Doris Leibetseder
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526138569
- eISBN:
- 9781526152138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526138576.00008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse bioprecarity in terms of two dimensions of Foucault’s biopolitics, categorization and subjectivization (Foucault 1977, 1982, 2002, 2008). With examples of ...
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The purpose of this chapter is to analyse bioprecarity in terms of two dimensions of Foucault’s biopolitics, categorization and subjectivization (Foucault 1977, 1982, 2002, 2008). With examples of the precarious lives of transpeople, especially those of colour, I engage with the conceptual arguments of Foucault), Judith Butler (1997, 2009) and Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991) regarding the relation between categorical framing and bioprecarity. The chapter explores how subjects as bodily selves are bound into population control and therefore normalized and regulated (Spade, 2011), how norms and regulations create bioprecarious situations for these bodily selves (Butler et al. 2013), the role of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991) in creating such precarious positions and, finally, how such bioprecarity might be avoided (Lorey, 2010; Weheliye, 2014; Shotwell, 2016).Less
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse bioprecarity in terms of two dimensions of Foucault’s biopolitics, categorization and subjectivization (Foucault 1977, 1982, 2002, 2008). With examples of the precarious lives of transpeople, especially those of colour, I engage with the conceptual arguments of Foucault), Judith Butler (1997, 2009) and Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991) regarding the relation between categorical framing and bioprecarity. The chapter explores how subjects as bodily selves are bound into population control and therefore normalized and regulated (Spade, 2011), how norms and regulations create bioprecarious situations for these bodily selves (Butler et al. 2013), the role of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991) in creating such precarious positions and, finally, how such bioprecarity might be avoided (Lorey, 2010; Weheliye, 2014; Shotwell, 2016).
Gabriele Griffin and Doris Leibetseder (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526138569
- eISBN:
- 9781526152138
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526138576
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This volume is concerned with the ways in which bioprecarity, here understood as the vulnerabilization of people as embodied selves, is created through regulations and norms that encourage ...
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This volume is concerned with the ways in which bioprecarity, here understood as the vulnerabilization of people as embodied selves, is created through regulations and norms that encourage individuals to seek or provide bodily interventions of different kinds. We explore this in particular in relation to intimacy and intimate labour, such as in the making of families and kin and in various forms of care work. Advances in biotechnology, medical tourism, and the visibilization of minoritized communities have resulted in unsettling the norms around the gendered body, intimate relations and intimate labour. Bodily interventions have socio-cultural meanings and consequences both for those who seek such interventions and for those who provide the intimate labour in conducting them. The purpose of this volume is to explore these. This exploration involves socio-cultural questions of boundary work, of privilege, of bodily ownership, of the multiple meanings of want (understood both as desire, for example, the desire to have children or to change one’s bodily appearance; and as need - as in economic need - which often prompts people to undertake migration and/or intimate labour). It also raises questions about different kinds of vulnerabilities, for of those who engage, and those who engage in, intimate labour. We use the term ‘bioprecarity’ to analyse those vulnerabilities.Less
This volume is concerned with the ways in which bioprecarity, here understood as the vulnerabilization of people as embodied selves, is created through regulations and norms that encourage individuals to seek or provide bodily interventions of different kinds. We explore this in particular in relation to intimacy and intimate labour, such as in the making of families and kin and in various forms of care work. Advances in biotechnology, medical tourism, and the visibilization of minoritized communities have resulted in unsettling the norms around the gendered body, intimate relations and intimate labour. Bodily interventions have socio-cultural meanings and consequences both for those who seek such interventions and for those who provide the intimate labour in conducting them. The purpose of this volume is to explore these. This exploration involves socio-cultural questions of boundary work, of privilege, of bodily ownership, of the multiple meanings of want (understood both as desire, for example, the desire to have children or to change one’s bodily appearance; and as need - as in economic need - which often prompts people to undertake migration and/or intimate labour). It also raises questions about different kinds of vulnerabilities, for of those who engage, and those who engage in, intimate labour. We use the term ‘bioprecarity’ to analyse those vulnerabilities.
Doris Leibetseder
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526138569
- eISBN:
- 9781526152138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526138576.00011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter explores the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) by queer and transgender people and how they have to perform particular bodily and intimate selves in the processes of ...
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This chapter explores the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) by queer and transgender people and how they have to perform particular bodily and intimate selves in the processes of seeking ART (Mamo 2007, 2013; Armuand et al., 2017). The bioprecarity of queer and transgender people is produced by the enactment of certain kinds of categorical framing (Foucault 1966, 1976; Summerville, 1998) in the laws regulating ARTs. Prohibitive laws in some states are often circumvented by going abroad. This chapter therefore argues that queer and trans people’s bioprecarity also results from the intimate labour queer and transgender people have to undertake to overcome prohibitive laws and hetero- and cisnormative medical institutions as shown e.g. in studies about trans people’s experiences with ART (James-Abra et al., 2015, Armuand et al., 2017).Less
This chapter explores the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) by queer and transgender people and how they have to perform particular bodily and intimate selves in the processes of seeking ART (Mamo 2007, 2013; Armuand et al., 2017). The bioprecarity of queer and transgender people is produced by the enactment of certain kinds of categorical framing (Foucault 1966, 1976; Summerville, 1998) in the laws regulating ARTs. Prohibitive laws in some states are often circumvented by going abroad. This chapter therefore argues that queer and trans people’s bioprecarity also results from the intimate labour queer and transgender people have to undertake to overcome prohibitive laws and hetero- and cisnormative medical institutions as shown e.g. in studies about trans people’s experiences with ART (James-Abra et al., 2015, Armuand et al., 2017).
