• DOI:10.1177/1350508414547559
• Corpus ID: 144150015

Just doing gender? Transvestism and the power of underdoing gender in everyday life and work

@article{Thanem2016JustDG,
  title={Just doing gender? Transvestism and the power of underdoing gender in everyday life and work},
  author={Torkild Thanem and Louise Wallenberg},
  journal={Organization},
  year={2016},
  volume={23},
  pages={250 - 271}
}

• Torkild Thanem, Louise Wallenberg
• Published 1 March 2016
• Sociology
• Organization

While previous research in organization studies has utilized transgender to show how gender is done, overdone and undone, this literature lacks empirical grounding, and the theoretical arguments dominating it tend to idealize the transgressive power of transgender while reducing transgender to hyperbolic drag and stereotypical passing. To further advance the understanding of transgender within and around organizations, this article presents a qualitative study from a Northern European country to investigate how male-to-female transvestites do and undo gender in everyday life and work. In contrast to extant research, we found that participants did transgender and undid gender by underdoing gender, that is, by combining feminine, masculine and ungendered practices and attributes in ways that made passing and drag insignificant. As transvestites simultaneously expressed masculine and feminine forms of embodiment, we argue that they may more obviously challenge, though not dismantle, dominant forms of gender and identity than suggested by previous accounts. We conclude by discussing broader implications for the understanding of gender, identity, power and resistance in organizations.