Problematizing the cisgendering of school washroom space: interrogating the politics of recognition of transgender and gender non-conforming youth

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how transgender and gender non-conforming youth are represented and shaped as specific subjects vis-à-vis the cisgendered problematics of the washroom space in schools. In the first part of the paper, I undertake a critical analysis of one policy-informing text on the implementation of the gender neutral washroom in schools to consider how the transgender and gender non-conforming student is constituted through specific discourses of accommodation, submission and protection that delimit their recognisability and force a potential risk of misrecognition. I also draw upon my own empirical research [Ingrey, Jennifer C. 2014. “The Public School Washroom as Heterotopia: Gendered Spatiality and Subjectification.” PhD diss., University of Western Ontario] to prioritize transgender and genderqueer voices and provide an analysis of the practice of recognition. The analysis is grounded in [Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. Translated and edited by Colin Gordon. New York, NY: Pantheon Books; Foucault, Michel. 2000. “Afterword: The Subject and Power.” In Michel Foucault: Power, edited by James D. Faubion and Paul Rabinow, 326–348. New York, NY: The New Press] the analytics of subjectivation and pastoral power, [Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. New York, NY: Routledge] the politics of recognition of the self, [Juang’s, Richard M. 2006. “Transgendering the Politics of Recognition.” In The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker, and Stephen Whittle, 706–719. New York, NY: Routledge] transgendering of the politics of recognition, alongside [Bacchi’s, Carol. 2009. Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Pearson: Frenchs Forest, NSW] critical approach to policy analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Education policy
• identities
• youth culture
• discourse analysis
• North America
• gender neutral washrooms
• genderqueer
• transgender
• gender non-conforming
• Foucault
• Butler

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Jennifer Ingrey is a Limited Duties Instructor at Western University in the Faculty of Education at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Program, the Masters of Professional Program, and the Research Intensive Graduate Program, in the areas of educational foundations, equity and social justice. She also teaches in the English, French, and Writing Department at King's University College. Her research interests include gender and transgender equity, youth gendered subjectivities and school spatiality, as well as writer reflexivity. She has teaching experience in the secondary school level in the areas of English and Visual Arts.

ORCID

Jennifer Ingrey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9232-5501

Notes

1. I acknowledge that the washroom is known under multiple terms internationally such as toilet/toilette, lavatory, facilities, etc. I also use the term ’bathroom’ because it is framed as such in transgender studies.

2. As umbrella terms, and in an attempt to be inclusive and efficient, I respectfully use the terminology of ‘transgender’ alongside ‘gender non-conforming’, despite the latter’s pathologizing potential as it is framed in the negative. I also add the term genderqueer. However, I do not mean to conflate these terms as I recognize they are distinct in their meaning and embodiment; neither do I want to exclude the multiple and expanding terms and categories that work to represent diverse gendered identities.

3. I am intentionally using ‘their’ as a gender neutral pronoun, singular. While I did not ask Pliny or Jacques about their preferred pronouns, I am applying ‘they/them/their’ to Pliny because they claimed a genderqueer identity. I realize that because I am assuming, it is problematic, but I’d rather err in favour of gender neutrality rather than apply a pronoun out of my cisgender lens. However, because Jacques identified as a transman and was clear that he was interested in passing and maintaining the gender binary, I will use ‘he/him/his’ for Jacques.

4. TVDSB is a public school board located in southwestern Ontario serving approximately 75,000 students in approximately 186 schools (elementary and secondary) over a 7000 square kilometre area including urban, suburban and rural communities.