Strategies of the extended self: The role of possessions in transpeople's conflicted selves

Identity conflicts are an integral part of our lives, yet little is known about the implications of such conflicts for people's strategic presentation of their extended selves to others. To explore this topic and the role of possessions within it, we considered an extreme example that puts the issue into sharp relief. Using data from personal interviews with transpeople and information gleaned from their online forums, we identified four self-extending strategies that participants use to cope with and attempt to resolve their identity conflicts: backward self-extension, parallel self-extension, forward self-extension and metamorphosis of the core self. These strategies are ascribed to the evolution of their extended self and the processes of undoing undesired identities while owning up to desired identities. We draw conclusions about expanding the theories of the extended self and performativity in order to better account for self-conflicts and the role of possessions in dealing with these conflicts.