“I Did It All Online:” Transgender identity and the management of everyday life

ABSTRACT

Informed by ethnographic work with transgender individuals and communities in the Midwest and San Francisco, this article explores the relationship between technology and transgender identity. It examines the possibilities for self-recognition that transgender audiences had before the era of the internet. Then, through a case study of a transgender person, it engages in a close analysis of what it means to transition gender in online environments. Drawing from Heidegger's (1962. Being and time. New York: Harper Perennial) phenomenology of technology, I argue that technology has become increasingly “ready-to-hand”—available, participatory, and taken-for-granted—for transgender individuals. In particular, the internet has created virtual “counterpublics” (Warner, 2002. Publics and counterpublics. Brooklyn: Zone Books) that furnish feelings of belonging and ideological affiliation, as well as “care structures” (Scannell, 2014. Television and the meaning of live: An enquiry into the human situation. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press), architectures of organized care and concern, that facilitate transgender identity work and everyday survival. For transgender individuals, who live in a world created without them in mind, the affordances of online counterpublics and care structures help them manage the trials and complexities of everyday life. At the same time, contemporary digital media environments introduce new risks and liabilities for transgender individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• internet
• queer
• identity
• everyday life

Notes

1 Certainly there were more cultural sites of transgender visibility, but a comprehensive history of transgender representation is beyond the scope of this article.

2 Studies conducted by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) conclude that violence against transgender people is alarmingly high. Of all LGBTQ homicides in 2013, 72% were transgender women and 67% were transgender women of color. Transgender individuals were also seven times more likely to experience physical violence when dealing with law enforcement than the general population. The study is titled “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected hate violence in 2013: A report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (2014 Release Edition)” and can be found at http://www.avp.org/resources/avp-resources/315