Puerto Rico Necropolitics Study Guide

Overview of Key Concepts

• Necropolitics: Concept explaining how politics are framed through the lens of death and violence against marginalized groups, specifically in the context of transwomen in Puerto Rico.

Structural and Embodied Violence

• Authors explore structural and embodied violence in Puerto Rico through necropolitics.

• Examines how transwomen are labeled as "the other"—not fitting into binary gender categories (real men/women) and thus considered a danger to the traditional notions of gender.

• The state enables violence against transwomen, fostering an environment of "population-level othering and abandonment".

Forms of Violence Against Transwomen

1. Interpersonal Violence: Direct acts of violence inflicted on transgender individuals.

2. Structural Violence: Systemic discrimination and societal stigma that marginalizes the transgender community, leading to exclusion and lack of access to resources.

Mortality Patterns and Structural Violence

• Global Patterns: Elevated mortality and illness among transgender women, with Puerto Rico reflecting structural violence tied to its colonial history and identity struggles.

• Authors seek to understand the impact of structural violence on transwomen's lives within this context.

Medical Services and Gender Performative Practices

• Transwomen often rely on informal and unregulated medical services, such as injectable hormones, due to lack of access to formal surgical care.

• The act of gender performativity: Navigating societal acceptance of their gender identity despite pervasive stigma, enabling them to live authentically.

Challenges Faced by Transwomen

• Social Death: Non-normative gender expressions lead to societal exclusion and lack of respectability.

• Rigid heteronormativity: Dominant ideologies that underpin societal rejection of transwomen.

• The term "loca" used derogatorily to further marginalize transwomen, exacerbating their exclusion from citizenship and respect.

• Bodily Harms: Risks associated with informal medical practices and rejection of transwomen’s identities leading to physical and psychological injuries.

Respect and Masculinity

• Concepts of respeto and machismo are pivotal; transwomen are seen as undermining traditional masculinity and, thereby, male societal status.

• Even homosexual cisgender men may appropriate heteronormative ideologies to distance themselves from marginalized identities, particularly in opposition to transwomen.

Iatrogenic Consequences and Resilience

• Engagement with informal medical practitioners (inyeccionistas) reflects a subcultural response to the necropolitical climate that limits access to sensitive healthcare.

• These practices are complex; while they may produce health risks, they are also necessary responses to systemic abandonment.

Case Studies on Necropolitics

• The case studies provide personal narratives that highlight lived experiences of necropolitics, illustrating themes of marginalization and the forced choices faced by transwomen.

• Three analytic domains:

  1. Interpersonal Gendered Violence: Related to social shame and inadequacy during formative years.

  2. Institutionalized Transphobia: Legal and political exclusion leads to health inequities in Brazilian society.

  3. Access to Medical Procedures: The societal reliance on street-based specialists and their implications on health within the global landscape of transitioning technologies.