‘Cause we are living in a material world, Kadji Amin is here to talk about trans materialism! Kadji’s work is all about exploring what being trans means beyond gender identity. What are material reasons to transition or transgress gender expectations? How did our trancestors live as their chosen gender? And why does the history of trans women look quite different from that of trans men? In this episode, we talk about all of this and about how and why categories such as trans, cis, hetero and homo came to shape our queer lives.

CW: homophobia, transphobia, medicalisation of queerness, racism

References:
https://www.kadjiamin.com/
Kadji Amin’s Disturbing Attachments (Duke UP, 2017)
“Queer Form.” Coedited with Amber Jamilla Musser and Roy Pérez. Special issue, ASAP/Journal 2.2.
Amin, Kadji. (2023) “Taxonomically Queer?: Sexology and New Queer, Trans, and Asexual Identities,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 29.1: 91-107.
Amin, Kadji. (2022)“We Are All Non-Binary: A Brief History of Accidents,” Representations 158.1: 106-119.
Emily Skidmore
Jen Manion
Murray Hill
Empiricism
Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality Vol. 1
Magnus Hirschfeld
“Trans Childhood” with Jules Gill-Peterson
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/46314264
Susan Stryker’s Transgender History
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49782773
Robert Stoller
Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues
https://lesliefeinberg.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Stone-Butch-Blues-by-Leslie-Feinberg.pdf

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. Kadji talks about a ‘flattening effect’ of the term trans. What does this mean? Which dissymetries does Kadji mention?
2. How does Kadji describe the diverging historical lineages of transmasculine and transfeminine people?
3. What can be material reasons to transition? Please give at least two examples.
4. Kadji speaks about trans idealising cis. What does this mean?
5. Which term did Robert Stoller coin and to what end?
6. Why does Kadji find it useful to think about trans without gender identity? What do you think about this?