Qui a le droit d’étudier le genre et comment ? Réflexions sur le point de vue situé et la catégorisation du sexe à partir d’une enquête par méthodes mixtes sur les trans’

Abstract

Who Has the Right to Study Gender and How ? Reflections on the Situated Point of View and the Categorisation of Sex Based on a Mixed Method Study of Trans People. Trans people are often reticent when it comes to research. Looking back over a mixed method study, this article analyses the causes of this phenomenon. There are two main reasons for trans people’s distrust. The first relates to expert opinion and more specifically the point of view of professional experts, insofar as trans people have often already been objectivized by non-trans medical and legal experts. The second concerns the categorisation of sex. Some people do not recognise themselves in the man/woman binary applied by professional experts. However, the trans population is heterogeneous: criticism and refusal to participate were more common with certain social profiles than others, varying according to sex assigned at birth, age, generation, and level of education. By paying attention to this plurality, this article provides avenues for allowing researchers to navigate the trans field and also contributes to reflections on the situated point of view and the categorisation of sex in the social sciences.