This thesis explores the social, political, and theoretical consequences that emerge when the contested category of “childhood” gets unequally applied to individuals and populations. The interdisciplinary theoretical project conceives of childhood as a technology of power that produces the contentious contours of various bodies and experiences, individuals and populations, and ways of life and forms of relation. It argues that childhood’s fantasmatic, figurative, and “real” subjects extend far beyond, and sometimes explicitly exclude, the early years of life. In conversation with childhood studies, feminist, trans, queer, critical-race, and psychoanalytic theory, this research is primarily concerned with the ways in which childhood is negotiated and re-imagined through discursive, institutional, and representational practices in the contemporary U.S. The analysis explores the psychic and political ambivalences of childhood, and attends to the investments in childhood’s uneven distribution. Asking specifically after the role of childhood in shaping and challenging the disposability of young black life, the queer life of children’s desires, and the steadfastness of the gender binary, this thesis outlines a theoretical framework of analysis that interdisciplinary scholars working in feminist, trans, queer, and anti-racist theory can use when addressing children and childhood, and it substantiates this framework through three case studies.

The theory and practice of childhood: interrogating childhood as a technology of power

Debates in Transgender, Queer and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites. Patricia Elliot (ed), 2010. Ashgate: Farnham & Burlington. Patricia Elliot states in her preface that this book has been a long t...

Debates in Transgender, Queer and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites

Ces dernières années, la communauté médicale est traversée par les débats sociétaux autour du genre, du sexe, de la procréation et des droits humains. Aussi les questions autour de la prise en charge médicale des enfants et adolescents transgenres viennent elles très régulièrement sur le devant de la scène médiatique suscitant la mobilisation de collègues à l’origine de prise de positions réclamant entre autres l’interdiction de prescrire des traitements hormonaux jusqu’à 25 ans. Nous proposons dans cet article de reprendre point par point les principaux sujets de controverses autour de la prise en charge médicale contemporaine des transidentités de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, à savoir la transition sociale, le blocage pubertaire, les transitions hormonales, et les transitions chirurgicales, et de les mettre en perspective de la situation contemporaine en France. Si la plupart des études cliniques menées depuis plus de 25 ans montrent les impacts positifs des prises en charge médicales des adolescents transgenres sur leur devenir psychologique soulignant l’innocuité relative des traitements, l’accompagnement psychodynamique n’en demeure pas moins essentiel, prenant en compte la singularité de chaque patient au fil des rencontres. Le temps long est parfois requis, parfois contre-indiqué en fonction de chaque situation clinique. Rappelons qu’il n’y a aucune prescription médicamenteuse avant la puberté, et pour les adolescents la durée moyenne entre la première consultation (pour laquelle ils ont attendu souvent un an) et une éventuelle prescription est d’une année. Dans le contexte où la population des enfants et adolescents transgenres est particulièrement vulnérable, ne pas nuire n’est pas systématiquement s’abstenir de prescrire, chaque situation clinique devant être évaluée dans sa singularité avec précaution et discernement. Ces décisions de transition médicale sont discutées et validées si pertinentes, en France depuis 2015, dans le cadre de Réunions de Concertation Pluridisciplinaire. Par-delà les opinions et les débats sociétaux, de réels enjeux éthiques sont à considérer, en particulier autour de la notion de consentement libre et éclairé chez l’enfant et l’adolescent, et les recherches doivent se poursuivre. In recent years the medical community has been crossed by societal debates around gender, sex, procreation, and human rights. Also, questions around the medical care of transgender children and adolescents very regularly come to the fore in the media leading colleagues to seek prohibiting hormonal treatment until the age of 25 years. In the current report, we propose to explore all controversial proposals in the field of contemporary transgender care, i.e. : social transition, puberty suppression with GnRH, hormonal transition, and surgical transition. In addition, we expose the way such a practice is ongoing in France. If most of the clinical studies carried out internationally for more than 25 years have shown considerable positive impacts of the medical care of adolescents on their psychological future and emphasizing the relative safety of the treatments, the psychodynamic support remains essential considering the uniqueness of each patient over the course of the meetings. A long period of time is sometimes required, while sometimes it is contraindicated depending on each clinical situation. Drug prescriptions before puberty are not permitted, and for adolescents the average time between the first consultation (for which they often waited a year) and a possible prescription is one year. As transgender children and adolescents are a particularly vulnerable population, doing no harm does not always mean refraining from prescribing, and each clinical situation has to be assessed in its uniqueness with care and discernment. Since 2015 in France these decisions are taken after assessment during multidisciplinary concertation meetings. Beyond societal opinions and debates, real ethical issues must be considered, especially around the notion of free and informed consent in children and adolescents, and research must continue. 

La prise en charge des enfants, adolescentes et adolescents transgenres en France : controverses récentes et enjeux éthiques

This article recounts my experience serving as an expert witness at a Human Rights Tribunal. In 2018–2019, a grade six trans girl, known only as AB, sued the Ontario provincial government in Canada...

Getting dirty and coming clean: Sex education and the problem of expertise

In this article, we offer a psychoanalytic reading of controversies over “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (popularly known as ROGD), defined as a sudden expression of gender dysphoria in late adolesc...

Transgender Embodiment as an Appeal to Thought: A Psychoanalytic Critique of “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”

This paper draws on psychoanalytic theories of embodiment to theorize the child’s creative use of objects and signs to represent a gendered sense of self. Turning to Winnicott’s concept of “true self,” we extend this symbolic labour to the transgender child to illustrate the psychic processes of embodiment that contribute to a meaningful gendered existence otherwise obstructed by social hatred and transphobia. Through a reading of the film Tomboy, we discuss the conditions needed to support the child’s representation of transgender as creative, which, while unique, is also a human act of symbolization.

A sex of one’s own: Childhood and the embodiment of (trans)gender

Cast No Shadow (2015) tells the story of 13-year-old Jude Traynor, a kid deemed by his rural community to be a “delinquent” who ruins lives and never sticks to his word. The film opens on a roaring...

The failure of thought: Childhood and evildoing in the shadow of traumatic inheritance

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Art in Times of Conflict

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Transgender Embodiment as an Appeal to Thought: A Psychoanalytic Critique of “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”

A sex of one’s own: Childhood and the embodiment of (trans)gender

The failure of thought: Childhood and evildoing in the shadow of traumatic inheritance

Art in Times of Conflict