Das Ich in der Geschlechterforschung

Abstract

Abstract This article calls for a turn in gender studies by giving attention to the corporeal and felt experience of being gendered. The first part recaptures experience as a decisive force in the history of feminism, queer and trans studies. In the second – and larger – part we focus on theoretical and empirical evidence how the experience of gender as a way of being oneself and feeling at home (or not feeling at home) in one’s own body may transgress the normative boundaries of gender and, in the long run, transform the gendered order of a given society. Based on sociological and literary studies, the article provides examples and theoretical models to overcome the well-known divide between a (de-)constructive view on gender performativity and the insistence on the given and inescapable materiality, existence and experience of gendered human beings.