[readolog_dropcap ]G[/readolog_dropcap]ender is a social structure that shapes interactional expectations, institutions, and social groups (Risman 2004). Structuration theory argues that people act on social structures as social structures act on people. These actions can change the social structure (Giddens 1984). The growing visibility of the transgender population acts on and challenges the social-structural constraints of the gender binary. Transgender individuals challenge the principle of the gender binary by transitioning from one gender to another and/or not identifying with either gender (Lorber 2005). As the transgender individual brings their new self to social interactions they create new cultural expectations about gender. These interactions and actions change the gender social structure.
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In a culture that subscribes to a gender binary, trans bodies and trans expressions exist outside the boundaries created by the binary. Limiting acceptable gender expression to a binary (i.e. masculinity equals man, femininity equals woman) creates rigid and limited identity codes. Identity codes are rules of performance and symbolic constituents that signify membership within a certain group (Schwalbe, Godwin, Holden, Schrock, Thompson, and Wolkomir 2000). Expressing gender outside the binary identity code discredits transgender individuals’ experience of self. Transgender individuals either adapt to or reject the identity codes of the gender binary, because there currently is no identity code appropriate for their lived experience. By living outside the binary, transgender individuals can become marginalized and may experience oppressive othering.
The transgender person is seen as morally inferior to those who subscribe to the gender binary identity codes. They live outside the hegemonic boundaries of gender. Violence is used to ensure the maintenance of these boundaries (Schwalbe, Godwin, Holden, Schrock, Thompson, and Wolkomir 2000). Transgender people experience higher rates of murder than the general population (Grant, Mottet, Tanis, Harrison, Herman, and Keisling 2011). By inflicting violence or death on transgender individuals, non-transgender individuals incite fear toward not conforming to the binary.
Transgender people experience higher rates of poverty, discrimination, and harassment. The National Center for Transgender Equality’s survey of transgender individuals revealed ninety percent of their respondents experienced harassment or discrimination on the job. They were twice as likely to be unemployed. Fifty three percent of respondents reported being verbally harassed in public spaces (Grant, Mottet, Tanis, Harrison, Herman, and Keisling 2011). To stop this violence, to stop this discrimination, to stop the unnecessary limitations of our current identity codes, and to generate more acceptance of gender diversity, the cultural expectations of the gender social structure need to change from a gender binary to a gender spectrum. The need for boundary control will change because the gender boundaries will expand (Schwalbe, Godwin, Holden, Schrock, Thompson, and Wolkomir 2000).
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A gender spectrum is inclusive of the transgender experience. The transgender individual is no longer bound by the constraints established by the binary. This may help stop the violence against transgender people. If there is a change to the identity codes of the gender binary then there may be a shift in the cultural expectations of gender. When there is a new social expectations for gender performance the whole gender social structure is forced to shift with these new expectations.
*This is the introduction to my master’s thesis prospectus.
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Grant, J., Mottet, L., Tanis, J., Harrison, J., Herman, J., & Keisling, M. (2011). Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey.
Lorber, J. (2005). Breaking the Bowls: Degendering and Feminist Change. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Risman, B. J. (2004). Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism. Gender and Society 18(4), 429-450.
Risman, B. J. (2009). From Doing to Undoing: Gender As We Know It. Gender and Society 23(1), 81-84.
Schwalbe, M., Godwin, S., Holden, D., Schrock, D., Thompson, S., & Wolkomir, M. (2000). Generic Processes in the Reproduction of Inequality: An Interactionist Analysis. Social Forces 79(2), 419-452.
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