Expressing Experiences of Being Gender Non-Conforming in the “Ladies” Restroom Through Autoethnography-Based Research Poetics

Authors

Ellen D. B. Riggle, Department of Political Science and Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USAFollow

Abstract

Three research poems are created as an autoethnographic response to feedback on a research article on the author’s experiences as a gender non-conforming person in women’s public restrooms.  The feedback loop includes the sharing of lived experiences by others and theoretical (why?) discussions in the context of the gendered policing and politicalization of women’s restrooms.  The first found poem includes words, phrases, and descriptions of images used to label spaces designated as women’s restrooms.  The second prose poem recounts the author's experiences through a reframing of risk to women’s health, understanding the cultural context of male entitlement and White supremacy, and supporting the ongoing fight for justice in these spaces.  The third prose poem labels and shines light on structural racism directed at Black and Brown people in women’s restrooms. Creating research poems extends the original research process by including subsequent interactions and response feedback in accessible and evocative forms and providing provocation for needed discussions.

Keywords

autoethnography, gender non-conforming, LGBT, research poem, public restrooms

Author Bio(s)

Ellen D. B. Riggle is Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky. Their research interests include minority stress, positive identity and well-being. Their poems have been published in The ADVANCE Journal, Earth's Daughters, New Verse News, Pegasus, redrosethorns Journal, and Rise Up Review. Please direct correspondence to e.riggle@uky.edu

Acknowledgements

Signs for LADIES, The LADIES Restroom Adventures of She/They/Hey!You!, and Coda for the LADIES Room are used with permission of the author with all rights reserved, Copyright 2024. Signs for LADIES and the first section of The LADIES Restroom Adventures of She/They/Hey!You! were part of a collection of poems which received First Prize in the 2023 Harriett A. Rose Legacies Writing Contest, Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, Lexington KY.

Publication Date

1-31-2026

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2026.7880

Recommended APA Citation

Riggle, E. D. B. (2026). Expressing experiences of being gender non-conforming in the “ladies” restroom through autoethnography-based research poetics. The Qualitative Report, 30(12), 5026-5036. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2026.7880

ORCID ID

0000 0002 7356 5251

ResearcherID

Scopus Author ID: 6602141444