Bodies Outside the Binary

A Social Psychology Perspective

Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash. Image Caption: A child in a t-shirt, jeans, and sandals running from the camera. The child is holding a transgender pride flag and the concrete in the background has a reflection of a rainbow.

The following essay will use transgender as an umbrella identity term but recognizes that not all gender non-conforming individuals identify as transgender and may use other terms to describe their gender identity.

Although plenty of research has been done into gender stereotypes and their effect on the body image of adolescents, many studies have neglected a major factor in their analysis. For those who experience incongruence between their physical appearance and their gender identity, body image is a critical factor in both outwards acceptance and inner satisfaction (Algars, Santtila, & Sandnabba, 2010). Understanding these indicators can help alleviate the pressure transgender and gender non-conforming individuals feel to ‘fit’ into society, which has been linked to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression as well as heightened numbers of eating and self-harm disorders (McGuire, J. K., Doty, J. L., Catalpa, J. M., & Ola, C., 2016).

Consistent with the Tripartite Influence Model, transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) individuals are surrounded by messages that convey gendered expectations about appearance that are invalidating towards their gender identity and expression. These messages lead transgender and GNC individuals to surveil and police their bodies to ‘fit’ these…