A Study of Gender Fluidity

(—THIS SIDEBAR DOES NOT PRINT—) QUICK START (cont.) DESIGN GUIDE Performing Genders: A Study of Gender Fluidity How to change the template color theme This PowerPoint 2007 template produces a 36”x48” You can easily change the color theme of your poster by going to the presentation poster. You can use it to create your research DESIGN menu, click on COLORS, and choose the color theme of your poster and save valuable time placing titles, subtitles, text, Nicholas Coney choice. You can also create your own color theme. and graphics.

Linﬁeld College We provide a series of online tutorials that will guide you through the poster design process and answer your poster production questions. To view our template tutorials, go online to PosterPresentations.com and click on HELP DESK. ABSTRACT THEORY RESULTS/DISCUSSION CONCLUSIONS You can also manually change the color of your background by going to VIEW > SLIDE MASTER. After you finish working on the master be sure to When you are ready to print your poster, go online to go to VIEW > NORMAL to continue working on your poster. The subjective quality of identity and the relativistic nature of gender Identity Each of my informants described gender as feelings associated with their This study shows that my informants conceptualize gender as feelings PosterPresentations.com continue to bemuse and attract social scientists. In this study I examine When we talk about fluid gender identities, we need to be aware how those bodies, which I call the feelings of gender. My informants conceptualized associated with the body (i.e. feelings of gender) that is influenced by their gender fluidity – an inconsistent gender identity – within the framework of these feelings in three distinct manners – the internal sense of self, the ontological understanding of gender. Because gender fluidity is the How to add Text Need assistance? Call us at 1.510.649.3001 identities are established and perpetuated in practice. Western ontology. By analyzing narratives, I note that my informants biological characteristic ingrained with in the body, and as the external fluctuation of those feelings, I argue that gender fluidity should be The template comes with a number of pre- • Identity implies a preconceived history that is constantly being formatted placeholders for headers and text recognize this gender identity as fluctuating feelings (which I call the reevaluated and established, which is important when examining gender expressions of the body. understood as a constant but inconsistent change regarding how one feels blocks. You can add more blocks by copying and feelings of gender) that influence how they perceive and interact with their fluid identities (Jenkins 1996). • Gender is someone's internal sense of how they relate to cultural norms of masculinity about their body, rather than a constant change between personae. bodies. Furthermore, I found other important elements that may have and femininity in their own bodies. [Cody] Furthermore, gender fluidity can, and often does, entail gender dysphoria pasting the existing ones or by adding a text box QUICK START from the HOME menu. influenced my informants’ understanding of their gender identities and • Pierre Bourdieu (1977; 1990) suggests that human beings follow a series • It's not kind of anymore something that I just decide. Like 'Oh, this is how I'll express as the feelings one has about their body is constantly changing. Finally,

bodies: upbringing, previous relationships and interactions, communities, of practices that perpetuate and redefine social norms, which influence myself.' It's more like a overwhelming feeling of this is who I am. This is how I feel language was a critical for my informants to understand this gender like I should be expressing myself, rather than just a decision. Like it is my decision, Zoom in and out and language. how we interact with the world and what we view as self-evident. identity, which enabled most them to understand how they ought to interact Text size • Judith Butler ([1990] 1999) describes that the practice of gender is but at the same time it feels hormonal. It feels chemical. It feels like something more in Adjust the size of your text based on how much content you have to As you work on your poster zoom in and out to the level my body than in my mind. [Collin] with the world around them. citational. In other words, one cannot “do” or “be” man or woman present. The default template text offers a good starting point. Follow that is more comfortable to you. • It feels good to [dress as a woman]. It feels like I'm expressing myself properly, finally, Go to VIEW > ZOOM. without either terms preexisting within discourse. the conference requirements. kind of thing. I am very comfortable being a boy too. [But] I need to get out of it every As this study offers a new way to describe the relationship between gender once and a while and express myself in a different way, because I really like clothes. and the body under Western ontology, the feelings of gender, I hope that […] And I feel that just men's fashion is way too restricting to be able to express How to add Tables Title, Authors, and Affiliations Attending the Body this lens will allow future research to understand and address the issue of myself the way I want to. [Rin] To add a table from scratch go to the INSERT menu and Start designing your poster by adding the title, the names of the authors, Because my literature indicates that under the Western ontology gender is gender dysphoria. click on TABLE. A drop-down box will help you select rows and the affiliated institutions. You can type or paste text into the related to the body, it is important to understand how we understand the and columns. provided boxes. The template will automatically adjust the size of your Because my informants identified their gender as fluid, they described body. You can also copy and a paste a table from Word or another PowerPoint text to fit the title box. You can manually override this feature and these feelings of gender as inconsistent. Furthermore, there was an • Thomas Csordas (1993) mentions that when we attend to people’s document. A pasted table may need to be re-formatted by RIGHT-CLICK > change the size of your text. emphasis that this fluctuation of gender only affected how they viewed bodies, we have a cultural filter that influences our understanding of REFERENCES FORMAT SHAPE, TEXT BOX, Margins. their bodies and not their personae. those bodies. Thus, when we examine the body, our culture influences TIP: The font size of your title should be bigger than your name(s) and • With things like transgender it makes more sense to me. It's like, 'Oh you identify as a ONTOLOGIES OF GENDER how we perceive the individual’s gender. institution name(s). girl. You like feminine things. You are girly all the time.' It makes sense. […] But when Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1991. “Writing Against Culture.” Pp. ------. 1996b. “Mistaken Sex: Culture, Biology and the Graphs / Charts it comes to gender fluidity it's always been so hard to describe to other people. I think 37-62 in Recapturing Anthropology, edited by R. G. Fox. Third Sex in New Guinea.”Pp. 419-445 in Third Sex Third Peoples across the globe have their own presumptions of what gender is. • James Fernandez (1986) describes metaphor as a strategic tool that we Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press. Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and You can simply copy and paste charts and graphs from Excel or Word. use to identify the inchoate, which enables us to appropriately act with some people think it's a multiple personality identity disorder, or indecision, or Becker, Gay. 1997. Disrupted Lives: How People Create History, edited by G. Herdt, New York, NY: Zone Books. Some reformatting may be required depending on how the original As this study examines gender fluidity within the framework of Western Meaning in a Chaotic World. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Jenkins, Richard. 1996. Social Identity. New York, NY: the inchoate. This study views the body as a metaphor for gender. internal crisis, or something like that. […] If you think of gender as one through ten – document has been created. ontology of gender, it is beneficial to understand the myriad of ways one being masculine and ten being feminine – there's days where I am a total one. CA: University of California Press. Routledge. peoples conceptualize gender. By doing so, we accentuate any taken-for […] It almost feels like a trance that I was at any other spot because I am so not in the Bolin, Anne. 1996. “Transcending and Transgendering: Karkazis, Katrina. 2008. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Male-to-Female Transsexuals, Dichotomy and Diversity.” Authority, and Lived Experience. Durham, NC: Duke granted characteristics of gender within our own ontology. mood of anything feminine whatsoever. […] But then there's some days with the idea Pp. 447-485 in Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual University Press. How to change the column configuration Adding Logos / Seals of putting on guys' clothing is just like why would I want to do anything like that. […] Dimorphism in Culture and History, edited by G. Herdt. Kerby, Anthony Paul. 1997. “The Language and the Self.” RIGHT-CLICK on the poster background and select LAYOUT to see the New York, NY: Zone Books. Pp. 125-142 in Memory, Identity, Community: The Idea of Most often, logos are added on each side of the title. You can insert a There's days in the middle where [...] I don't care where I am. And it's hard to describe column options available for this template. The poster columns can also Western Ontology it when it's changing all the time. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Narrative in the Human Sciences, edited by L. P. logo by dragging and dropping it from your desktop, copy and paste or by NARRATIVES: REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF Translated by Richard Nice. New York, NY: Cambridge Hinchamn and S. K. Hinchman. Albany, NY:State be customized on the Master. VIEW > MASTER. going to INSERT > PICTURES. Logos taken from web sites are likely to be • Many scholars note that Western ontology relates gender to the body • I think the hardest thing for people to understand is that gender is not necessarily University Press. University of New York Press. ------. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Kulick, Don. 1997. “The Gender of Brazilian low quality when printed. Zoom it at 100% to see what the logo will look (Bolin 1996; Butler [1990] 1999; 1993; Finkler 1994; Herdt 1996a; your personality. It's not who you are, it's just a part of who you are. I feel that's what Narratives people have a tough time understanding with gender fluidity. It's like a mood, almost. Richard Nice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Transgendered Prostitutes.” American Anthropologist Butler, Judith. [1990] 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism 99(3): 574-585. How to remove the info bars like on the final poster and make any necessary adjustments. Karkazis 2008; Lacqueur 1990; Scheper-Hughes and Lock 1987; • Narratives of personal experiences serve as windows into individuals’ [Alexvina] and the Subversion of Identity. 2nd ed. NewYork, NY: ------. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among If you are working in PowerPoint for Windows and have finished your Valentine 2007). subjective understandings of their gender identities. Routledge. Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chicago: University poster, save as PDF and the bars will not be included. You can also delete TIP: See if your school’s logo is available on our free poster templates • Thomas Lacqueur (1990) describes that people prior to the ------. 1993. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive of Chicago Press. page. • It is important to point out that narratives are interpretations of the self As the feelings of gender are associated with the body, many of my Limits of “Sex”. New York, NY: Routeledge. Lacqueur, Thomas. 1990. Making Sex: Body and Gender them by going to VIEW > MASTER. On the Mac adjust the Page-Setup to Enlightenment era presumed that everyone had one sex and gender that from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge, MA: Harvard at the moment in which they are told (Kerby 1997). informants described the issue of gender dysphoria – the unpleasant feeling Csordas, Thomas, J. 1993. “Somatic Modes of Attention.” match the Page-Setup in PowerPoint before you create a PDF. You can was related to the “perfect” (i.e. masculine) body. Hence, there was the Cultural Anthropology 8 (2): 135-156. University Press. • The practice of telling one’s story is a process of reflecting and when gender and the body are not aligned with each other. Here Cody Farrer, Claire. R. 1997. “A “Berdache” by any Other Roscoe, Will. 1996. “How to Become a Berdache: Toward also delete them from the Slide Master. Photographs / Graphics assumption that “[girls] could turn into boys, and men who associated a Unified Analysis of Gender Diversity.” Pp. 329-372 in reinterpreting personal experiences (Becker 1997). describes two different types of dysphorias: social and physical. Name... Is a Brother, Lover, Spouse: Reflections on a You can add images by dragging and dropping from your desktop, copy too extensively with women could lose the hardness and definition of Mescalero Apache singer of Ceremonies.” Pp 236-251 in Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in and paste, or by going to INSERT > PICTURES. Resize images • Narrative analysis can help us prevent the issue of over-generalization • Social dysphoria, relating how people see you. So, if I go out in the world people are Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Culture and History, edited by G. Herdt, New York, NY: Save your work their more perfect bodies and regress into effeminacy” (P. 7). generally seeing a woman, and that bothers me because I don't feel like what they're Sexuality, and Spirituality, edited by S. Jacobs, W. Zone Books. proportionally by holding down the SHIFT key and dragging one of the (Abu-Lughod 1992; Said 1978). Thomas, and S. Lang. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage. Save your template as a PowerPoint document. For printing, save as • During the turn of the Enlightenment era and the rise of biology, people seeing matches who I am. I obviously can do things to temper that, like wear different Press. corner handles. For a professional-looking poster, do not distort your • Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Lock, Margaret M. 1987. PowerPoint of “Print-quality” PDF. began perceiving the body and gender as either male and female (Herdt By analyzing each individual’s experiences, we are able to see an array clothes or cut my hair. […] That's why I'm going on testosterone, so my voice can drop Fernandez, James. 1986. Persuasions and Performances: “The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in images by enlarging them disproportionally. 1996a; Lacqueur 1990). This new definition of gender emphasizes the of perspectives that correlate and challenge each other’s understanding and I'll be able to pass as a guy if I want to. […] Then there's physical dysphoria, The Play of Tropes in Culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Medical Anthropology.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly: of gender fluidity. which is how I relate to my body and the gendered parts of my body, like obviously my University Press. 6-41. Print your poster concept of procreation, a particular focus within biology. chest, my hips. For me, I'm really short. I'm 5'3”. So my height... my hands are way Finkler, Kaja. 1994. Women in Pain: Gender and Valentine, David. 2007. Imagining Transgender: An Morbidity in Mexico. Philadelphia, PA: University of Ethnography of a Category. Durham, NC: Duke When you are ready to have your poster printed go online to smaller than a guy's would be, I mean they're smaller than for a woman's hand. I got Pennsylvania Press. University Press. PosterPresentations.com and click on the “Order Your Poster” button. Participants small feet. […] Those are all gendered things. […] So the ways in which I am female Herdt, Gilbert. 1994 [1981]. Guardians of the Flute: Non-Western Ontologies Choose the poster type the best suits your needs and submit your order. If bother me. It can be kind of a mild, and it could be like crying, depending on the day. Idioms of Masculinity. Chicago, IL: The University of Images (Left to Right): • I interviewed twelve individuals who identified their gender as fluid in Chicago Press. While scholars have shown that Western ontology assumes that gender is There's different measures I can take for that. I've been trying to lose some weight, Maxfield Parrish The Dinky-Bird, Morse Museum you submit a PowerPoint document you will be receiving a PDF proof for six months. ------. 1996a. “Introduction: Third Sexes and Third Statue of Hermaphroditus from Pergamum, Istanbul your approval prior to printing. If your order is placed and paid for before ORIGINAL DISTORTED ingrained within the body, other forms of ontology suggest different because that's the only way to lose curve. I bind my chest, most of the time, when I'm Genders.” Pp. 21-81 in Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Corner handles Archaeological Museums assumptions as to what gender is. • Interviews were conducted either in-person, via Skype, or email. not at work. I put lifts in my shoes so I can look taller. [Cody] Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, edited by G. noon, Pacific, Monday through Friday, your order will ship out that same Herdt, New York, NY: Zone Books. day. Next day, Second day, Third day, and Free Ground services are • According to particular Native American ontologies, gender is defined • I recruited my informants by posting an advertisement on a couple of offered. Go to PosterPresentations.com for more information. Image Quality Check by one’s social role within the context of the grand scheme of the social media websites, announcing my study at a couple of LGBT Finally, language was an important part for my informants to understand Zoom in and look at your images at 100% magnification. If they look good universe (Epple 1997; Farrer 1997; Roscoe 1996). events, and networking. their gender identities and how they must go about in the world. This is they will print well. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • Don Kulick’s (1997; 1998) study on Brazilian travesties unravels the • During each interview, I used a set of questions that I thought were critical as gender fluid was not a common term within the discourse of assumption that gender is related to one’s sexual orientation. essential to explore gender fluidity. However, I also probed responses gender, especially as they were growing up. I would like to first give credit to Jeffrey Hayes for inspiring me to pursue • I suppose it's something that I've just always [known], I just never knew the word this study. I would like to thank the SOAN department, especially Hillary • Gilbert Herdt’s (1994; 1996b) study on the Sambia offers another that I believed needed greater clarification or could offer interesting before it. Especially as a kid, there were just days when I would feel like a boy. I Crane (thesis adviser) and Amy Orr (thesis coordinator), for providing me ontology, which is similar to Western, that assumes gender is insights into gender fluidity. would make it so I have my hair very short, and I dressed in boy identifying clothes, the necessary tools and support to conduct this study. Furthermore, I would biologically fluid between male and female. • I recorded each interview for analysis purposes. and I used to like it when people refer to me as a boy. But that wasn't consistent. [...] prinng quality like to thank Tim Farr for providing me a place to stay while I was prinng quality 'Maybe I'm transgender?' but I always didn't feel like a boy, so I can't be transgender.

Bad conducting research. Finally, I would like to thank each of my informants

Good But why do I feel this way? Why is it some days when I hear someone calling me a boy I'm so happy, and on other days I'm like, 'That's not very correct?' […] for participating in this study and sharing their opinions and experiences Student discounts are available on our Facebook page. Go to PosterPresentations.com and click on the FB icon. • I read more up on transgender issues because I have friends who are transgender. […] with me. I saw gender fluid and I was 'that's it! That's exactly what that is! That's exactly what I've been going through since I was a kid! That's exactly it!' I didn't like cry or anything, but it was like a moment of 'I'm not weird!‘ [Blythe] © 2013 PosterPresentaons.com 2117 Fourth Street , Unit C Berkeley CA 94710