‘I'm a boy, can't you see that?’: Dialogic embodiment and the construction of agency in trans youth discourse

Jones, Lucy

Abstract

This article offers discourse analysis of young transgender people’s interaction, in which they describe being rendered powerless through misgendering or misrepresentation. It argues that the young people’s collective responses to these moments enable them to challenge the ideologies underpinning their marginalisation, and to recontextualise the language used by others to describe their bodies. Stance-taking, the production of affect, and constructed dialogue are shown to be key tools in their production of an agentive, mutual identity. The article thus provides close analysis of dialogic embodiment, a process by which the body is quite literally spoken into being. By critiquing the cisnormative structures which inform and enable the young people’s marginalisation, the article responds to the call for a trans linguistics (Zimman 2020) and reflects upon the author’s positionality as a cisgender researcher.

Citation

Jones, L. (2022). ‘I'm a boy, can't you see that?’: Dialogic embodiment and the construction of agency in trans youth discourse. Language in Society, 52(4), 549-570. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404522000252

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Publication Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 18, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 18, 2022
• Journal: Language in Society
• Print ISSN: 0047-4045
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8013
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 549-570
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404522000252
• Keywords: Linguistics and Language, Sociology and Political Science, Language and Linguistics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7473916
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/im-a-boy-cant-you-see-that-dialogic-embodiment-and-the-construction-of-agency-in-trans-youth-discourse/34AFBA3DF45C9452566D7925BB7324D4