I am Max : a story of self-advocacy and empowerment

Abstract

The current social realities of transgender individuals create some opportunities to change the dominant narrative of exclusion by cultivating the relationship between empowerment and self-advocating. This biographic research, in the form of a documentary video using mediated public ethnography, centers on the story of Max, a genderfluid individual. The research was done in order to examine how Max as found their voice for change by gaining insights into their own personal experiences of empowerment and self-advocacy so that others can learn from it. It covers the main elements of empowerment, which I identify as process, context and power, as well as the building blocks of self-advocacy, which I identify as identity, rights and action. Based on the stories that Max has shared, I found that empowerment and advocacy were feeding each other in creating a circular process where empowerment is both a process and an outcome. The video can be found at: https://vimeo.com/265452346: RRU2018