Thesis
“Generally, I live a lie” : a study of transgender consumer vulnerability
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2022
- Thesis identifier
- T16506
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201887933
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Awareness of gender fluidity has grown particularly in society (Hines and Taylor, 2018); through the internet and online media, consumers now have access to discuss, debate, identify and interpret gender in a multitude of ways. This research aims to explore the experiences of transgender consumers in an increasingly hostile cultural environment. Through qualitative methods, this study focuses on the ways in which consumer vulnerability and gender diversity may intersect in consumer lives. Findings explore complex lived experiences of trans people; in everyday gender performance, in navigating servicescapes and digital spaces, and in finding community and representation in consumption contexts. Institutional power in the forms of healthcare, government legislation, and practices such as the use of algorithms on social media can act to create a sense of othering by presenting trans narratives as morally questionable, miserable or even dangerous. The powerlessness of trans people may also be extended into home and family life, where misrecognition of hurtful or harmful actions may often go unchallenged. The dominance of cisheteronormativity in retail spaces creates challenges for trans people navigating routine purchases of clothing and other products to express their gender identity such as make-up. As most of these physical spaces are divided along binary male/female lines, consumers transitioning across genders may face difficulty in shopping for items in the ‘wrong’ part of the store; participants mention being challenged by cisgender staff and other consumers on being in a space incongruent with how their gender is perceived. The contributions of this thesis are: Theorising marketplace distress in everyday experiences and how it can be a motivator for consumers to drive social change. This also helps to illuminate interrelationships between stigma and vulnerability in consumer experiences. Exploring consumer responses to vulnerability, building on the notion of “queer failure” (Pirani and Daskalopolou, 2022). In this context, the negativity of failure is reworked and the social control of binary gender norms is refused. Centralising marginalised trans voices through thoughtful, reflexive, feminist research practice. Trans and queer joy are brought to the fore, to highlight the richness of trans experiences.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Hamilton, Kathy
- Hewer, Paul
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Embargo Note
Relations
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PDF of thesis T16506 | 2023-03-15 | Public | Download |