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Essential and Flexible Expression: Strategies for Pronoun Use among Nonbinary-Identified Individuals

Drawing on in-depth, semistructured interviews with 42 nonbinary-identified individuals in Texas, I examine both the relationship between pronouns and identity and how individuals use pronouns in interaction. Some individuals speak about their pronoun set as a crucial component of their gender identity, adopting what I refer to as an essential expression strategy, while others discuss their pronoun set as more loosely connected to their non-binary identity, adopting what I refer to as a flexible expression strategy. Whether an individual adopts an essential or flexible expression strategy informs pronoun use in a particular context. Specifically, I find that respondents adopting an essential expression strategy are more likely to emotionally invest in using/enforcing a particular pronoun set and report strong emotions from the use of correct or incorrect pronouns in interaction. In contrast, respondents adopting a flexible expression approach are less emotionally invested in a particular pronoun set. As a result, these respondents are more likely to defer pronoun choice to the audience and prioritize the ease of interaction with less emotional consequences.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1944285
Date05 1900
CreatorsMoeder, Jessica Elise
ContributorsScarborough, William J., Sobering, Katherine, Painter, Matthew
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
FormatText
RightsPublic, Moeder, Jessica Elise, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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