Continuity and Change in Gender Frames: The Case of Transgender Reproduction

Abstract

In this article, we examine the ways gendered frames shift to make room for societal changes while maintaining existing pillars of systemic gender inequality. Utilizing the case of U.S. media representations of transgender people who reproduce, we analyze how media outlets make room for increasing societal recognition of transgender people and maintain cisnormative and repronormative traditions and beliefs in the process. Specifically, we outline how these media outlets accomplish both outcomes in two ways. First, they reinforce cisgender-based repronormativity via conceptualizations of transgender reproduction as new and occurring in contrast to normative, cisgender reproduction. Second, they create a transnormative reproductive subject, which establishes a new socially sanctioned script for what it means to be transgender and what types of transgender experience may be recognized or accepted in mainstream society. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding how social authorities may shift existing gender frames to make room for changes in society while at the same time maintaining normative beliefs. These normative beliefs continue to facilitate societal patterns of gender inequality within such new frames.

“Welcome! Oh, wait…” Transgender Military Service in a Time of Uncertainty

“…Likewise, this study joins others demonstrating the necessity of sociological work examining the response of cisgender people to increasing transgender visibility and activism in society (see, e.g., Lampe et al. ; Mathers ; Sumerau and Mathers ). As policy debates continue within and beyond the military, sociologists have an opportunity to contribute to such discussions as part of seeking to understand the multitude of ways doing gender impacts the policies, laws, and other structural realities of society.…”

“…As others have noted (Lampe et al. ; Moon, Tobin, and Sumerau ), such moments of “disruption” in existing accountability structures create confusion for those trying to navigate gender norms and require such people to reevaluate core aspects of their daily social existence.…”

“…Garrison (), in his work on trans identity, also addressed gender as an interactional accomplishment. Likewise, Johnson argues that individual trans people's “individual engagement with medical authority is both empowering and constraining” (Johnson :517). In a forthcoming article, Lampe et al.…”

“I guess the trans identity goes with other minority identities”: An intersectional exploration of the experiences of trans and non-binary parents living in the UK

“…Although people with diverse expressions of gender have always existed (Burns, 2018) and thus have always parented, cultural representations regularly emphasize the "newness" of trans and non-binary parents, and of transmasculine people becoming pregnant in particular. Transmasculine pregnancy can be seen as disruptive to cisheteronormative ideals, with the multiple "first pregnant men" within UK media evidencing a sensationalizing of trans parents that contributes to their erasure in the public domain (Lampe et al, 2019;Pearce & White, 2019).…”

Expanding Transgender Studies in Sociology

“…To this end, each of the articles in this special issue builds upon recent insights from emerging transgender studies in sociology. Recent sociological studies, for example, consistently demonstrate that transgender people face significant inequalities in familial (Meadow ; Pfeffer ; Travers ) ; religious (Moon, Tobin, and Sumerau ; Sumerau, Mathers, and Cragun ; Sumerau, Mathers, and Lampe ); occupational (Connell ; Schilt ; Yavorsky ); medical (Johnson ; Lampe, Carter, and Sumerau ; Shuster ); and public (Abelson ; Mathers ; Rogers ) contexts. They also demonstrate difficulties and resistance transgender people experience when seeking to negotiate and present non‐cisgender identities in public and private interactions (Darwin ; Garrison ; Shuster ).…”