Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9390-7864

Date of Award

5-10-2019

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Cassandra White

Second Advisor

Jennifer Patico

Third Advisor

Megan Sinnott

Abstract

Predominant narratives of trans womanhood—from biomedical sources, Feminist depictions, and film representations—typically present trans women as monstrous and antagonistic to normative cisgender society. Accordingly, this thesis traces this oppositional frame to the roots of 'trans' as a cultural category, through 20th century biomedical discourses, Feminist conceptions of trans woman identity, and horror films in order to better understand the contemporary proliferation of antipathy and violence towards transgender women. In so doing, this thesis revisits trans exclusionary theorists such as Mary Daly and Janice Raymond, developing Daly's concept of 'robotitude' into a notion of transitory 'necrosis', positing the zombie as a moving post-human model for mapping anti-trans violence and transphobia in regard to becoming-trans. This thesis further argues for trans identity not as a stable ontology, but as a hauntological trajectory of becoming in which trans lives are rendered illegible and occluded.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/14334099

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