Description | Location: Savery Hall 264 Title: “Dirty Little Secrets”: On Transphobic Eroticism and the Limits of Intimacy Talia Bettcher Professor Department of Philosophy California State University, Los Angeles Talia Mae Bettcher is a professor of philosophy at California State University, Los Angeles. She has also been involved in Los Angeles trans community organizing for over fifteen years. Some of her articles include “Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion” (Hypatia, 2007), “Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Re-thinking Trans Oppression and Resistance (Signs, 2014), and “When Selves Have Sex: What the Phenomenology of Trans Sexuality Can Teach about Sexual Orientation” (Journal of Homosexuality, 2014). With Ann Garry, she co-edited the Hypatia special issue “Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gender Realities” (2009). With Susan Stryker, she co-edited the Transgender Studies Quarterly special issue “Trans/Feminisms (2016). She is currently at work on a monograph entitled Intimacy, Illusion, and Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy. In this talk, I theorize the intermeshing of transphobic oppression with sexist and racist oppressions. Specifically, I consider the relations among “deceiver/pretender” representations, intimacy, labor, and law enforcement in transphobic eroticizations of trans women. While I focus on trans sex work, I also explore the general structural features that can undermine relationship formation for trans people. |
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