Abstract
In this paper I both build on existing studies of trans* experience, and seek to disrupt some of the normative thinking that is emerging around trans* lives and what it means to identify and to live as trans*. In particular I wish to (re-)challenge ideas of gender transgression and doing and undoing gender. First I answer calls to include more diverse experiences of trans*lives and identities and more trans* voices by drawing on my own life as a female with gender dysphoria who has chosen not to transition. Second, I apply an identity work perspective which, I argue, is a powerful theoretical tool for examining trans* identity and trans* experience and practice of gender, but which has so far been underused in this field. By examining a mundane event of me going shopping in a department store I analyse how I do gender moment by moment, and the processes of identity work involved. In doing so I reveal the diverse and complex ways in which gender is commonly organised and experienced, and offer new insight into the variegated nature of trans* people beyond normative accounts of trans* lives.