternative narratives in response to that master narrative. The current qualitative research study was undertaken to better understand the varieties of alternative narratives transgender individuals create for themselves. Thematic life story interviews were conducted with 19 American transgender emerging adults, asking them to reflect on their experiences with gender throughout their lives. A discursive thematic analysis resulted in three themes: persistence of the binary, rejection of the binary, and pressures of transnormativity. Binary expectations persisted through gender binary policing, binary requirements of passing, and a lack of options within the binary. Participants rejected the binary by discovering transgender concepts and role models and subverting other people’s binary expectations. Participants also felt pressure to follow a particular alternative narrative, transnormativity, from gatekeepers both within and outside the trans community. However, despite the cultural power of these master and alternative narratives persisting, our participants demonstrated a wealth of creativity and strength by searching for information that fit their gender experiences, creating supportive communities with caring others, and disrupting this cultural power by flourishing as their full gendered selves.