This paper critiques the proposition that way-finding strategies can be differentiated by sex. We argue that way-finding is better understood as a function of gender differences where gender is understood as a lived social relation, a product of the interaction between an embodied habitus and a particular social field. The use of survey versus landmark way-finding strategies is linked to an individual's gendered experiences of urban life. The study examines way-finding strategies from a sample of 127 gay men and lesbians from the Tallahassee, Florida metropolitan region to explore urban habitation patterns. We find that different way-finding strategies (most commonly a survey or landmark approach) are influenced by the habitus and gendered experiences of fear and anxiety in urban areas. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses suggest that individuals who perceive that their own gender presentation violates gender norms (gender dissonance) experience higher levels of social sanctions (harassment, hostility, and discrimination). In multivariate analysis, the study finds that gender-dissonant men tend to navigate using the landmark way-finding approach usually associated with women, whereas gender-dissonant women navigate using the survey way-finding approach usually associated with men.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdkinsL, 2004, “Reflexivity: Freedom or habit of gender?”, in Feminism after Bourdieu Eds AdkinsLSkeggsB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 191–210
2.
AdlerSBrennerJ, 1993, “Gender and space: Lesbians and gay men in the city”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research1624–34
3.
BellDValentineG (Eds), 1995Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities (Routledge, London)
4.
BellDBinnieJCreamJValentineG, 1994, “All hyped up and no place to go”Gender, Place, and Culture131–48
5.
BerkowitzDBelgraveLHalbersteinR, 2007, “The interaction of drag queens and gay men in public and private spaces”Journal of Homosexuality5211–32
6.
BinnieJ, 1995, “Trading places: Consumption, sexuality and the production of queer space”, in Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities Eds BellDValentineG (Routledge, London) pp 192–199
7.
BinnieJ, 2004, “Quartering sexualities: Gay villages and sexual citizenship”, in City of Quarters: Urban Villages in the Contemporary City Eds BellDJayneM (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 163–172
8.
BinnieJValentineG, 1999, “Geographies of sexuality: A review of progress”Progress in Human Geography23175–187
9.
BondiL, 1992, “Gender symbols and urban landscapes”Progress in Human Geography16157–170
10.
BourdieuP, 1984Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard Unviersity Press, Cambridge, MA)
11.
BourdieuP, 1990The Logic of Practice (Polity Press, Cambridge)
12.
BourdieuP, 2001Masculine Domination (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
13.
BourdieuP, 2002, “Habitus”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 27–34
14.
BridgeG, 2001, “Bourdieu, rational action, and the time space strategy of gentrification”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series26205–216
15.
BrowneK, 2007, “(Re)making the other, heterosexualizing everyday space”Environment and Planning A39996–1014
DoanP, 2007, “Queers in the American city: Transgendered perceptions of urban spaces”Gender, Place, and Culture14(1) 57–74
22.
DubrowG, 1998, “Blazing trails with pink triangles and rainbow flags: New directions in the preservation and interpretation of gay and lesbian heritage”Historic Preservation Forum1231–44
23.
FadermanL, 1991Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America (Columbia University Press, New York)
24.
FloridaR, 2002The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday life (Basic Books, New York)
25.
ForsythA, 1997, “Out in the valley”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research2138–62
26.
ForsythA, 2001, “Sexuality and space: Nonconformist populations and planning practice”Journal of Planning Literature15339–358
27.
FrischM, 2002, “Planning as a heterosexist project”Journal of Planning Education and Research21254–266
28.
GoodeyJ, 1995, “Fear of crime: Children and gendered socialization”, in Gender and Crime Eds DobashR EDobashR PNoaksL (University of Wales Press, Cardiff) pp 295–312
29.
HarrisLCrockerE, 1997Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls (Routledge, London)
30.
HemmingsC, 2002Bisexual Spaces: A Geography of Sexuality and Gender (Routledge, New York)
31.
HerekGBerrillK T, 1992, “Primary and secondary victimization in anti-gay hate crimes: Official response and public policy”, in Hate Crimes: Confronting Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men Eds HerekGBerrillK T (Sage, Newbury Park, CA) chapter 18
32.
HollanderJ, 2001, “Vulnerability and dangerousness: The construction of gender through conversation about violence”Gender and Society1583–109
33.
IngramGBouthilletteARitterY (Eds), 1997Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, and Sites of Resistance (Bay Press, Seattle, WA)
34.
JagoseA, 1996Queer theory: An Introduction (New York University Press, New York)
35.
KitchinR, 1996, “Are there sex differences in geographic knowledge and behavior?”The Geographical Journal162273–286
36.
KitchinRBladesM, 2002The Cognition of Geographic Space (I B Tauris, London)
37.
KitchinRLysaghtK, 2003, “Heterosexism and the geographies of everyday life in Belfast, Northern Ireland”Environment and Planning A35489–510
38.
LauriaMKnoppL, 1985, “Toward an analysis of the role of gay communities in the urban renaissance”Urban Geography6152–169
39.
LawtonC, 2001, “Gender and regional differences in spatial referents used in direction giving”Sex Roles44321–338
40.
LawtonCKallaiJ, 2002, “Gender differences in wayfinding strategies and anxiety about wayfinding: A cross-cultural comparison”Sex Roles47389–401
41.
LeachN, 2002, “Belonging: Towards a theory of identification with space”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 281–295
42.
LippaR, 2002, “Gender-related traits of heterosexual and homosexual men and women”Archives of Sexual Behavior3183–98
43.
LloydRHooperH, 1990, “Urban cognitive maps: Computation and structure”The Professional Geographer4315–28
44.
LynchK, 1960The Image of the City (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
45.
MaccobyEJacklinC, 1974The Psychology of Sex Differences (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
46.
McNayL, 1999, “Gender, habitus, and the field: Pierre Bourdieu and the limits of reflexivity”Theory, Culture and Society1695–117
47.
McNayL, 2004, “Agency and experience: Gender as a lived social relation”, in Feminism After Bourdieu Eds AdkinsLSkeggsB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 175–190
48.
McRobbieA, 2004, “Notes on what not to wear and post-feminist symbolic violence”, in Feminism After Bourdieu Eds AdkinsLSkeggsB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 99–109
49.
MasonG, 2002The Spectacle of Violence: Homophobia, Gender, and Knowledge (Routledge, New York)
50.
MateiSBall-RokeachSQiuJ, 2001, “Fear and misperception of Los Angeles urban space”Communication Research28429–463
51.
MaylorEReimersSChoiJCollaerMPetersMSilvermanI, 2007, “Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood: Age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation”Archives of Sexual Behavior36235–249
52.
MazantiB, 2007, “Choosing residence community and neighbours—theorizing families' motives for moving”Geografiska Annaler, Series B8953–68
53.
MilgramSGreenwaldJKesslerSMcKennaWWatesJ, 1972, “A psychological map of New York City”American Scientist60194–200
54.
MontelloDLovelaceKGolledgeRSelfC, 1999, “Sex-related differences and similarities in geographic and environmental spatial abilities”Annals of the Association of American Geographers89515–534
55.
MoranLSkeggsBTyrerPCorteenK, 2001, “Property, boundary, exclusion: Making sense of hetero-violence in safer spaces”Social and Political Geography2407–420
56.
MyslikW, 1996, “Renegotiating the social/sexual identities of places: Gay communities as safe havens or sites of resistance”, in Body Space: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality Ed. DunanN (Routledge, London) pp 156–169
57.
NamasteK, 1996, “Genderbashing: Sexuality, gender, and the regulation of public space”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space14221–240
58.
NamasteV K, 2000Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL)
PainR, 1991, “Space, violence, and social control: Integrating geographical and feminist analyses of women's fear of crime”Progress in Human Geography15415–431
61.
PileS, 2002, “Spectral cities: Where the repressed returns and other short stories”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 219–239
62.
PodmoreJ, 1998, “(Re)reading the ‘loft living’ habitus in Montreal's inner city”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research22283–302
63.
PodmoreJ, 2001, “Lesbians in the crowd: Gender, sexuality, and visibility along Montreal's Boulevard St-Laurent”Gender, Place and Culture8333–355
64.
PodmoreJ, 2006, “Gone ‘underground’? Lesbian visibility and the consolidation of queer space in Montreal”Social and Cultural Geography7595–625
65.
PortugaliJ, 2004, “Toward a cognitive approach to urban dynamics”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design31589–613
66.
RahmanQAnderssonDGrovierE, 2005, “A specific sexual orientation-related difference in navigation strategy”Behavioral Neuroscience119311–316
67.
ReitzesD, 1983, “Urban images: A social psychological approach”Sociological Inquiry53314–332
68.
RookeA, 2007, “Navigating embodied lesbian cultural space: Towards a lesbian habitus”Space and Culture10231–252
69.
RothenburgT, 1995, “And she told two friends': Lesbians creating urban social space”, in Mapping Desire Eds BellDValentineG (Routledge, London) pp 16–181
70.
SandercockL, 2002, “Difference, fear, and habitus: A political economy of urban fears”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 203–218
71.
SandersGSjodinMChastelaineM, 2002, “On the elusive nature of sex differences in cognition: Hormonal influences contributing to within-sex variation”Archives of Sexual Behavior31145–152
72.
SchmitzS, 1999, “Gender differences in acquisition of environmental knowledge related to wayfinding behavior, spatial anxiety, and self-estimated environmental competencies”Sex Roles4171–93
73.
SelfCGolledgeR, 2000, “Sex, gender, and cognitive mapping”, in Cognitive Mapping: Past, Present and Future Eds KitchinRFreundschuhS (Routledge, London) pp 197–220
74.
SkeggsB, 2004, “Context and background: Pierre Bourdieu's analysis of class, gender, and sexuality”, in Feminism After Bourdieu Eds AdkinsLSkeggsB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 19–33
75.
SkidmoreWLinsenmeierABailerJ, 2006, “Gender non-conformity and psychological distress in lesbians and gay men”Archives of Sexual Behavior35685–697
76.
TaywaditepK J, 2001, “Marginalization among the marginalized: Gay men's anti-effeminacy attitudes”Journal of Homosexuality421–28
77.
ValentineG, 1990, “Women's fear and the design of public space”Built Environment16279–287
78.
ValentineG, 1993, “(Hetero)sexing space: Lesbian perceptions and experiences of everyday spaces”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space11395–413
79.
ValentineG, 1995, “Out and about: Geographies of lesbian landscapes”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research1996–111
80.
ValentineG, 2000From Nowhere to Everywhere: Lesbian Geographies (Harrington Park Press, New York)
81.
WardSNewcombeNOvertonW, 1986, “Turn left at the church, or three miles north: A study of direction giving and sex differences”Environment and Behavior18192–213
82.
WebberR, 2007, “The metropolitan habitus: Its manifestations, locations, and consumption profiles”Environment and Planning A39182–207
83.
WilchinsR, 2004Queer Theory Gender Theory: An Instant Primer (Alyson Books, Los Angeles, CA)
84.
WolfeM, 1997, “Invisible women in invisible places: The production of social space in lesbian bars”, in Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, and Sites of Resistance Eds IngramGBouthilletteARitterY (Bay Press, Seattle, WA) pp 301–323
