Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: 'Gender Normals,' Transgender People, And The Social Maintenance Of Heterosexuality, Kristen Schilt, Laurel Westbrook

Peer Reviewed Articles

This article brings together two case studies that examine how non-transgender people, “gender normals,” interact with transgender people to highlight the connections between doing gender and heteronormativity. By contrasting public and private interactions that range from nonsexual to sexualized to sexual, the authors show how gender and sexuality are inextricably tied together. The authors demonstrate that the criteria for membership in a gender category are significantly different in social versus (hetero)sexual circumstances. While gender is presumed to reflect biological sex in all social interactions, the importance of doing gender in a way that represents the shape of one’s genitals is …