#BOOKS Marlene Wayar: South American Transvestite-Trans Theory

Preview of the book Marlene Wayar Travesti/A Good Enough Theory (Editorial muchas nueces, 2018).

September 28, 2018

Photos: Editorial muchas nueces

Excerpt from Marlene Wayar Travesti/Una teoría lo suficiente buena (Editorial muchas nueces, 2018)

This is borrowed from Donald W. Winnicott; it's one of his contributions to Psychoanalysis: "A good enough mother" refers to one who can create the illusion in the infant of unity with the mother, of the infant creating the breast that nourishes him, only to gradually disillusion him. In this way, the infant becomes aware of his extreme dependence on the world, on reality, and on his own subjectivity.

This theory is urgently needed in the face of the terrible hegemonic proposal to become anthropological mutations leading to control over technologies related to child-rearing, nutrition, education, healthcare, communication, and, above all, relationships. This theory is urgent given the loss of the full awareness that we are reproductive beings, that we produce subjectivity, that a balanced subjectivity arises from the necessity of mutual dependence, and that this balance lies between selfhood and belonging.

This is a good enough theory to begin taking action toward an anthropological transformation that will restore our autonomy, that will restore the necessary skepticism for responsible, loving parenting, far removed from all triviality. Understanding responsible love is crucial.

How much time do we dedicate to raising children? What kind of care do we provide? What kind of food do we give them? Is medicalization/psychiatrization a humane and loving response? Is medical technology geared towards healing the body or has it been taken over by the business model? What do we mean when we say "education"? Are we educating or training? Are we domesticating for submission? Are we communicating or are we simply repeating an ideology slowly and constantly imposed by the media? How the hell are we relating to each other at home, at school, at universities, in healthcare centers, in spaces/times of leisure and recreation, and in the times/spaces of production of goods and services?

This is a theory under construction , good enough to awaken consciences that join in the reproductive action of subjectivities capable of empathizing with the other, capable of the necessary creativity that Oscar Wilde called for to see the thief not as a legal problem with punitive intent, but as a problem of social equity for someone who steals to feed their offspring. It is good enough to see what results we are obtaining with the same strategies and to have the courage to change them.

It is utterly foolish to expect different results from repeating the same actions. We need to stop constantly denying our responsibility for individual, collective, social, and institutional actions. Behind every state that criminalizes, there is necessarily a society that does the same. We are all complicit, through action or inaction. I, along with my state and society, am a perpetrator of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and transphobia. A state that discriminates.

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