Gender (In)Securities: Surveillance and Transgender Bodies in a Post-9/11 Era of Neoliberalism

Abstract

This chapter addresses questions of neoliberalism and gender surveillance in a post-9/11 era. Working through an account of the situation of trans people in the USA provided by Leslie Feinberg’s novel “Drag King Dreams”, the chapter discusses the boundaries of citizenship in a system that actively attempts to exclude, alienate, and violate certain identities, particularly transgender individuals and racialized or religious ‘others’. The chapter highlights aspects of non-conformity and the governmental practices that are triggered by deviances from mainstream norms. It critically engages the hardships for individuals that are produced from such governmental practices, most notably surveillance.