The master narrative of gender within contemporary U.S. culture is that there are two mutually exclusive categories of men and women. This leaves transgender individuals with the precarious position of creating alternative narratives in response to that master narrative. The current qualitative research study was undertaken to better understand the varieties of alternative narratives transgender individuals create for themselves. Thematic life story interviews were conducted with 19 American transgender emerging adults, asking them to reflect on their experiences with gender throughout their lives. A discursive thematic analysis resulted in three themes: persistence of the binary, rejection of the binary, and pressures of transnormativity. Binary expectations persisted through gender binary policing, binary requirements of passing, and a lack of options within the binary. Participants rejected the binary by discovering transgender concepts and role models and subverting other people’s binary expectations. Participants also felt pressure to follow a particular alternative narrative, transnormativity, from gatekeepers both within and outside the trans community. However, despite the cultural power of these master and alternative narratives persisting, our participants demonstrated a wealth of creativity and strength by searching for information that fit their gender experiences, creating supportive communities with caring others, and disrupting this cultural power by flourishing as their full gendered selves.

当代美国文化中关于性别的主要叙述是，男性和女性是两个相互排斥的类别。这使得跨性别者处于不稳定的境地，他们需要创造替代叙事来回应主叙事。目前的定性研究是为了更好地理解跨性别者为自己创造的各种替代叙事。对 19 名美国跨性别新兴成年人进行了专题生活故事采访，要求他们反思自己一生中的性别经历。话语主题分析得出了三个主题：二元论的持久性、二元论的拒绝以及超规范性的压力。通过性别二元警务、通过的二元要求以及二元中缺乏选择，二元期望持续存在。参与者通过发现跨性别概念和榜样并颠覆其他人的二元期望来拒绝二元性。参与者还感受到了来自跨性别社区内外的看门人的压力，要求遵循一种特定的另类叙事，即跨规范性。然而，尽管这些主叙事和另类叙事的文化力量持续存在，但我们的参与者通过寻找适合其性别经历的信息、创建关心他人的支持性社区以及通过充分发挥自己的才能来破坏这种文化力量，展示了丰富的创造力和力量。性别化的自我。