‘That happened to me too’: young people’s informal knowledge of diverse genders and sexualities

Abstract

This paper explores how young people of diverse genders and sexualities share information about sex, sexualities and genders. Formal approaches to education often fail to consider young people’s communication and information exchange practices, including the circulation of peer knowledge through social media. In the wake of recent Australian backlash against the Safe Schools Coalition, we can observe how homophobia and queerphobia in the broader community can impact upon young peoples’ ability to learn about themselves and their bodies through formal education. Yet young people of diverse genders and sexualities can be observed to support each other in peer spaces, utilising their knowledge networks. This paper explores young people’s informal learning practices, the capacity of peer networks to support and educate young people, and the challenges of recognising such networks in a culture in which health and education discourses present them as ‘risk subjects’ rather than ‘health agents’. These issues are discussed in relation to our own experiences in research and health promotion, including one author’s role as a youth peer educator. Drawing on our workplace experiences, we provide a number of anecdotal examples which highlight the complexities of informal knowledge practice and information circulation, and the ways these can challenge and reform professional health, education, and research approaches.

Keywords:

• Young people
• gender diversity
• informal learning
• peer knowledge
• social media

Acknowledgements

We’d like to acknowledge the input and influence of Kate Giunta, Angie Kocsisek and Ben Hanckel. Jessie would also like to acknowledge their former supervisor, Andrew Whelan. Paul would like to acknowledge participants and researchers from the LGBTIQ Help Seeking study, and Twenty10 incorporating GLCS NSW.

Notes

1. Cisgender refers to people whose gender identity ‘matches’ with their assigned gender at birth. The term, meaning ‘on the same side’, seeks to disrupt the assumption that cisgender people are ‘normal’ and transgender people are ‘other’.

2. A pseudonym has been used.

3. A worksheet is a paper listing questions or tasks for a client or student to complete, often utilised in social or therapeutic groups.

4. Another of these is the Scrolling Beyond Binaries survey (see scrollingbeyondbinaries.com), for which Paul is an investigator. This will not be discussed here because data analysis is in the early stages.

5. Mental health variation is a term used to destigmatise mental health and dislodge the normative assumptions of pathologising language.

6. The url and identity of this user is not referenced here, out of respect for their anonymity and the intended audience of this post. Also, this is one example of many, and it should be noted that these discussions are broad and diverse, along with the engagements they generate.

7. ‘Notes’ refer to each time a Tumblr post is liked, shared, or commented on by other users. See Dame (2016) and Fink and Miller (2014) for more detailed accounts of Tumblr practices.

8. Catfish is an MTV-produced reality television show about people who misrepresent themselves online to attract romantic partners, money or as a joke. The show has popularised the term ‘catfishing’, a verb used to describe the practice of misrepresenting oneself on the internet.

9. Transmasculine is a broad gender identity, referring to a transgender person who identifies as ‘masculine of centre’, or on the masculine end of a spectrum. This may or may not mean they identify as male.