Make my life easier

Included in this section are a number of self‐narratives uttered by a new generation of Taiwanese transgenders who have been forming/negotiating their transgender identity and trajectories of trans life amidst the rigidity of the gender binary as well as the complexities of emerging gender/sexuality movements and identity politics in Taiwan. These self‐narratives, spoken not as conciliatory attempts to win medical approval but as honest efforts to communicate with kindred spirits on friendly occasions, provide us with a rare opportunity to glimpse not only the inner struggles of varied transgender lives, but also the unspoken fluidity and multiplicities of identity and desire that gender/sexuality theories as well as movements have yet to grasp.     

Finding Comfort in the Discomfort of Being Multiracial: Lessons from my Schooling

The multiracial population increased by 32% between 2000 and 2010 and represents 9 million people in the United States. The author reflects on her lived experiences of being multiracial but with visibly White skin. She details the lessons she learned about her multiracial identity—from her early positioning as a young student to her role as a teacher of other multiracial students. The article presents the complexities experienced by students with multiracial identities and how their self-conceptions of identity may be complicated when they visually appear to be White.     

Kim Kardashian is my new BFF: Video games and the looking glass celebrity

Mobile-based celebrity games are a by-product of a new, more feminized video game industry. Within celebrity games, the player engages with celebrity culture in a variety of ways, often being transformed into their own brand of celebrity. Celebrity games are a form of hypertrophic media, based on the dyadic interactions between the player and celebrity. Within this, one becomes a looking-glass celebrity—an enculturation process by which the celebrity text situates the player as closer to the titular star than the player actually is. In turn, the player uses this position to reflexively construct what the player believes constitutes a successful celebrity. The path to fame, however, is a hollow one, wherein the player can never really lose and never really win.     

“It wasn’t my idea to come here!”: Ownership of the idea to immigrate as a function of gender,age, and culture

The present study investigated gender, age, and culture differences in immigrants’ ownership of the idea to immigrate to Australia. Married immigrants (N = 1702) indicated whose idea it was to immigrate: their own, their partner's, or a joint idea. Consistent with a patriarchal model, female immigrants were significantly less likely to claim ownership of the idea than male immigrants, and this difference partially mediated gender differences in post-immigration satisfaction. In addition, age and culture qualified gender differences in ownership of the idea to immigrate. Young women and nonWestern women were least likely to claim ownership of the idea. The generality of the patriarchal model across age and culture is discussed.