The Limits of (Trans) Joy (?)
Location
Ponderosa Room C
Presentation Type
Presentation
Presentation Topic
trans studies, trans theory, affect theory, joy studies
Start Date
6-3-2026 2:30 PM
Event Sort Order
44
Abstract
Sara Ahmed contends that historically, happiness has been coded as that which gives meaning to human existence (Ahmed 2010, 14). But while happiness, the expectation and promise of it, may lend themselves to meaning-making, Ahmed further contends that these regimes of happiness are bound up in the reproduction of other’s narratives of what it means to be happy (58). Getting married, having children, these are all things that are said to bring happiness by dominant cisnormative narratives, but that does not mean that these are longed-for events by all of those who are expected to seek them. Trans* bodies, in particular, may view such objects as cruelly optimistic (Berlant 2011), set out by ciscapitalism as models of the heteronormative or assimilationist homonormative life, but not congruent with other, prescribed as deviant, forms of existence. What then, can trans* persons pursue? This paper argues that affective joy can, and must, be turned to as another form of life. This necessitates a trans* interruption of this affect, an interruption that formulates this joy as something with no predetermined end, without conclusion as a goal (Baldino 2021, 288). Joy, trans* joy, is not promised, it is not external, it does not hinge on expectations held by others. Instead, this joy is internal. As Audre Lorde describes the erotic as emanating from the self, as held internally, so too is joy (Lorde 1978, 7). Working through Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness, specifically the “feminist killjoy” and the “willful child”, and Jules Gill-Peterson’s The Histories of the Transgender Child, I argue that the trans* child serves as a site of trans* joy, and that this affect is the method of this child’s survival under ciscapitalist patriarchy. The joyful trans* child evidences a break in ciscapitalist power. This is not utopia, such a life necessitates a violent response to maintain sovereign capitalist power, but it does evidence that other forms of life are possible, and that we must pursue them.
The Limits of (Trans) Joy (?)
Ponderosa Room C
Sara Ahmed contends that historically, happiness has been coded as that which gives meaning to human existence (Ahmed 2010, 14). But while happiness, the expectation and promise of it, may lend themselves to meaning-making, Ahmed further contends that these regimes of happiness are bound up in the reproduction of other’s narratives of what it means to be happy (58). Getting married, having children, these are all things that are said to bring happiness by dominant cisnormative narratives, but that does not mean that these are longed-for events by all of those who are expected to seek them. Trans* bodies, in particular, may view such objects as cruelly optimistic (Berlant 2011), set out by ciscapitalism as models of the heteronormative or assimilationist homonormative life, but not congruent with other, prescribed as deviant, forms of existence. What then, can trans* persons pursue? This paper argues that affective joy can, and must, be turned to as another form of life. This necessitates a trans* interruption of this affect, an interruption that formulates this joy as something with no predetermined end, without conclusion as a goal (Baldino 2021, 288). Joy, trans* joy, is not promised, it is not external, it does not hinge on expectations held by others. Instead, this joy is internal. As Audre Lorde describes the erotic as emanating from the self, as held internally, so too is joy (Lorde 1978, 7). Working through Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness, specifically the “feminist killjoy” and the “willful child”, and Jules Gill-Peterson’s The Histories of the Transgender Child, I argue that the trans* child serves as a site of trans* joy, and that this affect is the method of this child’s survival under ciscapitalist patriarchy. The joyful trans* child evidences a break in ciscapitalist power. This is not utopia, such a life necessitates a violent response to maintain sovereign capitalist power, but it does evidence that other forms of life are possible, and that we must pursue them.
Presenter Bio
Saturn Sigourney Rage (She/They) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas. They are an affect theorist focusing on affective joy through a trans* lens; and she wishes to continue teaching following the completion of their degree. They are also a programmer at Stray Cat Film Center, located in Kansas City.