Feeling the weight of the water : young nonbinary individuals and their strategies for manoeuvring through a binary world

Perger, Nina (author)

Studies of transgender individuals often focus on the transgressive nature of their identities and practices or on experiences of transphobia, rejection and violence. Rather than focusing on transgression or marginalization, this paper offers insight into practical knowledge, presenting a feel for the game that young nonbinary individuals develop out of social necessity, as the social world, with its gender binary social structures, remains resistant to nonbinary identities and practices. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 12 nonbinary participants in Slovenia and Bourdieu’s concept of practical knowledge, this paper analyses skilful practical strategies for coping with anticipated and experienced misrecognition. These strategies encompass tactful playing along with the binary rules of the game, pushing the rules into a state of limbo and directly engaging and confronting the rules of the game. Moreover, a differentiated domain of strategies emerges, according to the parameters of safety, anticipation of achieving recognition and affective investment in the relations. Overall, the data show that nonbinary individuals are skilful agents who apply a range of practical strategies to manoeuvre through a gender binary world. The article enables insight into young people as actively engaging with objective conditions that are not of their making.

• Language: English
• Keywords: transgender, nonbinary identities, practical knowledge, misrecognition, Bourdieu
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 673–685
• Numbering: Vol. 33, no. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-149242
• UDC: 305
• ISSN on article: 0958-9236
• DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2023.2227115
• COBISS.SI-ID: 163359235
• Publication date in RUL: 05.09.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of gender studies
• Shortened title: J. gend. stud.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0958-9236
• COBISS.SI-ID: 723989

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: študije spolov

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0183
• Name: Socialna psihologija in sociologija vsakdanjega življenja

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Funding programme: Young researchers