Between precarization of rights and the production of political subjectivity in experiences of Mexican trans youth.
Zamorano-Martinez, L.A., Lozano-Verduzco, I., Mendoza-Pérez, J.C., Eaton, A., Craig, S.L. (2022). Entre la precarización de los derechos y la producción de subjetividad política en expeiencias de jóvenes trans en México. Debate Feminista. 33(65). 1-29. doi.org/10.22201/cieg.2594066xe.2023.65.2330
Highlights
Background
Human rights discourse interpels bodies to achieve their sociopolitical recognition, ignoring human rights translates into precariousness; discourses propose conditions of existence and establishes effects of truth that allow the emergence of subjectivities.
Current discourse and practices around LGBTQ+ issues constitute forms of precariousness, particularly for trans youth, who are the ones that report violence and discrimination most frequently.
The lack of human rights recognition for trans youth implies a form of state and structural violence that must be addressed urgently.
Youth condition directly intersects with trans experience, as it also implies power dynamics between adulthood and other developmental stages and conditions, which leads to lack of possibilities for youth to create their own discourses and practices to identify themselves.
Study Description
Two focus groups in three Mexican cities with trans youth (N=23, ages 16-29, M=23.5 SD=4.45)
Content analysis was used, using interview guide as the main axis of analysis. During analysis, other codes emerged that were included in the analysis.
Unique Findings
All participants reported constant forms of violence based on stereotypes and prejudice that intercepted their full access to the exercise of their human rights.
Participants’ right to their chosen gender identity was constantly interrupted by family members, school authorities who insisted on using participants’ dead-name or insisting that they choose attire and bodily presentation of their sex assigned at birth.
Participants reported many difficulties to formal workspaces and jobs, resulting in their need to carry out stereotypical jobs, such as hairdressers and sex workers, where they continually faced backlash and aggression.
Social institutions that trans youth occupy family, school, work, health services, are colluded and produce shared practices and discourses that undermine trans youth’s possibilities of recognition.
