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biopolitics, recaps of the first chapters of “The Right To Maim”

Recap #1

Preface: Hands Up Don’t Shoot!

  • Context: The writing was intensified by the events of Summer 2014 – the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the Israeli siege of Gaza.

Key Concepts:

  • The Right to Maim: A political theory that relates to the power dynamics in the control of populations, especially through targeted bodily assaults.
  • Settler Colonialism: Links between the situations in Ferguson and Gaza, highlighting the violence and control exerted over populations.
  • Intersectionality: The interconnectedness of various forms of oppression and resistance, emphasizing solidarity movements like Ferguson-to-Gaza.
  • Examples: Police brutality in the U.S. and Israeli military actions, both exemplifying the power to either kill or maintain debilitated populations under control​.

Recap #2

Introduction: The Cost of Getting Better

  • Focus: Analysis of media attention to gay youth suicides in 2010, highlighting how neoliberalism impacts bodily capacity and debility.

Key Concepts:

  • Bodily Capacity and Debility: The relationship between individual physical/mental abilities and the pressures of societal structures.
  • Neoliberalism and Slow Death: The idea that neoliberal policies contribute to ongoing structural inequality and suffering.
  • Examples: Discussion of the “It Gets Better” campaign, questioning the effectiveness of neoliberal approaches to addressing systemic issues of inequality and marginalization​.

Recap #3

Chapter 1: Bodies with New Organs: Becoming Trans Becoming Disabled

  • Focus: The chapter investigates how transgender bodies are shaped and influenced by political, legal, and social frameworks. It particularly focuses on the intersections of transgender issues with disability, exploring how both are subjected to biopolitical control and normativity within societal structures.

Key Concepts:

  • Trans(homo)nationalism: Refers to the recognition and assimilation of transgender identities into national discourses and legal frameworks, often reinforcing normative standards.
  • Biopolitical Control: The state and societal practices that regulate bodies, particularly focusing on transgender and disabled bodies, in terms of medical, legal, and social norms.
  • Transnormativity: The normalization of certain transgender identities, often aligning with white, able-bodied standards.
  • Examples:
    • American Disability Act (ADA): Discussed in relation to transgender rights, highlighting how the ADA’s approach to disability intersects with transgender issues.
    • Transgender Media Representation: Examines the media representation of transgender individuals and its impact on societal perceptions and legal rights.
    • Intersection with Race: Analysis of how transgender and disabled identities intersect with race, emphasizing the heightened vulnerability of trans individuals of color.
    • Medical and Legal Systems: The chapter scrutinizes how medical and legal systems both enable and constrain transgender identities, particularly in terms of access to healthcare and legal recognition.

Recap #4

Chapter 2: Crip Nationalism: From Narrative Prosthesis to Disaster Capitalism

  • Focus: The chapter explores the relationship between debilitation (a process of physical and social weakening) and disability within the contexts of labor, war, and state apparatus. It delves into how these forces shape perceptions and experiences of disability, particularly in capitalist societies.

Key Concepts:

  • Debilitation: The intentional weakening or damaging of bodies as a strategy of control by capitalist and state systems. It is a prerequisite for the production of disability.
  • Crip Nationalism: The idea that disabled bodies are co-opted by nationalist and capitalist agendas, often in the guise of empowerment or inclusion but ultimately serving state and capitalist interests.
  • Biopolitics of Debilitation: The state and capitalist practices that create and exploit debilitated bodies for economic and political gains.
  • Examples:
    • War and Labor: The text links the organization of labor and war as mechanisms of debilitation, with disabled bodies emerging as a byproduct of capitalist and state violence.
    • ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act): Puar critiques the ADA for not addressing the broader structures that produce disability, suggesting it inadvertently supports capitalist exploitation of disabled bodies.
    • Global South: The chapter also discusses how capitalist exploitation leads to disability in the Global South, highlighting the unequal global distribution of disability and its ties to imperialist practices.
    • Racialized Disability: The chapter touches on how race intersects with disability, noting how racialized bodies are often more susceptible to debilitation due to systemic inequalities.

Most important arguments made in chapter 3:

Most Important Arguments Made in the Chapter 3: Disabled Diaspora, Rehabilitating the State: The Queer Politics of Reproduction in Israel/Palestine

  1. Israel’s promotion of LGBT rights serves as a strategy to distract from its occupation of Palestine and to position itself as a modern, democratic state in contrast to the allegedly backward Palestinian society.
  2. The occupation itself is a form of biopolitical control, manipulating both Israeli and Palestinian bodies through various means including sexual regulation, reproductive policies, and the framing of disability.
  3. The chapter challenges the simplistic view of Israel as a singularly progressive state in terms of LGBT rights, arguing that these rights are used instrumentally in the context of broader socio-political goals.
  4. Puar argues that pinkwashing is a tool in the larger context of Israeli settler colonialism, where it serves as both a form of preemptive securitization against Palestinians and a mechanism for internal colonization
  5. The intersection of disability with settler colonialism is highlighted, showing how disability rights are entangled with nationalistic and colonialist agendas.
  6. Puar critiques the Israeli state’s pronatalist policies and their intersection with nationalist and racialized agendas, particularly in the context of reproductive technologies and practices.

OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Victoria Mummelthei (8. Dezember 2023). biopolitics, recaps of the first chapters of “The Right To Maim” Keine Disziplin – No Discipline. Abgerufen am 27. März 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/13jpa


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