Compulsively Yours: Ruminating on Trans-Mad Futures
Hybrid
Meeting ID: 955 1856 7251
Passcode: 079669
Abstract:
This presentation examines how rhetorics of fixation structure popular understandings of what it means to be transgender. Among other questions, I explore how psychiatric self-help content frequently deploys the rhetorical tactics of anti-trans gatekeepers in its curation of fixation. These rhetorical tactics by and large understand transness as a pathological cultural obsession, as perseveration run amok.
In turning to trans-mad rituals, I am less interested in how anti-trans actors cultivate the personal transformation of their newfound bigoted cohorts than I am in thwarting these actors’ demolition of trans life. How might we narrate the nuances of trans-mad distress, joy, pain, and obsession in ways that ensure trans-mad futures? How might we ethically respond to rhetorics of distress in a politically charged milieu that actively hinders living and thriving for trans and neurodivergent people?
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Bio:
M. Remi Yergeau (they/them/theirs) is an associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at Carleton University. They are the author of Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness and one of many co-authors of Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal. Yergeau is currently at work on a few individual and collaborative projects that variously focus on anti-trans memes (with V. Jo Hsu), digital optimism (with the DISCO Network), as well as crip data and trans-mad perseveration (with lots of donuts). Presently, they serve as a co-PI for the DISCO Network, which receives support from the Mellon Foundation, and they are also a co-PI for “Crip Computing,” which receives support from the Mozilla Foundation’s Responsible Computing Challenge. Finally, and most importantly, Yergeau is obsessed with the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).
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Meeting ID: 955 1856 7251
Passcode: 079669