Representational Refusal: Voyeuristic Entitlement, TransQueer Visibility and Policing Gender

In this presentation I will discuss early photographic representations of “female” masculinity and gender variance in relation to the aesthetics and ethical concerns of creating a contemporary body of work about mass incarceration from a queer perspective.

In our current moment - the “Trans-Jenner Tipping Point” - wherein neoliberal machinations of dominant cultural production simultaneously commodify and criminalize trans and gender variant bodies, I argue that representational refusal is a viable tactic in photographic artworks in service of trans-queer liberation and prison abolition. (Vargas, Trap Door, 2017).

In tracing a history of both “female” masculinity and state surveillance in photography I will discuss what I call “voyeuristic entitlement” and argue that in order to move queer politics forward through photographic/lens-based art it is imperative to recognize and undermine its role in perpetuating oppression.

An overview of the methodology, photographs, and audio that comprise the body of work I created between 2014 and 2017, Policing Gender, will anchor the presentation to contemporary queer abolitionist politics and aesthetics.