Refusing abjection: transphobia and trans youth survivance

Abstract

This article argues that Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection lays out a theory that is not universal in its application, but rather details the violent emergence and defence of Eurocentric, colonial and orientalist subjectivities and related hierarchical social orders. The Eurocentrism found in Kristeva’s political and theoretical stances are referenced, with detailed attention paid to explicating how her theory of abjection describes a brutal, colonising, psychological and social mechanism. This framework is applied to transphobia and its manifestations. It is centrally argued that gender diversity, trans rights and trans inclusivity may be the targets of multiple and compounding abjection processes. The essay concludes with looking at how young trans people are starting to refuse transphobic abjection to survive, to thrive and to revitalise gender diversity.

Taking the Long Way Around: Towards A Depathologized Ethical Framework of Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

“…This allows for the maintenance of Eurocentric colonial hierarchical psychosocial processes that afford settlers control over peoples, lands, and resources. 71 That preventing non-normative identities and expressions continues to be discussed in earnest represents the ongoing impacts of cisheteropatriarchy and White supremacy as key features of colonial ideology that remain embedded within medicine.…”