Trans*forming the life course: new directions for critical gerontology

Normative timelines are prescribed and enforced by social institutions that reward a trajectory through linear, teleological life stages. In the West, these timelines are constructed with the ultimate goal of upholding traditional cultural values such as reproductive futurity and capitalistic productivity. They are predicated on the assumption of a homogenous society in that equal opportunity and desire to access each transition is assumed. This ideology effectively construes deviation in the sequence or timing of events as a personal failure rather than cultural difference. Normative constructions of time often lack applicability to individuals of nonnormative identities, whose lives may not unfold in traditional, consecutive, or linear paths. By delineating "on-time" and "off-time" events and, by extension, "right" and "wrong" ways to age, the normative life course acts as a mechanism of oppression employed by social institutions to pathologize individuals of nonnormative identities, particularly in later life. The trans* experience, by defying continuity in body, sexuality, and gender, is an inherent antithesis to the normative life course and a prime opportunity for theoretical scrutinization. This forum article endeavors to trans*form the life course by challenging normative notions of aging, identity, and chronology, drawing primarily from trans* experience, history, and theory.