Necropolitics and Trans Identities

Language Use as Structural Violence

Bibliographic Data

ID6014645
AuthorsKinsey B Stewart (Knoxville College, corresponding author), Thomas A Delgado (0000-0002-4001-3514, California State University, Chico, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume3
Issue2
Pages106-125
Publication date2023-05-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumans (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2673-9461 • E-ISSN: 2673-9461
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/humans3020010
OpenAlexW4378174887
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited23

Despite the increasing visibility of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in U.S. society, current linguistic practices within forensic anthropology and death investigation in general are not TGD-inclusive. This lack of consideration for TGD decedents can cause unnecessary delays in the identification and disposition of their remains; moreover, failing to recognize their true identities is a form of forced post-mortem detransition. Using De León’s concept of necroviolence as a framework, we argue that language can also harm the dead and that the (mis)use of language within medicolegal death investigation reflects and reinforces structural violence against TGD people. Examples drawn from a qualitative review of public details for 87 cases are used to demonstrate how language and language-enforced bureaucratic structures can harm TGD decedents, their loved ones, the broader TGD community, and the process of medicolegal death resolution itself. We then suggest steps that anthropologists, death investigators, and their affiliated partners can take to reduce the systemic necropolitical violence faced by the TGD community. While TGD-inclusive methods will take time to implement at the institutional level, individual practitioners can enact significant change within the system by upholding core standards that recognize and respect the personhood and lived experiences of TGD decedents

Bureaucracy · Criminology · Dualism · Epistemology · Harm · Personhood · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

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