ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the most significant affective intensities that influenced the participants in the interview and short writing portion of this research in becoming non-binary. I expand on the conceptualisation of gender as a becoming by exploring the material and the linguistic affects that make up this assemblage. Four major intensities were identified during the analysis. These important and influential intensities included: experiencing discomfort with assigned gender at birth, learning about gender diversity and discovering the language that best describes their relationship with gender, adopting that language, and embodiment. I argue that these intensities are in constant development, reconfiguration, and evolution, as they were negotiated in multiple ways and at different levels: individual, interpersonal, and societal. Importantly, I develop the concept of linguistic becomings – the adoption, reassessment, and negotiation of language within social interactions – in this chapter.
