Undergraduate Sociology Honors Thesis
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Sara Curran, Dr. Sasha Johfre, and Dr. Allison Goldberg
Abstract:
"The perception of the reality of gender categories is foundational to experiences of gender-based inequality. Understanding how transgender and nonbinary individuals strategically draw on different aspects of their gender identity to communicate reality is an important piece of understanding inequality and identity-building processes. This paper seeks to understand how cultural-level essentialism, the perception of a social category as cohesive, unique, and real, shapes transgender identity formation and interactional identity construction. Drawing on W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness theory (1903), this study considers how transgender individuals navigate the cis gaze. Through twelve in-depth, semi-structured interviews with transgender and non-binary emerging adults, the data reveal that participants uphold multiple versions of self which notably influences their interpersonal relationships. Secondly, this paper finds that participants feel necessitated to endorse essentialism strategically in specific situations to appease the cis gaze when achieving certain goals, for example, when seeking gender affirming care. The implications of this study for future research on gender and inequality are discussed in the Discussion and Conclusion section."
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Sara Curran, Dr. Sasha Johfre, and Dr. Allison Goldberg
Abstract:
"The perception of the reality of gender categories is foundational to experiences of gender-based inequality. Understanding how transgender and nonbinary individuals strategically draw on different aspects of their gender identity to communicate reality is an important piece of understanding inequality and identity-building processes. This paper seeks to understand how cultural-level essentialism, the perception of a social category as cohesive, unique, and real, shapes transgender identity formation and interactional identity construction. Drawing on W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness theory (1903), this study considers how transgender individuals navigate the cis gaze. Through twelve in-depth, semi-structured interviews with transgender and non-binary emerging adults, the data reveal that participants uphold multiple versions of self which notably influences their interpersonal relationships. Secondly, this paper finds that participants feel necessitated to endorse essentialism strategically in specific situations to appease the cis gaze when achieving certain goals, for example, when seeking gender affirming care. The implications of this study for future research on gender and inequality are discussed in the Discussion and Conclusion section."