Katherine Browne

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem: (re)materialising sexed sites, (re)creating sexed bodies

This article introduces the possibilities of a new term, ‘genderism’, to describe the hostile readings of, and reactions to, gender ambiguous bodies. Genderism is used here to articulate instances of discrimination that are based on the discontinuities between the sex with which an individual identifies and how others, in a variety of spaces, read their sex. The article suggests that intersections between queer theories, that destabilise the dichotomy of man/woman, and performative geographies, that recognise the (re)formation of space, could facilitate, and indeed necessitate, a consideration of how the illusion of dichotomous sexes is (re)formed at the site of the body (re)constituting men and women in context. Nine women, who participated in a wider research project about non‐heterosexual womens lives, spoke of being mistaken for men yet understanding themselves and living as women. Using these narratives the ‘bathroom problem’, where women are read as men in toilets and as a result subjected to abusive and even violent reactions, is examined. These policing behaviours demonstrate the instability of sexed norms as well as how sites can be (re)made ‘woman only’ and simultaneously ‘womens’ bodies (re)produced. The article then examines how women negotiate the policing of sexed spaces such that bodies, sexed sites (toilets) and the location of these sites (nightclubs, service stations) are mutually constituted within sexed regimes of power. In this way the article aims to explore how sexed power relations (re)form the mundane ‘stuff’ of everyday life by examining moments where boundaries of gender difference are overtly (en)forced.

A party with politics? (Re)making LGBTQ Pride spaces in Dublin and Brighton

This paper examines the politics of pleasure at the site of the carnival. Carnival spaces have long been celebrated as subversive where both sexualized and gender boundaries are contested and rendered contingent. The place and performance of ‘party’ in the spaces of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) Prides in Dublin and Brighton and Hove are the focus. Specifically, I address the parade through each city and the ‘party’ after this parade. Drawing on empirical research (221 self-reporting questionnaires undertaken by non-heterosexual women and qualitative research with forty-nine women) the paper examines the messy (re)constitution of Pride spaces through politics, fun and commercialization. I argue that the tensions between politics, the party and payment offer nuanced conceptualizations of Pride spaces in ‘liberal’ societies. Hedonistic Pride spaces, whilst challenging heteronormativity, are sites of fun. I argue they are best conceptualized as ‘parties with politics’, once again moving discussions of political action between the politics–party binary. In conclusion, I suggest that, alongside discussions of discriminations, abuse and prejudices, examinations of ‘sexual deviancy’ should include fun and partying in the performance of politics. Here, hedonism and enjoyment are read as central to a party with politics and thus the (re)constitution of sexed spaces, bodies and identities.

We are here to party? Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans leisurescapes beyond commercial gay scenes

Gay spaces in particular cities have been the focus of studies of sexualities in leisure studies and geographies. However, with the British cultural development toward increasing acceptance of particular gay (and lesbian) lives, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) leisurescapes can no longer be confined to gay space/times or discussed solely in terms of exclusion. Conversely, the view that all other spaces are heterosexualised and therefore dangerous also needs critical reconsideration. Drawing on data from the ‘Count Me In Too’ project, a Brighton & Hove based participatory action research project, we find that LGBT people socialise beyond the ‘gay ghetto’, and whilst certain ‘straight’ leisure spaces are still hostile, generic social space is not necessarily unwelcoming to some LGBT people. We contend that space can be simultaneously gay and straight, yet gender and sexual identities, mediated through other social differences, continue to be important in understanding LGBT experiences. However, LGBT socialising (and to a larger extent leisure activity) does not occur predominantly in commercial leisure spaces (whether these be understood as gay or straight). Understanding the breadth of LGBT socialising and the transgression of gay/straight divides enables an engagement with everyday space that does not presume it is heterosexual waiting to be ‘queered’.

Trans lives in the ‘gay capital of the UK’

Recent geographical interventions have begun to question the power relations among lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people, challenging assumptions that LGBT communities have homogeneous needs or are not characterised by hierarchies of power. Such interventions have included examinations of LGBT scenes as sites of exclusion for trans people. This article augments academic explorations of trans lives by focusing on ‘the gay capital’ of the UK, Brighton & Hove, a city that is notably absent from academic discussions of gay urbanities in the UK, despite its wider acclaim. The article draws upon Count Me In Too (CMIT), a participatory action research project that seeks to progress social change for LGBT people in Brighton & Hove. Rather than focusing on LGBT scenes, the article addresses broader experiences of the city, including those relating to the city as a political entity that seeks to be ‘LGBT inclusive’ and those relating to the geographies of medical ‘treatment’ that relocate trans people outside the boundaries of the city, specifically to the gender identity clinic at Charing Cross Hospital in London. It argues that trans lives are both excluded from and inextricably linked to geographical imaginings of the ‘gay capital’, including LGBT spaces, scenes and activism, such that complex sexual and gender solidarities are simultaneously created and contested. In this way, the article recognises the paradoxes of the hopes and solidarities that co-exist – and should be held in tension – with experiences of marginalisation.

‘By partner we mean ...’: Alternative geographies of ‘gay marriage’:

This article argues that in the context of debates regarding same sex marriage, too little attention has been paid to geographic specificity that not only reconstitutes sexualities but also remakes these in relation to material classed relations. In contrast to arguments that appear to transcend spatial differentiation, I will examine the differential effects of the Civil Partnership Act, particularly for those on state-based benefits. Using data collected from local government websites, I will argue that the implications for those who are now understood as ‘new couples’ vary according to local government district. ‘Acceptance’ of same sex relationships effects same sex couples in geographically diverse ways, with classed dimensions. Thus, the class and place-based benefits of sexual ‘equalities’ question the ubiquitous deployment of hetero/homonormativity to understand the ‘new landscapes of equality’. The article then goes on to focus on the city of Brighton and Hove to explore classed ‘choice’, exclusions and materialities. Arguing that the ‘queer unwanted’ may have no choice but to be unwantedly queer, the article looks at how ‘couples’ come into being through sanitized definitions that include shared accommodation, responsibility for children and future plans. Attention to the intersection of class and sexuality casts light on whose ‘choices’ are (dis)allowed in changing legal contexts, important when evaluating the differential effects of ‘new equalities’.

(Re)making the Other, Heterosexualising Everyday Space

In this paper I develop conceptions of sexualised space as continually becoming by exploring the (re)creation of heterosexual spaces through the processes of power that hierarchise sexualities and how they are narrated. I seek to gain insights into the subtle operations of power between momentary enactments and stabilised manifestations of power. Central to this are the (invisiblised and unnamed) microlevel processes and the ‘common sense’ assumptions. In the empirical research I interrogate how twenty-eight nonheterosexual women discuss their experiences of eating in restaurant spaces to examine othering processes, rather than solely relying on categories of difference or named discriminations in theorising the (re)formation of spaces. From this it is possible to render the contingency of heterosexualised spaces visible, if reiterated and congealed in part (and para-doxically) through an absence of naming. I conclude by contending that focusing on (re)productive practices could expand our understandings of the hierarchical (re)construction of space.

Selling My Queer Soul or Queerying Quantitative Research

Sexualities research is increasingly gaining prominence within, and outside, of academia. This paper will use queer understandings to explore the contingent (re)formation of quantitative data, particularly those that seek to gain insights into Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans populations and lifestyles. I use queer critiques to explore the creation and normalising impulses of quantitative sexualities research and argue that research that addresses ‘deviant’/other/(homo)sexualities brings categories (mainly lesbian and gay) into being. Using three key research events from a large scale quantitative research study of 7,212 respondents, ‘Do it with Pride’, the paper examines the (re)formation of quantitative research between researchers, respondents and the questionnaire. In particular the paper: reveals the contingency of research design by discussing the exclusion of the term ‘queer’ from the research design, and then questions categories of sexualities as fixed variables by examining; the piloting of a non-normative gender question, and the re-coding of sexuality categories in the analysis phase. This points to the (re)creation of research categories that are not simply instruments of measurements but are actively engaged in the (re)construction of sexualities (including but not limited to sexualities research) within normative frames. The paper finishes by taking this queer critique in a different direction juxtaposing the apparently stable products of quantitative research (questionnaires and reports) with an examination of the transgressive potentials of queer moments in (re)making such research.

Placing the Personal in Pedagogy: Engaged Pedagogy in ‘Feminist’ Geographical Teaching

This paper attempts to unravel the complexities of including the personal in geographical teaching. Drawing on email responses from 10 academics and her reflective teaching diary, the author differentiates the ‘personal’ as experiential and ‘personal’ as private in these accounts of teaching practices, revealing the contingent (re)constitution of ‘geographical knowledge’. In recognizing the negotiation of our positionalities, interactions with individuals and class groups, and broader academic settings (i.e. geographical discipline, university contexts and broader educational trends) the unquestioning employment of ‘the personal’ is further problematized. The paper concludes by contending that rather than dismissing the personal in teaching contexts or reverting to (or even maintaining) traditional disempowering pedagogies, a more nuanced and contextualized pedagogical politics is necessary both within, and beyond, geographies.

‘It's Something You Just Have to Ignore’: Understanding and Addressing Contemporary Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Safety Beyond Hate Crime Paradigms

In common with the experiences of many other groups – and despite changing legal landscapes and increasing recognition within social policy of different groups’ needs – LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) people continue to face discrimination and abuse, and improving safety continues to be a key touchstone for policy makers and practitioners engaging with LGBT lives. Based on evidence from Count Me In Too, an LGBT participatory research project in Brighton & Hove, UK, the paper challenges approaches to dealing with LGBT safety that narrowly focus on reporting within a hate crime paradigm, and recognises the shift towards multi-agency approaches to LGBT safety. Our evidence shows that many LGBT people differentially recognise or do not recognise abuse, instead ‘normalising’ much of the abuse they experience in order to carry on with day-to-day life. By focusing on the effects of abuse and how it is dealt with by individuals and communities, rather than focusing on what constitutes abuse, we show the importance of addressing LGBT safety in ways that move beyond questions of criminal justice and the reporting of hate crime. We argue for a broader social policy framework that uses multi-agency approaches to community safety for those who experience abuse on the basis of their sexual and/or gender identities, which should attend to how safety services may provide more appropriate contexts of care and support, and which should build upon relevant knowledges within LGBT communities. Fostering solidarities among LGBT people may also empower them to work towards broader social transformation.

Senses of Gender

This paper explores the testimony of trans respondents to Count Me In Too (a participatory action research project that examined LGBT lives in Brighton and Hove), and this analysis occasions the development of innovative concepts for thinking about understandings and experiences of trans phenomena and gender. The analysis starts by exploring the diversity of trans identities before considering evidence of how health services pathologise trans experiences. These analyses not only call into question mind/body dualisms within contemporary gender schema, but also challenge the continued reliance on a sex/gender dichotomy – both in public institutions and in academic theorising – making a definitive distinction between transsexualism and transgenderism difficult to sustain. To do justice to the complexity of the respondents’ testimony, we advance the concept of a ‘sense of gender’ – a sense that belongs to the body, but that is not the same as its fleshy materiality – as one register in which gender is lived, experienced and felt. This sense of gender becomes expressed in relation to a sense of dissonance (sometimes articulated through the ‘wrong body discourse’) among the various elements that compose the body, its sex and its gender, such that the ‘body’ experiences an inability to be ‘consistent’ in ways that are usually taken for granted. The paper suggests that further work needs to be undertaken to explore how the concept of ‘senses of gender’ can be applied to a broader rethinking of the relationship between gender and the body.