Negotiating Transnormativity in Finnish Nonbinary People's Life Stories

Abstract

Nonbinary gender identities have become more visible in popular discussion during the last decade. Nonbinary gender identities, here understood as anything not neatly fitting within the categories of man and woman, broadly fall under the trans umbrella. Both binary and nonbinary trans people in some ways challenge traditional assumptions about the connection between body, identity, and expression. This shared difference means that both are governed by the same set of institutional norms – transnormativity. Transnormativity (Johnson 2016) refers to the norms applied to trans people by power holding institutions, such as gender identity clinics, and are used to (in)validate certain trans experiences and gatekeep access to trans specific services. Because nonbinary people are currently an underrepresented and understudied group, this analysis explores transnormativity from a specifically nonbinary perspective.

Using a master narrative approach and positioning analysis, this thesis investigates how Finnish nonbinary people position transnormativity in their life-story narration. Transnormativity here is understood as a master narrative, which guides how certain stories can be told, but which can also be countered in narration. Through analysing narratives about the nascence of participants gender identities, as well as speech about embodiment, this thesis explores how nonbinary people negotiate transnormative assumptions, and how transnormative elements are both utilized and countered in narration.

The analysis is based on fifteen interviews combining narrative and life-story approaches conducted with Finnish nonbinary people recruited through Instagram. Interviews combined narrative method, aiming to collect small stories, and a life-story approach, which aims to create a broader image of the participant’s life. The interviews conducted had the goal of exploring the gender throughout participants’ lives, but because of their limited length they do not fit traditional definitions of life-story interviews. The analyses in this thesis utilize this dual structure, analysing both more distinct small stories and speech that may not take the form of a traditional narrative, but is a part of the wider life-story.

The thesis highlights the great variety present in nonbinary experiences. Participants had differing experiences regarding the nascence of their gender identity - identification taking place anywhere between childhood and adulthood. These stories tended to refer to the transnormative assumption of childhood gender non-conformity, regardless of whether the participant personally aligned with this expectation or not. Further, against the transnormative assumption of gender as an innate feature of a person, participants tended to refer to a social and societal interpretation of gender. Discussions of embodiment were highly varied as well, with stories stressing personal experience of dysphoria and desire for medical transition as well as those going against both expectations, describing a lack of dysphoria and challenging the connection between gender and body all together. Further, some stories complicated assumptions about negative body relationship being necessarily gender related. Many participants verbalised a desire for medical transition or medical modification of their bodies but described a sense of worry or fear over not being taken seriously at Finnish gender identity clinics. These stories especially highlight the prevalent role of gender identity clinics as an institution upholding transnormativity in the context of Finland, and their tendency to exclude nonbinary people and experiences.