IN CONSISTENCY
Friday, February 14, 2020: 2:00 PM
Continental B (Hilton Chicago)
This paper looks at trans* and gender nonconforming artists and activists working to strategically destabilize the network of material technologies and procedural frameworks that grant the police the authority to enforce dominant, racialized gender norms.
It unfolds in the shadow of those sumptuary laws that have historically served to criminalize gender variance by prohibiting the act of ‘appearing in public in dress not belonging to one’s sex,’ and explores how trans* and gender nonconforming communities have long been positioned as very real ‘security threats’ by virtue of these sartorial logics.
Considering the length at which the State defends clothing’s role in securing normative identities, this paper focuses on how these artists and activists critically challenge the fetishistic power of the uniform, the law, and the space of incarceration, while producing new insights into the way varied libidinal and material economies are invested in the aesthetic consistencies of policing.
It unfolds in the shadow of those sumptuary laws that have historically served to criminalize gender variance by prohibiting the act of ‘appearing in public in dress not belonging to one’s sex,’ and explores how trans* and gender nonconforming communities have long been positioned as very real ‘security threats’ by virtue of these sartorial logics.
Considering the length at which the State defends clothing’s role in securing normative identities, this paper focuses on how these artists and activists critically challenge the fetishistic power of the uniform, the law, and the space of incarceration, while producing new insights into the way varied libidinal and material economies are invested in the aesthetic consistencies of policing.