From Embodiment to Empersonment: Starting Points for a Theory of Trans Gender Discontent - A Talk by CSGS Faculty Fellow Dr. Talia Bettcher

Dr. Talia Bettcher (Philosophy, Cal State LA) examines the nature of trans gender discomfort motivating gender transition, critiquing both “born that way” accounts positing an innate sexed-body image and constructionist accounts which see the internal experience of body as culturally-saturated. Dr. Bettcher comes to a new solution, proposing that trans gender discontent is a kind of affective, culturally-saturated resistance to an oppressive system of personhood.