Transgender Discourse: Analyzing the Interplay of Linguistic Features and Identity of Transgender Individuals in Mardan

Abstract

This study analyses the language used about transgender people in Mardan, with an emphasis on how the use of language contributes to identity construction. The study hence seeks to use Judith Butler’s performativity theory to seek to explain the role that language has in the formation of transgenderism. Utilizing the method of qualitative content analysis, the study analyses diversified texts such as media, personal stories, and public debates to examine how and to what extent language can both enable and exclude TS/TV people. The study demonstrates how gender is constructed and enacted to argue that language is essential in defining and performing transgender identities and, thereby, understanding the social factors that define the lives of transgender people in Mardan.