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Journal Article 1: Averett, K. H. (2016). The gender buffet: LGBTQ parents resisting heteronormativity. Gender & Society, 30, 189–212. doi:10.1177/0891243215611370

Many parents and child-rearing experts prefer that children exhibit gender-normative behavior, a preference that is linked to the belief that children are, or should be, heterosexual. But how do LGBTQ parents—who may not hold these preferences—approach the gender socialization of their children? Drawing on in-depth interviews with both members in 18 LGBTQ couples, I find that these parents attempt to provide their children with a variety of gendered options for clothing, toys, and activities—a strategy that I call the “gender buffet.” However, the social location of the parents influences the degree to which they feel they can pursue this strategy of resistance. Factors such as race, social class, gender of parents and children, and level of support of family and community members contribute to the degree to which LGBTQ parents feel they can allow or encourage their children to disrupt gender norms.

Journal Article 2: McDermott, E., & Roen, K. (2011). Youth on the virtual edge: Researching marginalized sexualities and genders online. Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/1049732311425052

Research shows clear links between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and deliberate self-harm (DSH), but there is a lack of research investigating the social context of young LGBT people’s lives and helping to explain the higher DSH risk. In this article, we report on a small-scale methodological study intended to test the feasibility of online qualitative interviews for investigating young people, sexual and gender identity, and emotional distress. There are many methodological dilemmas arising from researching such sensitive issues with marginalized groups. The study reported here was designed to examine (a) sampling diversity in terms of sexuality, gender identities, and class; and (b) the type of data produced. We found that a virtual methodology was effective in recruiting young LGBT participants who might otherwise not take part in research. Online interviewing successfully produced in-depth, “immediate” data that potentially gave access to insights that might not emerge through face-to face interviews.

Journal Article 3: Sandlin, J. A., & Maudlin, J. G. (2012). Consuming pedagogies: Controlling images of women as consumers in popular culture. Journal of Consumer Culture, 12, 175–194. doi:10.1177/1469540512446877

We seek to understand how, by engaging in various sites of consumption, we learn particular gendered, raced and classed consumer subjectivities that often uphold patriarchal consumer capitalism. Drawing from academic literature on the history of consumption, we examine the historical construction of shopping and consumption as ‘feminine’ domains and explore how current discourses about females and consumerism continue to construct women as particular kinds of consumers who possess and enact particular behaviors, dispositions and values. We also conduct a cultural studies analysis of popular culture discourses about female consumers. We argue that dominant discourses about women as consumers operate as master narratives, creating controlling images and perpetuating a politics of disgust that demeans and oppresses women. We specifically focus on how particular groups of women are differentially subjected to more or less negative characterizations with/in these discourses. We examined historical texts, including print advertisements, television commercials and popular literature, that memorably portrayed the roles of women as consumers. Contemporary print advertisements, television commercials, internet sites and music lyrics from popular artists provided sources for further analysis of the proliferation of these stereotypes. Through critical analysis and description of these popular culture representations, we hope to reveal and challenge – to disarticulate and rearticulate – the deficit, racist, classist and sexist perspectives in these majoritarian stories, in order to challenge dominant discourses of White, male and middle-class privilege.