Document Type
Thesis or dissertation
Date of this Version
Summer 8-19-2020
Thesis Advisor
Lauren Ristvet
Keywords
transphobia, minority stress, capitalism, eugenics, domestication, the mindful body
Abstract
Over reliance on existing LGB models of minority stress is uncomfortable proxy for the conceptualization of a model particular to transgender individuals. Furthermore, proposed transgender minority stress models thus far have lacked an accompanying concept of transphobia itself. I advance five processes of transgender minority stress, along with five corresponding processes of state-sanctioned transphobia based on existing literature, an original quantitative analysis, and an original sociohistorical review of the birth of state-level transphobia. Minority stress is comprised of (a) discriminatory events and conditions (b) vigilance, (c) internalized stigma, (d) concealment and (e) delegitimization. Transphobia operates on state-level processes of (a) a sublimated eugenics program, (b) the breeding and domestication of a docile, homogenous population, (c) capitalist labor force management, (d) the policing of normative sex and reproduction, and (e) maintenance of the medical power of disenfranchisement. These state-level processes reflect the insidiously eugenic, malignantly capitalist, misogynist, and homophobic priorities of the body politic. These priorities are deployed on a social level via systematic exclusion from employment, housing, civic participation, healthcare access, and social welfare.
Included in
Anthropology Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Social Statistics Commons
Date Posted:19 August 2020