5.2 G ENDER AND G ENDER S PECIFIC I DENTITY
5.2.3 Primary school teachers’ selection of transgender adjectives
Kardashian, and she always wanted to look like Kim. So that is what I base my answers on, like someone is transgender – it's what they see themselves as per what they aspire to be” (Anna).
“…for me, it is if you want or if you feel like as if you were not created the way you should be and you have this feeling like you want to be this person who you feel you truly were meant to be, then that for me is transgender. To become the person you truly feel that exists” (Deborah).
Even though most teachers were able to associate transgender with the lack of correspondence between gender and sex, the participants’ supposition of two gender categories were evident.
Brenda’s response in the above excerpt shows that transgender identification is understood as the movement from male to female (MtF) or female to male (FtM). The same was suggested when Linda mentioned “one gender and the other gender”, neglecting the spectrum of transgender identities.
Anna’s understanding, on the other hand, deviated from normative gender and sex ideologies, and focused on identification being a strong sense of self and individualistic aspiration. Deborah’s response also challenged the two sex and two gender binary by making reference to the authentic self. This statement posits transgender identification as an innate recognition of self rather than just the desire to be the opposite sex.
These findings were in line with Levitt and Ippolito (2014) who found that there is a lack of transgender awareness in mainstream society. As a consequence, transgender identities are compelled to trade their need for an authentic sense of self for their need for safety and security from discriminatory practices. Since the presentation and communication of authentic gendered self is limited by contextual stressors, the next section will explore this in detail.
because non-binary gender identity conforms less to the conventional heterosexual matrix (Richards et al., 2016).
This study made use of photo elicitation methods to gather teachers’ initial perception of non-conforming gender identities. Participants were exposed to two rows of images (Appendix B) and were asked to attach adjectives to each individual. The figure below represents all the adjectives put forward:
•childlike, confident, cute, fatherly, sad, worried, happy, sassy, content, smiley, disorganised, confused, handsome, old, mature, upset, unhappy, brave, diverse, vibrant, boring, masculine, model, manly, educated, business-like, serious, strict, homeless, jobless, loud, annoying, relaxed, calm, worried, charming, outspoken
Row A bold, unafraid, elated, joyful, accepted, jubilated , inconsequential, misinterpreted, hurt, athletic, well-kept, healthy, energetic, conceited, dark, gloomy, fabulous, unhappy, weird, scary, robotic, robber, guilty, suspicious, creative, talented, sincere, well-known, arrogant, decent, classy, introverted, boring, jovial, sophisticated, preoccupied, fake, gay, petite, young
•happier, more comfortable, transitioned, fierce, confident, proud, beautiful, done up, fabulous, radiant, fashionable, trendy, different, content, feminine, transformed, diverse, model, attractive, attention seeker, girly, prideful, womanly, neat, professional, famous, funny, over-bearing, loud, pretty,
Row B natural, a bit much, stylish, self-centred, highly-advantageous, bold, revved, unusual, jubilated, peaceful, balanced, worrying, serious, troubling, fake, not genuine, sham, weird, unnatural, gorgeous, not normal, outgoing, motherly, lovely,creative, smart, sophisticated, shocking, scary, prim, proper, classy, stunning, attentive, glaring, interested, dazzling, caring, elegant
Figure 3: Adjectives used in photo-elicitation
Jawad and Yosif (2017) describe an adjective as a word that modifies a noun by providing more information about the person or thing. When the participants described Caitlyn Jenner and Lavern Cox prior to their transition process (row A), there was a repetition of ominous adjectives, such as sad, worried, unhappy, hurt, dark, gloomy, guilty, and suspicious. Whereas there was a difference of perception following their transition (row B) as adjectives were more propitious, for instance, happier, more comfortable, content, fierce, proud, bold, and radiant.
Ryazanov and Christenfield (2017) claim that transgender identities are continuously stereotyped, denounced, and discriminated against due to essentialism and heteronormativity that manifests in society and filters into schools. Although most of the teacher participants
(79%) were familiar with transgender women through Caitlyn Jenner’s publicised journey, essentialist beliefs linked to the rigid gender binary were noticeable.
A participant’s response to the question: “What adjectives would you use to describe individuals in row B?”
“Definitely weird” (Patricia).
A participant’s response to the question: “Why do you choose the word weird?”
“It just seems fake, you know. It is the same group of people in A and B and B is just fake” (Patricia).
The above extracts reveal how entrenched heteronormative gender systems are in everyday life. When the teacher participants provided adjectives for same-sex attracted identities and transgender identities, caution was visible. The participants made neutral but deliberate word selections such as “weird” and “fake”, and subsequently imposed stringent essentialist and hetero-cis-normative rules on non-conforming gender identity. Butler (2006; 2011) describes non-conforming identities as an error of society. Patricia’s response illustrated how nonconforming gender expressions are denied, and furthermore, how LGBTIQ+ identities are reduced to an aberration of the hetero-cis-gender form.
“Okay, the first two is weird, not actually, the first three are weird, but the fourth [laughs] – the fourth looks gorgeous, but yes, the three are weird” (Barbara).
A participant’s response to the question: “Why do you choose the word weird?”
“Because you see this is not the norm. It is not the norm, so obviously it is like, uhm, if A, B and C had to walk past me, it is not something I have been exposed to or used to looking at or used to seeing in our daily life, so, uhm, you know it is weird and obviously we will give it a second glance, you know. You will have these thoughts you know, and we will question ourselves like, is this a male [or]