Complicating constructions: middle-class parents of transgender and gender-diverse children

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorNeary, Aoifeen
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Councilen
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-06T13:51:01Z
dc.date.available2025-06-06T13:51:01Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractRecent years have seen an increase in the visibility of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) children in the public sphere. Jack Halberstam [(2018). Trans: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability (Vol. 3). University of California Press] is very critical of middle-class parents of TGD children, arguing that much of their activism is based on a normalizing model of individual rights as opposed to a more transformative activism that might de-stabilize gender-power systems that are restrictive for everyone. Following this pronouncement, this paper takes up the opportunity to inquire further into the everyday negotiations of middle-class parents of TGD children. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twelve middle-class parents of TGD children aged 5–13 in Ireland, this paper provides in-depth insight into the classed, precarious, gendered, disruptive and arduous nature of parents’ work as they negotiated schools and laboured to follow a child-led parenting philosophy amidst the judgement of others and rigidly gendered worlds. Ultimately, this paper’s argument is two-fold–it alerts us to social class inequality in parenting TGD children but it also complicates the figure of the middle-class parent of a TGD child, offering in-depth insight into the shape and effects of child-led parenting with TGD children. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionSubmitted versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationNeary, A. (2021) 'Complicating constructions: Middle-class parents of transgender and gender-diverse children', Journal of Family Studies, 27(4), pp.506-522. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2019.1650799en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/13229400.2019.1650799en
dc.identifier.endpage522en
dc.identifier.issn13229400en
dc.identifier.issued4
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Family Studiesen
dc.identifier.startpage506en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/17624
dc.identifier.volume27
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherRoutledgeen
dc.rights© 2019, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Author's Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Journal of Family Studies, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2019.1650799en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
dc.subjectChild-led parentingen
dc.subjectChildrenen
dc.subjectGender non-conformingen
dc.subjectGender-diverseen
dc.subjectParentsen
dc.subjectSchoolsen
dc.subjectSocial classen
dc.subjectTransgenderen
dc.subject~Education - Journal Articles~en
dc.titleComplicating constructions: middle-class parents of transgender and gender-diverse childrenen
dc.typeArticle (peer reviewed)en
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Neary_2019_Complicating.pdf
Size:
338.77 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Submitted Version
Download
Collections
School of Education