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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1944285 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Moeder, Jessica Elise |
| Contributors | Scarborough, William J., Sobering, Katherine, Painter, Matthew |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Moeder, Jessica Elise, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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