The Object of Transgender Aesthetics

 

A More "Bloggy" Work in Progress Post

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A Definition of Cisgender:

A sensitivity, aesthetic, orientation, attraction, allure, animus, or networking towards objects or material environments extended or provided to the person on the basis of gender assignment.

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A Definition of Transgender:

A sensitivity, aesthetic, orientation, attraction, allure, animus, or networking towards objects or material environments not extended or provided to the person on the basis of gender assignment.

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These are contingent definitions I am thinking through as I revise my work into a book project, specifically into a chapter on trans aesthetic relationships with objects and physical environments. The purpose is to further centralize objects that typically get moved to the periphery of transgender identity, primarily as tools of language, performance, signification, expression, and legibility. How does transgender phenomenology and materialism develop trans psyches in different ways and vary depending on physical environment, geographic location, historical times, cultural milieu, access to technologies, and socio-economic power? In this work, I am building on generations of queer, BIPoC, feminist, and marxist thinkers as well as still developing transgender studies in the materialist vein. The object of transgender aesthetics is already emergent in society and the academy but needs further articulation as transgender literary and artistic theory synthesizes as a field.

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