The unbecoming subject of sex: Performativity, interpellation, and the politics of queer theory

Abstract

This paper elaborates a theory of 'unbecoming' to explore how a queering of the subject might transform oppressive social conditions. In this analysis of the subject's deconstructive relation to the law I take up the interpellation scenario forwarded by Louis Althusser and Judith Butler's theory of performativity to argue that being 'unbecoming' potentially not only alters subjectivity, it also alters the very law that hails the subject into being. First, I deconstruct both subject and law in their relation to each other as performatives, for it is at this threshold of undecidability that the possibilities for political transformation emerge. Second, I demonstrate the creative and transformative political force of queer performativity to show that our agency as political beings lies not merely in affirmative representations of identity. Political agency also emerges in the creative force of a becoming that is also an unbecoming, where in and through our abjection from the social order we critique and transform it.

Condition or movement? A genealogy of trans discourse

“…However, these accounts have done little to build upon Raymond's (1979) theoretical and empirical work. Moreover, they have been largely superseded by trans-affirming and trans feminist accounts in terms of wider ideological resonance and praxis within contemporary feminist scholarship and activism (Bettcher, 2009;Elliot, 2009;Bunch, 2013).…”

“…In this way, patient advocates both trans and cis worked collectively to recognise and repeat individual stories, thereby imbuing them with a 'rebellious authenticity' (Hills, 2009: 115). In this way, individual #transdocfail contributors sought to change the way in which trans health is discussed through actively juxtaposing the knowledges held by 'unbecoming subjects' (Bunch, 2013) with those held by traditional (medical) authorities. Twitter provided a platform for individual accounts to be collectively and mutually (re)constructed as credible, with these knowledges affirmed through iterative repetition in a public space.…”

“…By contrast, alternative approaches to trans health seek to entirely re-imagine how medical provisions for trans people might be conceptualised. Groups who advocate these approaches are often particularly 'unbecoming' (Bunch, 2013) in that they stand in stark, sometimes proud opposition to normative discourses and authoritative systems.…”

“…Firstly, there is a shift away from understanding gender in innate, positivistic and prescriptive terms between the 2013 and 2015 documents. Where the 2013 document utilises language such as 'core gender identity' and employs a more traditional understanding of 'transsexualism', the 2015 document draws upon the 'unbecoming' (Bunch, 2013) language of contemporary UK trans activists. 86 This language 86 There are, of course, major differences in how different activists and groups articulate the language of gender.…”

“…However, these macro-level events still fail to immediately impact upon the power differential located in the individual relationship between trans patient and gatekeeper, where trans knowledges often continue to compete with the perspectives of gender identity specialists. On this micro level of gatekeeping encounters, especially 'unbecoming' (Bunch, 2013) trans patients such as non-binary and genderqueer individuals face particular challenges in attempting to access everyday treatment, as highlighted and satirised in A Trip To The Clinic. Of course, the very presence of the game demonstrates that patients are asserting themselves in turn.…”