Rethinking Transphobia and Power

Normal Life Ch.3 – Rethinking Transphobia and Power – Beyond a Rights Framework

In chapter 3 of his book, Normal Life, titled ‘Rethinking Transphobia and Power’ Spade gives us a detailed observations of how power and control operate in different ways at various levels. Spade begins by critiquing the current reform strategies adopted in order to remedy the problems faced by trans people saying that they misinterpret and misunderstand the nature of ‘power and control’ and the law in both. He asserts that reshaping our ideas about these problems faced by trans people and re-conceptualizing the sources of these problems are necessary in coming up with viable solutions that can actually work and improve the lives of trans people in society.

The first operation of power and control Spade introduces is the ‘Perpetrator/Victim Power’. According to him, this is an ‘intentional, individualized negative action, discrimination, exclusion and violence – it takes place at an individual level and there are always a perpetrator and a victim. For example, this type of power usage can be seen when an employer bases his or her decision to recruit an employee on the employee’s race, skin color, gender, and many more categories. Spade states that many of the law reform strategies established to defend the rights and lives of the marginalized, including trans people, address the problems that arise due to this ‘Perpetrator/Victim Power’. However, Spade argues that this is a mere superficial method of protection of the marginalized since there are still people that suffer under the protection by the law.

The second type of operation of power is called the ‘Disciplinary power’. Through disciplinary power are strictly established norms plus the coercion by society on people to conform to the norms. In a society, there are certain sets of rules and categories that every individual is encouraged to follow and fall under; for instance, maleness, femaleness, heterosexuality and homosexuality. When a person does not fit into a distinct category but deviates and displays erratic non-conforming behavior, he/she is immediately ostracized. Therefore, these categories formed by the social norms and the societal coercion are what constitute the disciplinary power. Spade believes that once people get used to conforming to the societal norms, the process becomes internalized in them and eventually, the categories become significantly powerful tools to control the population. An example of the use of disciplinary power is – “When activists form consciousness-raising groups that encourage people to question standards about how they see their own bodies and identities and replace those norms with other ideas they consider better, they are engaging with the disciplinary mode of power.” According to Spade, disciplinary control is inadequately addressed in today’s society because the law tends to apply on individualized perpetrator – victim mode of power, it challenges the disciplinary mode of power.

The last type of power that Spade raises is the ‘Population Management Power’ in which national campaigns, programs and laws that affect the entire population. Examples of the population management power include taxation, military conscription, welfare programs, and many more. As this type of power is influential nation-wide, it is much more significant than the individual level types of power such as the Perpetrator-Victim Operation of Power. Spade points out that the influential power of this type of power operation did not only equally distribute the ‘life chances’ to all citizens in the United States, but it also further increased the divide in racial wealth. For example, the expansion of the criminal punishment system in the U.S was promoted by racialized-gendered narratives. The underlying intention and the subsequent result of the program increased policing in poor neighborhoods while providing law enforcement with more tools for surveilling, arresting, and caging poor people and people of color. Dean Spade emphasizes the importance of looking at the problems through the lenses of Disciplinary Power and Population Management Power principles.