The Atmosphere of Trans* Politics in the Global North and West

Abstract

This essay scrutinizes the conundrum of recent trans* politics in the Global North and West. Although this trans* politics has achieved important social changes for some gender-variant people, it at the same time participates in neoliberal notions of equality. In addition, while constructing a seemingly legitimate subject called transgender, this politics perpetuates colonial violence. This article suggests a turn to atmospheres as a crucial term to reassess this quandary. With a focus on discomfort, this article explores ways to decolonize and deprivilege transnational trans* politics in the Global North and West. It argues that such an approach might open up ways to consider trans* politics as an imaginary that would enable fragmented realities, bodies, and selves to become legible and articulable and thereby also make it possible to name the constitutive violence that is at work in politics under the purview of trans*.

From Victimization to Incarceration: Transgender Women in Costa Rica

“…Most of the research is from the Global North. The result is that the "regimes of knowledge in Trans à Politics" are dominated by the experiences of transgender individuals in the United States and Europe (Nay, 2019). Furthermore, the legal protections, political rights and medical and psychological regulations are mainly based on those adopted by public and private institutions in the Global North.…”

“…Furthermore, the legal protections, political rights and medical and psychological regulations are mainly based on those adopted by public and private institutions in the Global North. Even the "reports and surveys" about transgender individuals are mainly from the Global North (Nay, 2019).…”

Violent Times, Rising Resistance: An Interdisciplinary Gender Perspective

“…They are situated within a history of gay and lesbian and transgender liberation struggle, in their individual formations and in their collective contentious political formation under the LGBTQ umbrella. The "T" in mainstream, Western neoliberal LGBTQ politics often only discursively exists in the necropolitical figure of the murdered Black trans* woman or trans* woman of color (Haritaworn et al 2014;Krell 2019;Nay 2019;Spade 2011). 6 David Valentine's (2007) ethnographic work details how violence-especially towards trans* people-has discursively been used for LBGTQ claims-making, to both productive and problematic ends.…”

“…8 She could just simply be in joy, singing with others (Patch 2017;Patch and König 2018). The presence of the vital choral body joyfully singing produces a living, thriving trans* subjectivity and manifests an affective atmosphere contrasting to somber events like the Transgender Day of Remembrance (Haritaworn et al 2014;Nay 2019). Whereas trans* people are too often spoken for, the choristers collectively take up space in the auditory realm, amplifying each other's voices.…”