Gender binary washrooms as a means of gender policing in schools: a Canadian perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACTSchools are often sites of surveillance for students as behaviors are governed and regulated by gendered norms and sexed expectations. For transgender and gender non-conforming students, school environments can produce anxiety as students are categorized into gender binaries. This article draws from Canadian policy in public schools and higher education, interview data, as well as transgender teen narratives, to analyze gender policing in schools through gender binary washrooms. Building upon prior research and writing on gender binary washrooms [Cavanagh, S. L. 2010. Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; Ingrey, J. C. 2012. “The Public School Washroom as Analytic Space for Troubling Gender: Investigating the Spatiality of Gender Through Students’ Self-Knowledge.” Gender and Education 24 (7): 799-817; Ingrey, J. C. 2013a. “Shadows and Light: Pursuing Gender Justice Through Students’ Photovoice Projects of the Washroom Space.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 29 (2): 174-190; Ingrey, J. C. 2013b. “The Public School Washroom as Heterotopia: Gendered Spatiality and Subjectification.” PhD diss., University of Western Ontario. http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3175&context=etd], we argue that through advocacy, policy implementation, and the creation of gender-neutral washrooms, safe(r) and more positive school environments can be created for transgender and gender non-conforming students.