Binding and Queer Embodiments: Rethinking the Moral Imperative of Body Positivity

Abstract

This paper explores existing feminist body positive frameworks and queer theories of embodiment while asking troubling questions about bodies between and outside of binary, cisgender frameworks. We consider how feminist psychotherapy offers some possibilities and occludes others when applied to the desire to redistribute or shrink chest tissue. Using psychoanalytic theory, we aim to uplift alternative (and, at times, uncomfortable) clinical considerations to better understand the relationship between our patients and their bodies. To guide feminist therapists, we propose a framework of mourning and materialization. Specifically, we suggest that therapists practice reflexivity and collaborate with their patients to determine what aspects of the ideal body to mourn and what aspects can be materialized through surgery or other forms of bodily change.

Keywords:

• Body positivity
• feminist psychotherapy
• queer embodiment
• psychoanalysis
• transgender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

Notes

1 We intentionally use “chest tissue” instead of “breasts” as a way of highlighting how language used for the body – even medical language – is not immune to gendering.

2 Throughout this paper, we use “queer bodies” to refer to the bodies of queer people (i.e., bodies that are sites of queer desires) as well as those bodies that defy social expectations informed by cisgender, binary, and often inherently white notions of gender and sex. This term is intentionally broad, and while discussing compulsory heterosexuality and cisgender identity is beyond the scope of this paper, we wish to note that all bodies have the potential for queerness. We acknowledge that “queer” is a conflicted term. When referencing other authors, we have chosen to stick closely to the original wording, and as such, we also use “queer,” “transgender,” “trans,” “gender non-binary,” etc. when appropriate.

3 However, we resist the trappings of legitimizing body modifications exclusively based on gender identity; instead, we turn to Sean Bray’s (2015) conceptualization of “body integrity” (p. 426) as well as their thoughtful analysis of gender, categorical diagnostics of distress, and body modification.