Paper Title
Compromised Access: Hormones, Transition, and Necropolitics
Panel
Intersectionality, New Materialisms, and Health: Technological Animacies and the Maldistribution of Life Chances
Location
Room 214, West Center
Start Date
2-4-2016 3:30 PM
End Date
2-4-2016 4:45 PM
Abstract
Beginning with an address of the absence of trans and intersex folks of color in the archives of medical sexology, this paper theorizes racialization and class stratification in relation to differential access to technologies of gender transition. Paying particular attention to the narratives of transition offered by folks – often poor, non-white, and non-transnormative – with discontinuous or otherwise compromised access to hormonal treatment, I argue that mainstream representations of the effects and affects associated with transition assume a positive, patient-centered relation to healthcare that is, in reality, an uncommon privilege, accessible only to a select few. I conclude with the assertion that the health effects of discontinuous access to and monitoring of transition are under-researched, which exacerbates the negative physical and mental health impacts for those segments of trans and gender non-conforming populations affected by these discontinuities of treatment.
Compromised Access: Hormones, Transition, and Necropolitics
Room 214, West Center
Beginning with an address of the absence of trans and intersex folks of color in the archives of medical sexology, this paper theorizes racialization and class stratification in relation to differential access to technologies of gender transition. Paying particular attention to the narratives of transition offered by folks – often poor, non-white, and non-transnormative – with discontinuous or otherwise compromised access to hormonal treatment, I argue that mainstream representations of the effects and affects associated with transition assume a positive, patient-centered relation to healthcare that is, in reality, an uncommon privilege, accessible only to a select few. I conclude with the assertion that the health effects of discontinuous access to and monitoring of transition are under-researched, which exacerbates the negative physical and mental health impacts for those segments of trans and gender non-conforming populations affected by these discontinuities of treatment.
