Youth Perspectives on Genderplay Recreation Programming: Insights and Critiques on Identity Development Theories

Abstract

There is little research that details the key contributions of recreation programs that intentionally explore creativity and pleasure in the lives of queer youth. Eighteen 2SLGBTQ youth were interviewed after they participated in a genderplay workshop. Asked about their experiences, youth articulated that they garnered social assets such as access to queer community for the first time. Personal impacts included being able to use drag as a smokescreen to safely express versions of self, experiencing new parts of their personality because they were able to be vulnerable, and figuring out who they were and experiencing the resulting affirmations. Many youths in this study intentionally provoked their boundaries of comfort in an intentional effort of self-exploration. For example, cisgender-identified youth viscerally undertook a personal examination and then confirmed a cisgender identity after having considered other options; a more mature process to come to a gender or sexual identity.

Keywords:

• cisgender identity development
• drag performance
• safer spaces for queer youth

Notes

1 Two-Spirit: Two-Spirited People of the First Nation. Describes gender identity (male, female, third gender), sexual identity (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer) and spiritual identity (having both a male and female spirit)(Two-Spirited People of Manitoba, Inc., 2019).

2 Queer: A term that can be used to encompass all sexual orientation and gender identity minorities as well as a rejection of heterosexual norms.

3 Imprecise and exaggerated imitations of masculinities or femininities for a public performance.

4 Spontaneous or planned, fun as well as serious, gender expressions that transgress what Serano calls ‘oppositional sexism’: “the naive and oppressive belief that women and men are ‘opposites’” (Serano, 2016, p.104).

5 The rationale and need for a drag focused workshop are articulated in Dykstra and Litwiller (2020).

6 Cisgender youth consistently, persistently, and insistently express and feel that their gender is the same as their assigned sex at birth. They may or may not be perceived by others as androgynous or the same sex they were assigned at birth.

7 Dysphoria: feelings of difference, distress, discord, or discomfort related to one’s body due to misgendering, discrimination, and harassment faced in the public sphere (Schulz, 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Manitoba, Social Sciences and Humanities, project number: 430-2018-00479, Research Council of Canada