A Critical Analysis of Harms Experienced by Transgender Individuals

Abstract

This study critically analyses trans people’s lived experiences of harm in relation to the wider socio-political economic neo-liberal environment. Through ethnographic interviewing methods that produced thick-data from 11 trans individuals, identifying variously within the broad umbrella term of ‘trans’, the data presented has been drawn from multiple interviews and subsequent discussions which were supplemented by life-timelines, personal missives and photographic images obtained through a participative Point of View visual methods approach. Through consideration of the limited capacity of the hate crime agenda to suitably acknowledge the significance of wider everyday harms that characterise trans individuals lived experiences; this thesis adopts a zemiological perspective. The data was analysed through a social harm lens in combination with a theory of the formation of human subjectivity that begs scrutiny of the insufficiency of the social framework produced by the neo-liberal socio-political economic environment in generating harmful subjectivities. The theoretical analysis is made praxis via use of a theory of recognition to present the participants experiences of harm that were associated with denials of love, esteem and respect.