Packers, dilators and the options for either male or female: Navigating movement of transgender and gender non-conforming bodies, appearances and luggage through airport security | Intellect Skip to content
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Volume 7, Issue 2-3
  • ISSN: 2050-0726
  • E-ISSN: 2050-0734

Abstract

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals leading up to and moving through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport lines. We used a qualitative research method and analysed fourteen in-depth interviews of TGNC individuals. Based upon analysis of the data, three larger themes emerged, each with several subthemes. First, the TGNC participants engaged in Second, as participants moved through security, they frequently experienced from the TSA agents. Lastly, participants actively thought about passing, or tried to dress in a way where they were perceived as passing as a binary gender. TGNC bodies are rendered as potential threats in binary spaces, specifically those spaces with the purpose of surveillance. In the case of TSA, they disrupt hegemonic expectations surrounding gender and require additional emotional, physical and financial labour. Despite proactivity from other parties to gain them equal access to binary spaces, TGNC individuals still experience, in some cases, additional scrutiny, observation and intensified analysis before being granted access through entryways deemed suitable only to the long-standing hierarchy of the gender binary.

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/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00016_1
2020-03-01
2024-05-02
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Packers, dilators and the options for either male or female: Navigating movement of transgender and gender non-conforming bodies, appearances and luggage through airport security
Fashion, Style & Popular Culture 7, 223 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1386/fspc_00016_1
/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00016_1
/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00016_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): gender; identity; non-conforming; transgender; travel; TSA

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