How Binary Gender Norms Create Friction

The main research question answered within this thesis is: when and how do infrastructures create friction by imposing binary norms of gender? This research question will be answered in two phases, first interviews with transgender and nonconforming gendered individuals will be conducted in order to determine the moments in time and space where friction occurs, the second phase will analyse how within these moments infrastructures can create friction by internalizing and reproducing binary norms of gender. The fields of interest are the passport and the health care system as infrastructures. To understand the blueprint on which these infrastructures were formed, their histories and intended use are elaborated. From this research it can be concluded that friction occurs at moments in which these infrastructures create and initiate barriers and slow movement for transgender and nonconforming gendered individuals, relating to the inherent binary norms of gender with which they were formed.