Bodies out/in Place? Unmapping Trans People’s Experience in Outdoor Activities

Abstract

Scrutiny over trans people's bodies in urban contexts is continuous. This thesis develops the idea that the outdoors offers a less-gendered space for trans people, enabling and empowering them to escape self-surveillance processes and to feel freer in their gender expression/identity. I believe that spaces of resistance can be build in the wilderness, and that specific experiences are happening in it for trans people. Moreover, outdoor experiences help trans people build resilience to overcome the gender-related issues that may happen in the cities. In addition, doing outdoor activities empowers us, trans people, in our bodies. However, these experiences have not been given much attention in scholarly literature. Taking into account the fluidity and dynamism of out life experiences, I combined the use of autoethnography with semi-structured-in-depth interviews conducted with five trans people, then put these experiences in conversation with the theories. Nature was described as a less judgmental space, and a place where it is possible to be ourselves. It was also portrayed as a place to escape the urban context´s gender normativities, which, I argue, are damaging us. The outdoors is also a safe space for trans people and unmapping these counter-geographies is aiming to claim our space in it.