Kickstarting trans*: The crowdfunding of gender/sexual reassignment surgeries
- 24 November 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in New Media & Society
- Vol. 17 (2), 215-230
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814558911
Abstract
The crowdfunding of gender/sexual reassignment (G/SRS) surgeries is a recent and controversial phenomenon on which there currently exists no academic commentary. This article considers three particular G/SRS crowdfunding campaigns with a focus on two primary elements: the aesthetic and commodified positions of trans* bodies, and the role of the potential backers, the crowds of crowdfunding. Both, I argue, are shaped by specific platform regulations as well as by broader social and political norms specific to and beyond trans* bodies. At stake in these distinctions are the extent to which trans* bodies are permitted to be defined as art and/or commodities, as well as the conditions under which backers are compelled (or not) to provide emotional, financial and political support for trans*-positive causes. Digital media, I conclude, is increasingly playing a role in defining, producing and challenging the modes of normativity that determine the livability of life for precarious subjects.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- The online crowd: a contradiction in terms? On the potentials of Gustave Le Bon's crowd psychology in an analysis of affective bloggingDistinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 2012
- Defining OpenResearch-Technology Management, 2012
- Owning Up: Exploring the Kickstarter RestaurantGastronomica, 2011
- I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audienceNew Media & Society, 2010
- Body to Body: On the Political Anatomy of CrowdsSociological Theory, 2009
- Gay men, Gaydar and the commodification of differenceInformation Technology & People, 2008
- Feminist sexualities, race and the internet: an investigation of suicidegirls.comNew Media & Society, 2007
- Affective EconomiesSocial Text, 2004
- Publics and CounterpublicsPublic Culture, 2002
- Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing DemocracySocial Text, 1990