Thomas Jeram-West

Bio

My PhD title:

You’re…? But You Look Like…! Authenticity, authority, self-styled expression and the embodiment of non-binary aesthetics In the United Kingdom during the Golden Age of queer theory (working title).

My PhD summary:

“If you’re non-binary, why do you have a beard?”

Ugh. It’s funny – I used to love this question. I used to take a deep breath and commit to a dissection of my questioner’s apparent beliefs about sex, sexuality, gender and gender presentation, delivered with surgical precision and award-winning charisma – and without taking up any more of their time than the average advert break on TV.

I had it down to around three minutes. I would delight in pulling apart the tapestry of their worldview thread by thread, challenging their perceptions and experience of the cultural, social, societal and political aspects of these categories. I used to delight in helping them reach conclusions that broke down the biological essentialism and theological legitimacy that ‘validates’ the continued dominance of the man/woman gender binary.

By the end of our time together, most no longer took their physical sex for granted, or their performance or presentation of different aspects of masculinity, femininity and androgyny. They were curious about the history of these concepts and how they had informed their sense of identity. They left our conversations – and I paraphrase Dolly Parton to say this – eager to know who they were and to do it on purpose.

But, I got bored of every encounter becoming an education. They were sometimes confrontational, and I found myself, occasionally, on the end of abuse or insult. I started to question why I was putting in this much effort for some people who either didn’t really want an answer to the question or who wanted to fight about it. So, what do I do now? Well, I typically shrug and tell them that my beard serves as natural contouring that saves me a damned fortune on make-up.

They seem happier with that answer.

My research at UCA builds on my personal experiences. I’m genderqueer, and mostly perceived as ‘man’ due to my aesthetic choices being congruent with the presentation and performance of that binary gender identity. I therefore pass as cisgendered and am challenged on the authenticity, integrity, legitimacy and validity of my non-binary ‘self.’ Interestingly, most often by members of the wider queer community.

It appears that ‘authentic’ non-binary embodiment is, broadly, contingent on conscious, deliberate and sustained disruptions in one’s personal aesthetic that problematise its perception by others as binary gendered.

This project interrogates the effects of aesthetic choices on perceptions and experiences of the legitimacy and validity of non-binary gender identities amongst non-binary individuals in the UK from 1990-2020. It posits this period as a ‘golden age’ of queer theory, sandwiched between the publication of Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic which, arguably, represented a sudden, direct and sustained disruption to the replication/transmission of the queer cultures that had developed during this period at both micro and macro levels.

Through this, I seek to produce one of the first dedicated outputs addressing embodiment and stylistic self-expression of non-binary gender identities; my experience to date is that current queer literature on dress and adornment focuses on trans and gender non-conforming individuals, and current non-binary scholarship focuses on social, societal and cultural themes arguably more philosophical than physical.

The research questions my project seeks to answer are:

1. How have non-binary gender identities been conceived, constructed, presented and performed in the UK, during the ‘Golden Age’ of queer theory?
2. How are presentations/performances of non-binary identities legitimised/validated through aesthetic signs/signifiers associated with normative cisgender identities of the sex ‘opposite’ to that assigned at birth?
3. Does an ‘appropriate’ presentation/performance of non-binary identity require a disruptive and/or provocative aesthetics that ‘queer’ the gendered identity associated with an individual’s assigned sex at birth?
4. How does ‘queering’ aesthetics through the ‘transgressive’ and ‘disruptive’ use of cisgendered signs/signifiers maintain the gender binary’s systemic and structural dominance?
5. Have moral resources, theories or discourses been developed within wider non-binary communities that protect a non-binary individual’s right to present their gender identity in an authentic and unique manner?

I have an academic background in modern foreign languages; linguistics of print and broadcast media; translation and interpreting; teaching English as a foreign and second language (BA (Hons) Applied Languages, University of Portsmouth), and fashion journalism and publishing (MA Fashion Journalism, London College of Fashion).

So, if you read this and think that my doctoral research represents a significant swerve – you’re not wrong. However, threads of gender, sexuality, identity and representation have been woven throughout these varied areas in a way that have finally found a meaningful convergence here at UCA. I’m excited to see where this project will take me.

My professional experience is equally diverse and has been, to date, broadly unrelated to my academic interests. Full-time, I have worked extensively in creative higher education and the criminal justice system. In addition, I have worked with entrepreneurial artists, artisans, crafters, designers and makers in the south-east of England since 2014 to support and showcase their enterprise, knowledge, creativity, innovation and skill, and led participatory art workshops using the teaching and learning of crochet to explore the relationship between master and apprentice alongside artist Sharon Bennett as part of Croshare (2013-present).

A personal project in development, the Five to Nine Studio, will explore cultures of creativity as well as providing a space for my own personal experimentation with, and interrogation of, various arts and crafts.

More about me:

Hello – I’m Thomas. I’m an artisan, artist, educator and writer. Oh, and I’m now a research student at UCA thanks to a Vice-chancellor’s studentship, which has enabled me to pursue a life goal of doctoral study. My research interests bring together sex, sexuality and gender through intersections with epistemology, ontology, phenomenology and sociology. This makes me great fun at parties.