Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals and the Negotiation of Identity Development Through Embodied Practices While Traveling: Panopticism and Gendered Surveillance

Abstract

Using a qualitative approach, with consideration of Foucault’s (1977) concept of panopticism and theories of power in addition to Entwistle’s (2000) notion of the situated bodily practice, we explored the relationships between power, the perceived viewer, and trans people’s appearance-related practices and identity negotiations while traveling to different geographic locations. Across the interviews, four larger themes were identified: emotional labor and dress; travel as a vehicle for identity negotiation; fear of the unknown; and no change in dress while traveling. We theorize that trans people engage in social and cultural constructions of place, and it is through these varied interactions that trans identities, which are marginalized identities, resist and conform to cultural gender norms marking each place a site of trans temporality in identity meaning-making. The unique contribution of our work is how we revealed the varied ways travel connects with conscious development of the authentic self for trans people.