عنوان
پدید آورنده
موضوع
رده
کتابخانه
محل استقرار
TL53658
انگلیسی
Constructing and Being Constructed: Relational Trans Identity and Responsibility for Microaggressions
[Thesis]
Sumpter, Sam
Lee, Carole
University of Washington
2020
152 p.
Ph.D.
University of Washington
2020
This project centers on the question: Given the everyday and structural dynamics of gender oppression, how should we treat others' genders in our everyday interactions with them, particularly given that those everyday interactions are often subject to or structured by disputed meaning? To address this question, I focus on considering the practical possibility of trans liberation through the lens of empowerment, and offer an account of moral responsibility that's grounded in the need to build social conditions and responsibility practices that make empowerment opportunities for trans people more obvious, accessible, and abundant. I start by characterizing empowerment as agency that aims to establish or enhance autonomy-i.e., it is action through which an agent takes or increases control over some aspect(s) of her life. I propose a heterogenous framework for empowerment by considering five overlapping dimensions of empowerment: the site, relational dynamics, source of the constraint on agency, outcome sought, and timing. In particular, I focus on the dimensions that establish conditions of empowerment, or conditions that structurally balance power by making dissent both possible and meaningful. I then concentrate on one particularly fraught site of meaning dispute for trans agents, that of identity. In particular, I focus on Hilde Lindemann's account of narrative relational identity, under which any given individual's identity is a system of meaning constituted by a web of first personal narratives she tells about herself, and by second and third personal narratives others tell about her, where all of those narratives are grounded and justified by master narratives. Lindemann proposes that when first, second, and third personal narratives about a given identity conflict, we should work to identify the most accurate narrative. She further proposes using counterstories to combat toxic master narratives and amplify the credibility of marginalized peoples' narratives. By contrast, I argue that while counterstories can be important, increasing social credibility for trans agents is only possible to the extent that trans agents are sufficiently able to exert social power. I propose, then, that we ought to focus not on accuracy but on developing identity practices that first create conditions of empowerment. In particular, I argue that in order to establish conditions of empowerment in our everyday identity practices, we should engage in identity practices that build and ensure a meaningful balance of power in our identity-constructing relationships and interactions. Building off of José Medina's account of epistemic responsibility, I argue that we have responsibilities to attain minimal knowledge about our social others and their relevance to us. I further argue that a given agent A has responsibilities both in she responds to others' first-personal narratives about themselves, and also in how she responds to others' second- and third-personal narratives about herself. I conclude by applying this framework to a specific instantiation of everyday oppression, the microaggression. I demonstrate that my account advances the current discussion of microaggressions by giving us sharper tools for understanding the moral harms and obligations generated by microaggressions, namely by focusing on how microaggressions trade on and exacerbate vulnerability dynamics in our everyday relationships.
Epistemology
Ethics
LGBTQ studies
Sumpter, Sam
Lee, Carole
University of Washington
مطالعه متن کتاب p
[Thesis]
276903
a
Y
