Premium
Ex‐centric textualities and rehearsed narratives at a gender identity clinic in Brazil: Challenging discursive colonization
Author(s) -
Borba Rodrigo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/josl.12236
Subject(s) - transsexual , autonomy , narrative , sociology , identity (music) , agency (philosophy) , gender studies , politics , globalization , intersectionality , aesthetics , transgender , social science , political science , linguistics , law , philosophy
Transsexuality is classified as a disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , which shapes trans‐specific healthcare policies worldwide. This paper addresses the discursive effects the imposition of a psychiatric diagnosis impinges on the daily life of Brazilian gender identity clinics. It aims to assess the epistemological and political dynamics which make the global circulation of this manual possible and to understand the socialization trajectory that leads to the materialization of diagnostically driven, rehearsed narratives in a gender clinic in the global South. I argue that the globalization of medical epistemologies and their textualities homogenizes transsexuality and impels transsexual individuals and their doctors to engage in textually constrained interactional performances which make the construction of a trusting healthcare relationship virtually impossible. The paper, thus, discusses how a sociolinguistics from the South may contribute to foster (trans)autonomy in healthcare settings where epistemological imbalances produced by ex‐centric, globalized textualities constrain possibilities for agency.