Charlie Groth (Bucks County Community College)
Transgender women contemplating a name change negotiate rootedness and eradication as they (re)define individual and group identities. With gender identity as a central issue, an implied female gender continuum ranging from “girly” to gender non-conforming, together with in individual views of gender, influences choices. However, gender is not the only factor. Time impacts the decision, because with age comes agency: a grown woman steers the decision-making process. In that process, her personal taste, views of her birth name/naming, and positions in family and the generations also play roles in a complex, contingent, and creative act of self-expression.
Part of 01-15 Analyzing Traditions of Naming, Thursday, November 02, 8:30 am–10:00 am