In studies on trans identity, sexuality is still largely unexplored territory. While sex and gender cover heterogenous data, it is hard not to hear the intertwining questions. The author relies on what transitioning or gender-fluid youths, or those who seeking to escape being categorized as man/woman, homo/hetero, cis/trans, are saying about their sexual practices. How does the agency of these bodies undergoing transformation fit into the development of our theories?
This article examines questions raised by creative adolescents’ exploration of binarity in their gender identity, by bringing psychoanalysis into a dialogue with trans-identity issues, queer studies, and feminist theories. Moreover, it shows that we should be wary of the current trend towards psychic normativity and must let go of our own knowledge in order to better listen to what transgender and non-binary adolescents are telling us.
Over the last few years, more and more young people have called into question the well-marked boundaries of gender, the couple and sexuality: bisexual or pansexual, gender-neutral or –fluid, transgender, they refuse labels, identity fixations, and demand the right to invent themselves completely, to shatter the boundaries that distinguish heterosexuality and homosexuality, male and female, boy and girl.
Adolescence, 2020, 38, 2, 447-462.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7