Transgender Marxism

Description

The first collection of its kind, Transgender Marxism is a provocative and groundbreaking union of transgender studies and Marxist theory.

Exploring trans lives and movements, the authors delve into the experience of surviving as transgender under capitalism. They explore the pressures, oppression and state persecution faced by trans people living in capitalist societies, their tenuous positions in the workplace and the home, and give a powerful response to right-wing scaremongering against ‘gender ideology’.

Reflecting on the relations between gender and labour, these essays reveal the structure of antagonisms faced by gender non-conforming people within society. Looking at the history of transgender movements, Marxist interventions into developmental theory, psychoanalysis and workplace ethnography, the authors conclude that for trans liberation, capitalism must be abolished.

Acknowledgements

Introduction - Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O'Rourke

1. Social Reproduction and Social Cognition: Theorizing (Trans)gender Identity Development in Community Context - Noah Zazanis (reproductive health research assistant, New York)

2. Trans Work: Employment Trajectories, Labour Discipline and Gender Freedom - Michelle O'Brien (New York University)

3. Judith Butler's Scientific Revolution: Foundations for a Transsexual Marxism - Rosa Lee (editor at Viewpoint Magazine)

4. How Do Gender Transitions Happen? - Jules Joanne Gleeson

5. A Queer Marxist Transfeminism: Queer and Trans Social Reproduction - Nat Raha (University of Sussex)

6. Notes from Brazil - Virginia Guitzel (philosophy student, Federal University of ABC)

7. Queer Workerism Against Work: Strategising Transgender Labourers, Social Reproduction & Class Formation - Kate Doyle Griffiths (lecturer, Brooklyn College and editor of Spectre Journal)

8. The Bridge between Gender and Organizing - Farah Thompson (Black, bisexual trans woman who does tech while living in San Diego)

9. Encounters in Lancaster - JN Hoad (DIY transsexual in the North West of the UK)

10. Transgender and Disabled Bodies - Between Pain and the Imaginary - Zoe Belinsky (independent scholar)

11. A Dialogue on Deleuze and Gender Difference - The Conspiratorial Association for the Advancement of Cultural Degeneracy (Cultural Degeneracy and Sacrilege - a pseudonymous dialogue between friends)

12. Seizing the Means: Towards a Trans Epistemology - Nathaniel Dickson (PhD candidate, University at Bufflalo)

13. 'Why Are We Like This?' The Primacy of Transsexuality - Xandra Metcalfe (psychoanalytic communist and noise artist based in Melbourne)

14. Cosmos Against Nature in the Class Struggle of Proletarian Trans Women - Anja Heisler Weiser Flower (artist living in San Francisco)

Afterword: One Utopia, One Dystopia - Jordy Rosenberg (Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Notes on Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Violence in Society
• People with Disabilities
• Lesbian Studies
• Gay Studies
• LGBTQ+ Studies
• Gender Studies
• Political Ideologies
• Social Science
• LGBTQ+
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Transgender
• Domestic violence
• Sociology
• Communism
• Marxism
• Anti-capitalism
• Gender
• Psychoanalysis
• Feminism
• Abuse
• Communisme
• Judith Butler
• Labour
• Discrimination

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786807328
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Transgender Marxism‘A terrifc collection of essays – I couldn’t put it down.’
—Kathi Weeks, author of Te Problem with Work
‘Is there a transgender Marxism? Tis pioneering collection shows that the
answer is there are many – inspired by psychoanalysis, union organising,
queer communities, Black struggles and more. Material realities matter,
tremendously, in trans lives; and trans experiences can change our thinking
about both capitalism and liberation.’
—Raewyn Connell, author of Gender: In World Perspective
‘What lives and thinks on through the staggering failures of contemporary
trans visibility and rights-based claims? This stunning collection answers
in the collective form of a transgender Marxism. We find ourselves remade,
hungrier and braver, in this book. Trans becomes in these pages the vibrant
event of a historical materialism from below, intimate and urgent.’
—Jules-Gill Peterson, Associate Professor of English and Gender,
Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh
and the author of Histories of the Transgender Child
‘Refusing to cast trans subjects as either figural others or exemplary
proletarians, this timely and powerful collection of essays carves out a
space for accounts of self-knowledge to ask how gender nonconformity
can survive in a capitalist context. With stunning sophistication and
insights,T ransgender Marxism challenges capitalism’s social foundations
in gendered patterns of property, work, and entitlement to develop new
forms of sociality beyond the family and its dyadic sexual division.’
—Petrus Liu, Associate Professor of Humanities at Yale-NUS
College and author of Queer Marxism in Two ChinasTransgender Marxism
Edited by
Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O’Rourke
Afterword by Jordy RosenbergFirst published 2021 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O’Rourke 2021
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 4165 1 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 4166 8 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 78680 732 8 PDF
ISBN 978 1 78680 733 5 EPUB
ISBN 978 1 78680 734 2 Kindle
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, EnglandContents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction1
Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O’Rourke
1 Social Reproduction and Social Cognition:
Theorizing (Trans)gender Identity Development in
Community Context 33
Noah Zazanis
2 Trans Work: Employment Trajectories, Labour Discipline
and Gender Freedom 47
Michelle O’Brien
3 Judith Butler’s Scientific Revolution: Foundations for
a Transsexual Marxism 62
Rosa Lee
4 How Do Gender Transitions Happen? 70
Jules Joanne Gleeson
5 A Queer Marxist Transfeminism: Queer and Trans Social
Reproduction 85
Nat Raha
6 Notes from Brazil116
Virginia Guitzel
7 Queer Workerism Against Work: Strategising Transgender
Labourers, Social Reproduction & Class Formation 132
Kate Doyle Griffiths
8 The Bridge Between Gender and Organising 156
Farah Thompson
9 Encounters in Lancaster 165
JN Hoadtransgender marxism
10 Transgender and Disabled Bodies: Between Pain and the
Imaginary 179
Zoe Belinsky
11 A Dialogue on Deleuze and Gender Difference 200
The Conspiratorial Association for the Advancement of
Cultural Degeneracy
12 Seizing the Means: Towards a Trans Epistemology 204
Nathaniel Dickinson
13 ‘Why Are We Like This?’: The Primacy of Transsexualit 219 y
Xandra Metcalfe
14 Cosmos Against Nature in the Class Struggle of
Proletarian Trans Women 230
Anja Heisler Weiser Flower
Afterword: One Utopia, One Dystopia 259
Jordy Rosenberg
Notes on the Contributors 296
Index299
viAcknowledgements
First of all, we’d like to thank our contributors, and everyone who
supported them in writing up their perspectives for this collection. You
fulfilled all our hopes.
Producing a theoretical work from a stigmatised position (often
reduced to a pathology by outsiders) will always be a trial. But equally,
as editors we’ve found this process joyful. We’re grateful for the
generational work of solidarity and collaboration, that have allowed trans
people both to survive our social conditions, and understand them.
And for the freely shared goodwill and concrete support we found
from transgender communists (and admirers) at every turn, while
putting this all together. Thank you, thank you.
Kate Doyle Griffiths first suggested a collection of this kind, back in
2018. Completing it would not have been possible without the active
support of Pluto Press, who greeted it with nothing but enthusiasm,
and in particular from our primary editor David Shulman. Without
David’s consistent belief in this project, right from the beginning, this
book would never have seen print.
We’d both like to thank all the members of Leftovers communist
discussion group. Among many other topics, they provided a procession
of insights on the interplay of Capital and gender, with chat ranging
freely from the rigorous to the absurd.
Historical Materialism Conference (London and New York City)
for providing a venue for many of these essays and ideas to receive a
first airing, via our Leftovers Live sessions. Especially Paul Reynolds
and Holly Lewis on the HM Sexuality and Political Economy stream,
for arranging events including our plenary session in 2019, and book
preview in 2020. MAMA (Zagreb), Salvage Quarterly, Death Panel
podcast, Solidarity College, RS21, Plan C, the Centres for Global
Political Economy and Sexual Dissidence at Sussex University,
Hypocrite Reader, and New Socialist also provided invaluable
platforms during harsh times.
viitransgender marxism
Thanks to everyone at Homintern, Pinko Magazine, Invert Journal,
and Lumpen. You revived some gnarled hobgoblins.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to our community
readers, who read through draft chapters during the book’s first round
of copy editing. Each of them provided invaluable commentary and
corrections, helping this collection take the best shape possible. Thanks
to: Tom Lynch, Nathan Tankus, josie sparrow, Rowan Davis, Douglas
Williams, Cara E. Hurtle, KJ Vincent, Rhys Jones, Mai G, Sylvia
McCheyne, Kay Gabriel, Amelia Horgan, Greg Afinogenov, Maria,
Ben Miller, Mel Mikhail, Michael Davin, David Hartery, Natalie TS,
Matt Cull, Jo Zubrow, Purnima Tulsyan, Nina Taaffe, Charlie Powell,
Amy De’Ath and Maya Andrea Gonzalez. And especially: Emrys
Travis, who read every single draft with an infectious enthusiasm,
and Jack Dragu for their invaluable assistance with Xandra Metcalfe’s
chapter.
To those passing through those twinned flames of stigmatisation
and proletarianisation for the first time as they read this: we wish you
the best, we know how you ache, and hope this collection will be of
use to you.
* * *
Elle would like to thank her family, Jasbir, Laura, Ada, Eleanor, Ben,
Toby, Caela, Phoebe, Natalie and Amber. Her friends at New Socialist,
for their comradeship, solidarity and support, particularly Tom and
josie. Everyone at QueerCare - for their assiduous commitment to
uniting ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. Greg Afinogenov, Owen Hatherley and
Tim MacGabhann all offered generous assistance and kindness over
this past year in ways that were greatly appreciated. Thank you, lads.
Kyle Geraghty has been a consistent friend, particularly in
encouraging her to pursue her academic interests, even when her health made
that difficult. As has Griffin McCarthy Bur. Angela Mitropoulos’
intellectual influence on the final text will be unmistakable. Thanks
also to Erin & Sean, Tyler, Mo, Jools, Hassan E.T, Gavin M, Max A,
Chuckie K, Nella Lou, Simon, Todd, Sean, Anna, Cate, Khan, Kyle,
Matthijs, Tom P, Mairead, Aurora, Karen, Lauren G, Elka, Julie, Alex,
Clancy, David, Esyld, Ronan, James C, James L, Cormac, Eugene,
Frank, Louis, Críostóir, Chris L, Ash, Nicola and Lilith. Legends all.
viiiacknowledgements
The old Manchester Socialist Reading Group, John, Andrew and Ed,
where many of her current interests and ideas were first cultivated.
Friendships and conversations sparked on social media over many
years, too innumerable to list but all deeply cherished. The Earthen
Cat Tree, they know why. And, finally, Nelly, for everything. This book
is for her.
Jules thanks Serafina, Zori, Daniel Massow, and Linda for
getting her through the last year. Her sister Danielle, Barry, and all
the books. Damon for 14 years of precious friendship. Alice, Squid,
Denice, Denise, Marina, Magda, BJ and especially Mirah for making
Vienna habitable. From its playful underground: Ju, Georgie, Penny,
Svean, Zoe, Knorri, Andrea, Luka, Petra, Rheta, Nello, Carter, and
her collaborator Ruby. Joss, Kirsten, Phoebe, Danny, Cedrik, Shabby,
Sinead, Puck, Christina, Sophie, Allana, Dani, Tilly and Archie for
hanging out, back in the day. Lyra, Naith, Vaughn, Jet and Valerie
for inspiration during impressionable moments. Austria’s intersex
platform, VIMÖ and OII for all they’ve done. Elizabeth and Teddy.
New Critical Approaches to the Byzantine World research network,
BASIC, Lockdown Tarot Crew, and TFF. Avalon and Carmel. KDG,
obviously. Nicole, Tingting and Julaika for the animals. Colin Beckett,
Cedric Fauq and Tolerant Alice for the first break. Dr K. For bonds to
grow from: Allison, Liv, Alyssa, and Merve. Laura Jung, for so much!
Her therapist, JY. Her comrades and pals: Alex Vukovich, another
Alex, Barms, Margarida, Kita, Jamie, Shenja, Hagen, Masha, Daniel
Freithofer, Bea, Gabriel, the Gonan twins, Nick Evans, Nik, Barms,
Ilya, Milinda, May, Sandy, Mia, Oelle, Matt Kinloch, Jose, Roxy, Bella,
Nathan, Matthijs, Mariana, Kyle, Neil Braganza, Dylan, Taisie, Jo,
Evan, Nykki, Kit, Grietje, Ankica, Emily Zhou, Eliana, Liz Cho, Izzy,
Laurel, Em