trans rage k

8/20/2019 Trans rage k

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/trans-rage-k 1/7

1NC Shell

The 1AC continues to present a history of gender that sidelines the foundationality oftrans erasure to the development of phallocratic misogyny: reject their genealogy in favorof an epistemological and ontological appreciation of the uniqueness of trans

embodiment.

Stone 1! (Sandy, artist, “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto, in !amera

"#scura$!%&

" #a$ing% history& 'hether autobiographic& academic& or clinical& is partly a struggle to ground an

account in some natural inevitability. (odies are screens on 'hich 'e see projected the momentarysettlements that emerge from ongoing struggles over beliefs and practices 'ithin the academic andmedical communities. These struggles play themselves out in arenas far removed from the body. )ach isan attempt to gain a high ground that is profoundly moral in character& to ma$e an authoritative and final

e*planation for the 'ay things are and consequently for the 'ay they must continue to be. 'n other ords,

each of these accounts is culture speaking with the voice of an individual. The

people who have no voice in this theorizing are the transsexuals themselves )

As ith men theori*in+ a#out omen from the #e+innin+ of time, theorists of gender have

seen transsexuals as possessing something less than agency ) As ith +enetic

omen, transse*uals are infantili+ed& considered too illogical or irresponsible to achieve true subjectivity&

or clinically erased by diagnostic criteria, or else& as constructed #y some radical feminist theorists, as

robots of an insidious and menacing patriarchy, an alien army designed and

constructed to inltrate, pervert, and destroy “true” women ) 'n this construction as

ell, the transse*uals have been resolutely complicit by failing to develop an effective counterdiscourse)

ere on the +ender #orders at the close of the tentieth century, with the faltering of

phallocratic hegemony and the bumptious appearance of heteroglossic origin

accounts, we nd the epistemologies of white male medical practice, the rage

of radical feminist theories, and the chaos of lived gendered experience

meeting on the battleeld of the transsexual body a hotly contested site of

cultural inscription, a meaning machine for the production of ideal type )

-epresentation at its most magical& the transse*ual body is perfected memory& inscribed 'ith the "true%story of Adam and )ve as the ontological account of irreducible difference & an essential biography that is

part of nature) A story that culture tells itself, the transsexual body is a tactile politics of

reproduction constituted through textual violence. The clinic is a technology

of inscription ) -i.en this circumstance in hich a minority discourse comes to +round in thephysical, a counterdiscourse is critical. !ut it is di"cult to generate a

counterdiscourse if one is programmed to disappear. The highest purpose of the

transse*ual is to erase hisherself& to fade into the "normal% population as soon as possible) Part of thisprocess is knon as constructin+ a plausi#le history/learnin+ to lie effecti.ely a#out one0s past) /hat is

gained is acceptability in society. /hat is lost is the ability to authentically represent the comple*ities and

ambiguities of lived e*perience& and thereby is lost that aspect of "nature% that 1onna araay theori*esas !oyote/the 2ati.e American spirit animal ho represents the poer of continual transformation that



is the heart of en+a+ed life) 'nstead, authentic experience is replaced by a particular

kind of story, one that supports the old constructed positions ) This is e*pensive& and

profoundly disempoerin+. /hether desiring to do so or not& transsexuals do not +ro up in the same

ays as “--s, or +enetic “naturals)33 Transsexuals do not possess the same history

as genetic “naturals,” and do not share common oppression, prior to gender

reassignment ) ' am not su++estin+ a shared discourse) ' am su++estin+ that in the transse*ual0serased history 'e can find a story disruptive to the accepted discourses of gender& that originates from'ithin the gender minority itself and that can ma$e common cause 'ith other oppositional discourses. (ut

the transse*ual currently occupies a position that is no'here& that is outside the binary oppositions of

gendered discourse. or a transse*ual, as a transsexual, to generate a true, e#ective, and

representational counterdiscourse is to speak from outside the boundaries of

gender, beyond the constructed oppositional nodes that have been dened as

the only positions from which discourse is possible ) o, then, can the transsexual

speak4 'f the transsexual ere to speak, hat ould s5he say4

This is merely reflective of an ontological constitution 'hereby a raciali+ed cis2heterose*ist economy of desire captures the transqueer body and renders it abject&transforming transqueer life into constant e*posure to death. The operations of the la'and state conceal this foundation by articulating injustice as criminality 'hich mystifiesthe antagonism. This violence is not contingent but rather the bac$drop of modernity

Stanley 3411 (Eric, “2ear 6ife, &ueer 1eath ".erkill and "ntolo+ical !apture, Social Text 789 s

ol) ;<, 2o) ; s Summer ;877$!%&

5f for Agamben bare life e*presses a $ind of stripped$ down sociality or a liminal space at the

cusp of death& then near life names the guration and feeling of nonexistence & as

anon suggests& 'hich comes before the question of life might be posed. Near life is a kind ofontocorporal 6non7 sociality that necessarily throws into crisis the category of life by orientation

and iteration. This might better comprehend not only the incomprehensible murders of Bra*ell, Pai+e,and =ea.er, but also the terror of the dar$ cell inhabited by the queer survivor of the 8olocaust 'ho

perished under "liberation.%>> Stru++lin+ ith the phenomenolo+y of #lack life under coloni*ation,

?anon opens up critical ground for understanding a $ind of near life that is made through violence to e*ist

as none*istence. or anon& violence is bound to the question of recognition (hich is also theim5possi#ility of su#@ecti.ity$ that apprehends the relationship bet'een relentless structural violence and

instances of personal attac$s evidenced by the traumatic afterlives left in their 'a$e) ?or ?anon, the e+elian masterslave dialectic, as theoretical instrument for thinkin+ a#out reco+nition, must be

reconsidered through the e*perience of blac$ness in the rench colonies. ?or ?anon, 8egel positions the

terms of the dialectic (master5sla.e$ outside history and thus does not account for the ork of the psycheand the historicity of domination like raciali+ed coloni+ation and the epidermali+ation of that po'er. 'nother ords, for ?anon, hen the encounter is sta+ed and the drama of ne+ation unfolds, e+el assumesa pure #attle) Moreo.er, #y understandin+ the dialectic sin+ularly throu+h the uestion of self/consciousness, e+el, for ?anon, misreco+ni*es the #attle as alays and only for reco+nition) 'nformed#y Alexandre [email protected] and %ean/ Paul Sartre, anon ma$es visible the absent figure of )nlightenment

assumed by the 8egelian dialectic) ?or ?anon, coloni*ation is not a system of reco+nition #ut a state of

ra force and total ar) The dialect cannot in the instance of coloni*ation sin+ forard and offer theself/ consciousness of its promise) Accordin+ to ?anon, “or 8egel there is reciprocity, here the master



laughs at the consciousness of the slave. /hat he 'ants from the slave is not recognition but 'or$)>De+el0s dialectic that, throu+h la#or, offers the possi#ility of self/ consciousness, for the coloni*ed isfro*en in a state of domination and nonreciprocity)> =hat is at stake for ?anon, hich is also hy thisarticulation is helpful for thinkin+ near life, is not only the #odily terror of forceF ontological sovereignty

also falls into peril under foundational violence. This state of total 'ar, not unlike the attacks that leftBra*ell, Pai+e, and =ea.er dead, is at once from 'ithout 9 the everyday cultural& legal& economic

practices 9 and at the same time from 'ithin& by a consciousness that itself has been occupied by

domination) ?or ?anon, the 'hite imago holds captive the ontology of the coloni+ed. The selfther

apparatus is dismantled& thus leaving the coloni+ed as an "object in the midst of other objects&% embodied

as a "feeling of none*istence.%>G =hile thinkin+ alon+side ?anon on the uestion of raciali*eddifference, .iolence, and ontolo+y, ho' might 'e comprehend a phenomenology of antiqueer violence

e*pressed as "none*istence%4 't is not that e can take the specific structurin+ of #lackness in the ?renchcolonies and assume it ould function the same today, under H)S) re+imes of antiueer .iolence)oe.er, if both desire and antiqueer violence are embrocated by the histories of coloni+ation& then such

a reading might help to ma$e more capacious our understanding of antiqueer violence today as 'ell asafford a rereading of se*uality in anon0s te*ts. 5ndeed& anon0s intervention offers a space ofnone*istence & neither master nor slave& 'ritten through the vicious 'or$ of epistemic force imprisoned in

the cold cell of ontological capture. This space of nonexistence, or near life, forged in

the territory of inescapable violence, allows us to understand the murders of

%ueers against the logics of aberration. This structure of anti%ueer violence as

irreducible antagonism crystallizes the ontocorporal, discursive, and material

inscriptions that render specic bodies in specic times as the place of the

nothing. The figuration of near life should be understood not as the antihuman but as that which

emerges in the place of the %uestion of humanity . 'n other ords, this is not simply an

oppositional category equally embodied by anyone or anything. This line of limitless inhabitation&

phantasmatically understood outside the intersections of power & often articulated as

"equality&% leads us bac$ to'ard rights discourse that see$s to further e*tend 6momentarily7 the badge of

personhood. The nothing, or those made to live the death of a near life, is a brea$

'hose structure is produced by& and not remedied through& legal intervention or state mobili+ations. &or

those who are overkilled yet not %uite alive, what form might redress take, if

any at all .

Thus the alternative: vote negative to embrace the violent anti2ethics of monstrosity inorder to reclaim and positively articulate the e*clusion from (eing 'hich creates theconditions for ne' possibilities offers a methodology to articulate& e*periment 'ith& andembody ne' modes of life that are foreclosed by the 'ay modernity positions bodies. if 'e

are correct about our ontology claims then that means only 'e offer a strategy capable ofmoving a'ay from defensive escape and to'ard a magical assault on this 'orld.

Stry$er 344; (Susan, Prof) -ender and =omen0s Studies at Hni.ersity of Ari*ona, “My =ords to

ictor ?rankenstein a#o.e the illa+e of !hamounix: Performin+ Trans+ender Ia+e in “Trans+enderStudies Ieader ;88G PP;DD/;G$!%&

' ill say this as #luntly as ' kno ho ' am a transsexual, and therefore ' am a

monster. <ust as the 'ords "dy$e&% "fag&% "queer&% "slut&% and "'hore% have been reclaimed&

respectively& by lesbians and gay men& by anti2assimilationist se*ual minorities& by 'omen 'ho pursue



5#=ACT

A monstrous ontology enacts a material and symbolic destruction of the coordinates ofmodernity that structure desire 'ithin the mode of 'hite& cis& hetero2se*ist& misogynistdomination: located beyond the possibility of incorporation into a social relation thatcould ever attain social coherence9embracing monstrosity is a constant gamble butoffers not mereStry$er 344; (Susan, Prof) -ender and =omen0s Studies at Hni.ersity of Ari*ona, “My =ords to

ictor ?rankenstein a#o.e the illa+e of !hamounix: Performin+ Trans+ender Ia+e in “Trans+enderStudies Ieader ;88G PP;DD/;G$!%&A formal dis@unction seems particularly appropriate at this moment #ecause the affect ' seek to examine

critically, hat '0.e termed “ transgender rage ,” emerges from the interstices of

discursive practices and at the collapse of generic categories ) The rage itself is

generated by the subject0s situation in a field governed by the unstable but indissoluble relationship

bet'een language and materiality, a situation in 'hich lan+ua+e organizes and brings into

signication matter that simultaneously eludes denitive representation and

demands its own perpetual rearticulation in symbolic terms ) =ithin this dynamic

field the su#@ect must constantly police the #oundary constructed #y its on foundin+ in order tomaintain the fi ctions of “inside and “outside a+ainst a re+ime of si+nifi cation5materiali*ation hose

intrinsic insta#ility produces the rupture of su#@ecti.e #oundaries as one of its re+ular features) The

a#ect of rage as ' seek to define it is located at the margin of subjectivity and the limit of

signification) 't ori+inates in reco+nition of the fact that the "outsideness% of a materiality that

perpetually violates the foreclosure of subjective space 'ithin a symbolic order is also necessarily "inside%

the subject as grounds for the materiali+ation of its body and the formation of its bodily ego) This primary

rage becomes specically transgender rage when the inability to foreclose the

sub/ect occurs through a failure to satisfy norms of gendered embodiment )

Transgender rage is the subjective e*perience of being compelled to transgress hat %udith Butler has

referred to as the hi+hly gendered regulatory schemata that determine the

viability of bodies , of being compelled to enter a “domain of ab/ected bodies,

a eld of deformation” that in its unlivability encompasses and constitutes the

realm of legitimate sub/ectivity (7G$) Transgender rage is a %ueer fury, an

emotional response to conditions in which it becomes imperative to take up,

for the sake of one0s own continued survival as a sub/ect, a set of practices

that precipitates one0s exclusion from a naturalized order of existence that

seeks to maintain itself as the only possible basis for being a sub/ect ) oe.er,

by mobili+ing gendered identities and rendering them provisional& open to strategic development andoccupation& this rage enables the establishment of subjects in ne' modes & regulated by different codes of

intelligibility. Transgender rage furnishes a means for disidentication with

compulsorily assigned sub/ect positions. 't makes the transition from one +endered su#@ect

position to another possi#le #y usin+ the impossi#ility of complete su#@ecti.e foreclosure to or+ani*ean outside force as an inside dri.e, and .ice .ersa) Through the operation of rage& the stigma itself

becomes the source of transformative po'er . (78$ ' ant to stop and theori*e at this particular moment

in the text #ecause in the lived moment of being thrown back from a state of



ab/ection in the aftermath of my lover0s daughter0s birth , ' immediately #e+an tellin+

myself a story to explain my experience) ' started theori*in+, usin+ all the conceptual tools myeducation had put at my disposal) "ther true stories of those e.ents could undou#tedly #e told, #ut

upon my return ' knew for a fact what lit the fuse to my rage in the hospital deli.ery

room) 't was the non$consensuality of the baby0s gendering ) Jou see, ' told myself,

ipin+ snot off my face ith a shirt slee.e, bodies are rendered meaningful only through

some culturally and historically specic mode of grasping their physicality

that transforms the +esh into a useful artifact . 1endering is the initial step in

this transformation, inseparable from the process of forming an identity by

means of which we0re tted to a system of exchange in a heterosexual

economy. 2uthority seizes upon specic material %ualities of the +esh,

particularly the genitals, as outward indication of future reproductive

potential, constructs this +esh as a sign, and reads it to enculturate the body .

-ender attri#ution is compulsoryF it codes and deploys our #odies in ays that materially affect us, yete choose neither our marks nor the meanin+s they carry) (77$ This as the act accomplished #eteen

the #e+innin+ and the end of that short sentence in the deli.ery room: “'t0s a +irl) This 'as the act that

recalled all the anguish of my o'n struggles 'ith gender. (ut this 'as also the act that enjoined mycomplicity in the non2consensual gendering of another. A gendering violence is the founding condition of

human subjectivityF ha.in+ a +ender is the tri#al tattoo that ma$es one0s personhood cogni+able) ' stoodfor a moment #eteen the pains of to .iolations, the mark of +ender and the unli.a#ility of itsa#sence) !ould ' say hich one as orse4 "r could ' only say hich one ' felt could #est #e

sur.i.ed4 *ow can nding one0s self prostrate and powerless in the presence of the

3aw of the &ather not produce an unutterable rage4 hat di#erence does it

make if the father in this instance was a pierced, tattooed, purple$haired punk

fag anarchist who helped his dyke friend get pregnant 4 5hallogocentric

language , not its particular speaker, is the scalpel that denes our +esh ) ' defythat 6a in my refusal to a#ide #y its ori+inal decree of my +ender) Thou+h ' cannot escape its poer, '

can mo.e throu+h its medium) 5erhaps if ' move furiously enough, ' can deform it in

my passing to leave a trace of my rage ) ' can em#race it ith a .en+eance to rename

myself, declare my transsexuality, and +ain access to the means of my le+i#le reinscription) Thou+h 'may not hold the stylus myself, ' can mo.e #eneath it for my on deep self/sustainin+ pleasures) To

encounter the transsexual #ody , to apprehend a transgendered consciousness

articulating itself, is to risk a revelation of the constructedness of the natural

order ) Confronting the implications of this constructedness can summon up all the violation& loss& and

separation inflicted by the gendering process that sustains the illusion of naturalness) My transsexual#ody literali*es this a#stract .iolence) As the #earers of this disuietin+ nes, e transsexuals oft ensuffer for the pain of others, #ut e do not illin+ly a#ide the ra+e of others directed a+ainst us) And

e do ha.e somethin+ else to say, if you ill #ut listen to the monsters: the possibility of

meaningful agency and action exists, even within elds of domination that

bring about the universal cultural rape of all +esh. Be forearned, ho'ever& that ta$ing

up this tas$ 'ill rema$e you in the process. (y spea$ing as a monster in my personal voice& by using thedar$& 'atery images of -omanticism and lapsing occasionally into its brooding cadences and grandiose

postures& 5 employ the same literary techniques Mary Shelley used to elicit sympathy for her scientist0s

trans rage k

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