Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law

Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law

by Dean Spade
Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law

Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law

by Dean Spade

Paperback(Revised, Expanded ed.)

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Overview

Revised and Expanded Edition

Wait-what's wrong with rights? It is usually assumed that trans and gender nonconforming people should follow the civil rights and "equality" strategies of lesbian and gay rights organizations by agitating for legal reforms that would ostensibly guarantee nondiscrimination and equal protection under the law. This approach assumes that the best way to address the poverty and criminalization that plague trans populations is to gain legal recognition and inclusion in the state's institutions. But is this strategy effective?

In Normal Life Dean Spade presents revelatory critiques of the legal equality framework for social change, and points to examples of transformative grassroots trans activism that is raising demands that go beyond traditional civil rights reforms. Spade explodes assumptions about what legal rights can do for marginalized populations, and describes transformative resistance processes and formations that address the root causes of harm and violence.

In the new afterword to this revised and expanded edition, Spade notes the rapid mainstreaming of trans politics and finds that his predictions that gaining legal recognition will fail to benefit trans populations are coming to fruition. Spade examines recent efforts by the Obama administration and trans equality advocates to "pinkwash" state violence by articulating the US military and prison systems as sites for trans inclusion reforms. In the context of recent increased mainstream visibility of trans people and trans politics, Spade continues to advocate for the dismantling of systems of state violence that shorten the lives of trans people. Now more than ever, Normal Life is an urgent call for justice and trans liberation, and the radical transformations it will require.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780822360407
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 08/07/2015
Edition description: Revised, Expanded ed.
Pages: 240
Sales rank: 572,748
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Dean Spade is an Assistant Professor at the Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, Spade founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a nonprofit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. For more writing by Dean Spade, see http: //www.deanspade.net.

Table of Contents

Preface  ix

Introduction: Rights, Movements, and Critical Trans Politics  1

1. Trans Law and Politics on a Neoliberal Landscape  21

2. What's Wrong with Rights  38

3. Rethinking Transphobia and Power—Beyond a Rights Framework  50

4. Administering Gender  73

5. Law Reform and Movement Building  94

Conclusion: "This Is a Protest, Not a Parade"  117

Afterword  139

Acknowledgments  163

Notes  167

Index  207

What People are Saying About This

Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation - Urvashi Vaid

"This original, visionary, urgent, and brilliantly argued book significantly advances political theory and social movement criticism."

Angela Y. Davis

"Should be read by everyone who is interested in challenging capitalism, colonialism, racism and patriarchy."

Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide - Andrea Smith

"An invaluable resource not just for rethinking gender justice, but for rethinking how we do social justice organizing in general."

The Twilight of Equality?: Neoliberalism Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy - Lisa Duggan author of

"Sharply political, deeply intellectual, broadly accessible, Normal Life is exactly what we need right now."
 

From the Publisher

"Normal Life should be read, not only by legal scholars and trans activists, but by everyone who is interested in challenging capitalism, colonialism, racism and patriarchy in the 21st century." —Angela Y. Davis, author, activist, and Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz

“An invaluable resource not just for rethinking gender justice, but for rethinking how we do social justice organizing in general.” —Andrea Smith, author of Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

“Sharply political, deeply intellectual, broadly accessible, Normal Life is exactly what we need right now.” —Lisa Duggan, author of The Twilight of Equality?: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy

“This street-smart and theoretically sophisticated little book should be required reading for all would-be radicals looking for practical ways to build a better future." —Susan Stryker, Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Indiana University-Bloomington

“Original, visionary, urgent, and brilliantly argued.” —Urvashi Vaid, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation

Transgender History - Susan Stryker author of

"This street-smart and theoretically sophisticated little book should be required reading for all would-be radicals looking for practical ways to build a better future."
 

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