When trans translates into tolerance - or was it monstrous? Transsexual and transgender identity in liberal humanist discourse

Abstract

The article explores the way in which trans people represent a cultural ‘difference’ that has to be managed in liberal-democratic societies of today. The point of departure is liberal tolerance discourse, as analysed by Wendy Brown, in which the threatening ‘others’ are being regulated in order to prevent the social order from being destroyed from within. In accordance with liberal norms and values, tolerance promotes individual choice and autonomy: the individual’s freedom of identity. It also assumes, however, that identities, such as trans identity, issue from an essence or inner truth to be found in the person. This subjectivity-constituting contradiction lies at the core of liberal tolerance discourse. Trans people bring into question this contradiction, thereby challenging the foundations of normative subjectivity. The key question that emerges is whether liberal humanist tolerance defies horror and hostility or whether tolerance discourse creates its own gendered and sexualized monsters suitable for late-modern, flexible regimes of governmentality.