Retelling racialized violence, remaking white innocence: the politics of interlocking oppressions in transgender day of remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance has become a significant political event among those resisting violence against gender-variant persons. Commemorated in more than 250 locations worldwide, this day honors individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. However, by focusing on transphobia as the definitive cause of violence, this ritual potentially obscures the ways in which hierarchies of race, class, and sexuality constitute such acts. Taking the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Remembering Our Dead project as a case study for considering the politics of memorialization, as well as tracing the narrative history of the Fred F. C. Martinez murder case in Colorado, the author argues that deracialized accounts of violence produce seemingly innocent White witnesses who can consume these spectacles of domination without confronting their own complicity in such acts. The author suggests that remembrance practices require critical rethinking if we are to confront violence in more effective ways. Description from publisher's site: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.2

Authenticity, validation and sexualisation on Grindr: an analysis of trans women’s accounts

The socio-historic sexualisation of transgender identities is reported to have disaffirming consequences for the broad trans community, and for trans women in particular. Given trans people’s increasing use of socio-sexual ‘hook-up’ apps, this paper looks at trans women’s talk of self/other identifications in relation to their regular use of Grindr. Eight semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with London-based women who identified as trans* in some way. A Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis highlights intersecting frames of trans authenticity, validation and sexualisation. Within these frames, trans women can be variously positioned in gendered and sexualised ways. Specifically, a discourse of trans authenticity is seen to involve the marking out of an identificatory truth that is situated in culturally acceptable and hence de-sexualised womanhood, while a competing discourse of trans validation involves an ambiguity and eroticism that can serve to reimagine this truth. Trans subjectivities can thus consist of a desire for authentic (gendered and non-sexualised) selfhood, on the one hand, and self-affirming ambiguity and sexualisation on the other. That trans women can construct ambivalent relationships with trans-sexualisation discourse highlights the limitation of anti-sexualisation advocacy and implications for supporting trans sexualities are considered

Post-identity politics and the social weightlessness of radical gender theory

This paper analysis current forms of post-identity politics within contemporary gender theory, notably the works of Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz and Bobby Noble. Although these thinkers offer some important insights, I argue that their theories ultimately suffer from what Lois McNay has labelled ‘social weightlessness’. This is because their models of subjectivity and agency are severed from the everyday realities of social subjects. I indicate two ways that this social weightlessness is manifested in radical gender theories which offer a post-identity politics: (1) they underappreciate the social and political importance to many people of establishing stable, coherent identities; (ii) they are unable to offer a satisfactory account of agency. I suggest that these issues result, at least partly, from the anti-recognition stance adopted by these theorists. By incorporating an adequate model of recognition back into their theories, I claim, will equip their accounts with a properly-grounded model of the subject, which is responsive to the inequalities and oppressions that infuse the particular concrete contexts in which we experience and live out our identities

Studying trans: recommendations for ethical recruitment and collaboration with transgender participants in academic research

The transgender population has been subject to a troubled history of ethically and methodologically flawed research practices. Whilst interest and ethical standards have both risen, there remains little specific methodological consideration of research with transgender participants. This article draws on practical experiences of doing research with transgender communities, and insider group status, to construct six categories to consider when working on trans-focused research. These categories include the importance of transgender history, the assurance of transparency, the significance of nuanced language use, the benefits of feminist methodological contributions, the value of intersectionality and the necessity of respecting trans spaces. The article concludes by reflecting on the overlapping and non-exhaustive nature of these categories, and wider structural concerns that may trouble knowledge production more generally