Deconstructing the Social and Structural Rigidity of Norms and Binaries: Finding Places for Intersex, Genderqueer, and Bisexual Identities in Language and Disability

This paper seeks to demonstrate the need for rethinking normatively confining binaries and arrangements, which preclude the integration of non-traditional identities in the social structure. In order to rethink the ways in which identity is conceptualized and actualized within restrictive cultural norms and societal ideals, narratives of bisexual, intersex, and genderqueer individuals were explored. The analysis of narratives through a qualitative, multi-stage methodology revealed larger themes of language and disability. Processes of self-actualization and identity formation are investigated through consideration of the positive and negative aspects and consequences of language and disability in relation to individual identity. This paper finds that while society, as it is currently structured, is too firmly rooted in a commitment to normalization, there is the potential for cultural adaptation. By recognizing the actual flexibility and fluidity of language, disability, and other micro and macro structures, society could be more inclusive and non-normative identities could freely exist. Through a "queering" of sociology, the author believes that the field would become more inquiring and impartial, which would allow for a reassembling of norms, the encouragement of variability in identity, and unconfined self-development.

Author

• Dworkis, Leni

Language

• en

Keyword

• Binaries
• Language
• Genderqueer
• Bisexual
• Intersex
• Disability

Date created

• 2014

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Sociology

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Ken, Ivy

Committee Member(s)

• Alexander, Dameon

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/k643b135v