Trans self-identification and the language of neoliberal selfhood: Agency, power, and the limits of monologic discourse

Abstract

Sociocultural linguists share with transgender communities a strong interest in the power of individuals to assert agency over linguistic patterns. For trans people, a key principle of activism is gender self-determination, which treats each individual as the ultimate authority on their own gender identity. This article explores some of the ways gender self-determination and self-identification surface in transgender people’s linguistic practices. Three particular manifestations are highlighted: gendered identity labels, third person pronouns, and body part terminology. The observations offered on these subjects are based on a series of ethnographic projects carried out from 2006–2016 in transgender communities across several metropolitan areas in the United States and in online spaces frequented by trans people. However, the analysis goes beyond mere description by treating this kind of individualized linguistic agency as the product of cultural practice rather than an asocial given. Such a perspective introduces questions concerning why this form of agency arose in the time and place that it has. This article frames gender self-identification as an enactment of neoliberal personhood, in which individuals are framed as the driver of their destiny. What the ideology of neoliberal agency obscures, however, is that agency is not an equally distributed resource.

Toward Gender-Inclusive Coreference Resolution

“…These aspects include the experience that one has of gender (or lack thereof), the way that one expresses one's gender to the world, and the way that normative social conditions impose gender norms, typically as a dichotomy between masculine and feminine roles or traits (Kramarae and Treichler, 1985;West and Zimmerman, 1987;Butler, 1990;Risman, 2009;Serano, 2007). Gender selfdetermination, on the other hand, holds that each person is the "ultimate authority" on their own gender identity (Zimman, 2019;Stanley, 2014), with Zimman (2019) further arguing the importance of the role language plays in that determination. Such trans-inclusive models deconflate anatomical and biological traits and the sex that a person had assigned to them at birth from one's gendered position in society; this includes intersex people, whose anatomical/biological factors do not match the usual designational criteria for either sex.…”

Queering the French Académie

“…The example of French, however, seems to differ from these other languages for two main reasons: (1) while Hindi, Hebrew, and Portuguese often have distinct endings marking for the masculine and feminine forms of adjectives or verbs, French regularly only marks feminine forms (with an additional "e" in most cases, for example) while masculine forms tend to be seen as unmarked or neutral; and (2) the French language is represented by its own official institution, the Académie Française, which wields linguistic authority and decision-making power over usages, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, etc., and thus creates one additional gatekeeping entity which might limit trans and non-binary individuals' ability to self-determine. This article thus furthers the discussion on transgender language and linguistic practices in the aforementioned languages and in the English-speaking context (Zimman 2014(Zimman , 2017a(Zimman , 2017b(Zimman , 2018a(Zimman , 2018b(Zimman , 2019Zimman and Edelman 2014;Hazenberg 2017;Feu'u 2017), and, following the works of A.J. Shroy or Florence Ashley, extends it to the study of the French and francophone transgender and non-binary communities.…”

Unsettling Languages, Unruly Bodyminds: Imaging a Crip Linguistics

“…Pillar (2020), for example, argues that in most places language discrimination is acceptable. Certainly, language is used to oppress across gender and sex (Zimman, 2019). Zimman (2019), for example, explains how pronouns are used to force notions of correct sexuality and gender representation on trans bodies.…”