| Description |
Transgender and nonbinary young people face systemic barriers to their well-being due to dominant, White, colonial society's stigmatization and oppression of those who do not conform to limited gender identities. Hegemonic power conflates sex and gender by establishing the body as the factual basis of hierarchical, binary categories. In this way, the binary sex/gender system enacts violence, especially upon those who refuse normalized gender practices. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of creative expression on transgender and nonbinary young people's experiences of their bodies. Eight participants contributed data collected through an arts-based inquiry process in the form of creative workshops held at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three themes emerged: navigating the violence of the cisgender gaze, the workshops as a space of mutual support and safety, and reimagining the body through art-making. The research revealed how the cisgender gaze intertwines visibility and violence in ways that dominate transgender and nonbinary individuals' experiences of their bodies. In addition, the research illuminated the beneficial role of shared art-making experiences in supporting transgender and nonbinary youth's agency by providing them with tools to reclaim the narratives of their bodies, while rejecting the body as a biological basis for cisgenderism. In order to strengthen empathy and advocacy for the trans community, this research elevates the voices of transgender and nonbinary young people as they engaged with the complexities of their embodied experiences. |
