“Den får finnas, i sig själv” - En intervjustudie om upplevelser av kroppen: normer, tillfredsställelse och (icke-)binära ideal hos transpersoner

Abstract

Norms regarding body size and shape are often based on binary, cisnormative ideals. The relationship to one’s body can become complicated when these norms are the only ones presented as available. As a transgender person, the relationship to these norms can be even more complicated because of one not being cisgender. A body positive movement has arisen as a resistance to bodily norms, but people speaking from a trans perspective have addressed a lack in this movement of non-cisnormative perspectives. The narrative in the body positive movement is that one should accept one’s body as it is - but what if changing the body is one’s way of loving it? Through interviews, the purpose of this study is to examine how transgender persons experience bodily norms. By plugging in queer theory on normativity and power, this study gives a picture of the variating experiences of society’s interaction with the body. What norms are there and how do the participants’ experiences of these norms correlate with each other? The participants also present their view on body positivity and what possibilities or difficulties they experience in feeling comfortable in their bodies. What comes to show is that binary norms have an effect both on people who align with them and those who find themselves in between polarities.