Abstract

Recent work within trans studies has built on feminist genealogies of “care,” and has begun to grapple with affects and alternative conceptualities of care and mutual support within trans communities (Malatino 2020; Spade 2020). Most of the work on feminist ethics of care, including the recent works on trans care, has taken place in Anglo-American contexts, where feminist scholars often work to account for how neo-liberal capitalist logics have influenced the ways we think about care, and where “state-based care” (in the form of welfare policies) has been greatly weakened under these logics. While there is a rich literature of feminist theories of care (“omsorg”) in Denmark, these works (like some early strands of feminist genealogies of care in the Anglo-American context) have tended to revolve around nuclear family models (i.e., caring for the family, especially children and the elderly), locating women at the center of and bearing the brunt of care work. With trans studies being a new field within Denmark, there is very limited work on queer and trans conceptualities of care within Denmark and within the Danish welfare state. Taking Stryker, Currah and Moore’s call to be more critically attuned to the potential that “trans-“ or “transing” has in our world (2008), I try tofollow around trans- care, pulling on different thread in the string figures (Haraway 2017) created within Danish legislation, healthcare guidelines, parliamentary meetings, activist group meetings, etc. Indeed, by reading new materialist thinkings of care (Puis de la bellacasa 2017) with queer affect theory (Ahmed 2004, 2006), and trans and disability studies scholars (Clare 2017), in this presentation I will trace trans care webs and how care and trans become together in an affective assemblage--where care is sought and denied, given, withheld, and cultivated--making particular trans becomings possible within Denmark.

Bio

Molly Occhino is a PhD fellow at the Department of Social Science and Business at Roskilde University. They hold Bachelor degrees in Gender & Women’s Studies, and International Studies from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Master’s degree in International Studies from Aarhus University. Their current PhD research is rooted in trans-feminist studies, queer studies, and feminist new materialism and explores trans and non-binary people’s experiences of the Danish socio-medical and socio-political systems, specifically focusing on the trans care and becomings within trans-specific healthcare and the socio-legal processes that regulate gendersex representations.