Disrupting Invisibility Fields – Provincializing ‘Western Code’ Trans* Narratives

Abstract

This paper illuminates the colonial project of medicalizing and diciplining trans* bodies in order to disrupt ‘Western code’ trans* narratives. We will first explore different systems of control concerning (trans*)gender that are employed by the ‘Western code’: biologization, temporality, classification, and pathologization. We will then move on to reflect on some realities of trans*-specific healthcare and its colonial heritage. In both of these sections, our attention lies with ‘invisibility fields’ (in Germany and South Africa) –the cloaked power structures that disguise the colonial project as somebody else’s problem. Finally, in an attempt to interrupt and provincialize ‘Western code’ trans* narratives, we open up space for counternarratives and stories of resistance.

Keywords

• biopolitics
• decolonialization
• gender
• medico-legal
• transgender
• resistance