Pulling Back the Curtain: Examining the Backstage Gendered Dynamics of Storytelling in the Undocumented Youth Movement

Abstract

This article examines the backstage process by which undocumented youth activists developed and implemented an emotionally evocative storytelling strategy in their efforts to bring about social change. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews with members of the DREAM Act Movement, I show how they carefully cultivated and refined their storytelling performances through interaction. I also show how hegemonic gender expectations—and the stigma of victimization—complicated their efforts. Because they believed the best stories showed audiences what it felt like to be undocumented, this explicitly expressive tactic caused problems for men who had to overcome cultural expectations that they control their emotions and for women who worried about being perceived as weak if they showed too much vulnerability. I argue that their solution—the creation of a gendered division of emotional labor—ultimately reinforced the gender order. By revealing how the process of storytelling can simultaneously challenge and exacerbate inequalities, my research expands our knowledge of the potentials and limitations of narrative approaches to social change.