‘Boying’ the boy and ‘girling’ the girl: From affective interpellation to trans-emotionality

Abstract

Once a body is named or interpellated as either ‘boy’ or ‘girl’, they will be expected to convey, communicate, relate and/or display a social gender that co-ordinates with the labelled sex. This is part of the process known as cis-gendering. ¹ I propose that emotions are also socialized during this process and are expected to be communicated and displayed to co-ordinate with the named social gender. This ensures that bodies remain uncontestably cis-gendered and heterosexual. The interpellation of emotion for feeling is thus a major part of the socialization process used to construct cis-gendered bodies. In comparison, those people who feel uncomfortable doing their named social gender because it is at odds with their labelled sex may claim a trans ² gender identity. This incorporates a wide range of self-identities including a gender-queer or non-binary ³ identity (neutrois.me; transmediawatch.org). This article aims to explore how feelings are experienced in relation to a trans-gendered identity and what these mean for understanding and doing gender as ‘non-binary’. Using quotes from genderqueerconfession.com written by those who identify as members of a non-binary gendered community, I present a contemporary analysis of how gender is being re-interpreted and performed so that people may experience feelings they describe as either, both or neither ‘male’ or ‘female’. Findings show how gender becomes dis-orientated and takes up a liminal space where bodies and emotions are re-negotiated according to an emerging paradigm of trans-emotionality. ⁴ No longer confined to a restrictive binary system, I argue that gender is an affectively embodied process that is constantly imagined, embodied, re-imagined and re-embodied.