“It's Like Mixing Paint”: Songwriting Gender Diversity and Alternative Gender Cultures with Young People as an ‘After-queer’ Methodology

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper conceptualises songwriting as an ‘after-queer’ approach for exploring notions of gender and sexuality with young people. The article draws on songs created by seven groups of young people in music-based workshops which took place in schools with participants aged between 14–17. During these workshops, songwriting was used to explore the participants' imaginings of what gender might look like in their "perfect world". 'After-queer' scholarship is introduced and referred to throughout the paper as it relates to queer theory and research with young people, particularly focusing on discourses of risk and vulnerability that emerge across these fields. The paper highlights the value of creative and arts-based methodologies in queer research, through which expansion and questions of possibility, alternative, and identity can be raised and responded to. 'After queer' is offered as a useful lens for critical analysis, particularly in light of complex questions related to the promotion of "diversity" that emerged through the findings.</jats:p>

The Limits of Resilience and the Need for Resistance: Articulating the Role of Music Therapy With Young People Within a Shifting Trauma Paradigm

“…In the remainder of this conceptual analysis, I outline an example of music therapy as a site in which to attend to the social conditions and power dynamics that enable and maintain trauma. The case example draws on a critical ethnography research project that I conducted to examine the role of group music therapy in exploring gender and power with young people in school ( Scrine, 2018 , 2019 ; Scrine and McFerran, 2018 ). In this research, the vast majority of the participants were considered to be “at risk,” and the subject of trauma arose regularly throughout the program itself, as well as in the ways staff described the young people during interviews.…”

“…In the case study context where the students’ social, emotional, and behavioral issues at school were understood to be a result of trauma and dysfunction, the music therapy group program did not focus on emotional regulation, nor an expectation that the young people should share their experiences of trauma in the group. Rather, informed by existing critical music therapy frameworks ( Rolvsjord, 2010 ; Stige and Aarø, 2012 ; Baines, 2013 ), the group goals centered on building the young people’s agency, exploring power differentials, and repositioning their perceived vulnerabilities in relation to broader systemic forces ( Scrine, 2019 ).…”