” It’s like someone makes your entire existence invalid” : A study of non-binary people’s experiences of embodiment and negotiating institutional lines

Sammanfattning: In this thesis, non-binary people’s experience of gendered embodiment as well as inhabiting and navigating society is analysed. This is primarily done by using the theoretical framework of institutional lines, specifically applied through a trans studies perspective. Other important influences have been theories about how regulatory norms impact queer and trans subjectivities. Furthermore, special notice has been made of how social categorisations such as sexuality, class, and (dis)ability impact the non-binary subject’s experience of gender and of inhabiting society. This study is based on interview material produced through in-depth interviews with eleven non-binary Swedish people, as well as autoethnographical narratives produced by the author. The study shows that several different institutional lines impact the non-binary subject’s navigation through social space, as well as their experience of gendered embodiment. It was also clear that it was difficult for non-binary people to be recognised as coherent subjects, because of them breaking the regulatory norms that dictate intelligibility. Non-binary people are therefore often seen as the abject. This could be exacerbated if one not only deviated from the straight line of gender, but also from other lines and thus did not follow the expected trans line. It was clear that one’s experiences as a non-binary person could not fully be reduced to one’s position in relation to any specific line, be it gender, sexuality, class, or body normativity, but was rather a result of all those lines.