Intersectional Interventions into Queer and Trans Liberation: Youth Resistance Against Right-Wing Populism Through Fashion Hacking

Abstract

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, recently elected a socially conservative Premier who repealed the progressive sexual education curriculum that teaches about queer and trans relationships and bodies. This election occurs within the broader context of neoliberal capitalism and settler homonationalism that oppresses the most vulnerable queer and trans citizens. The paper examines how queer and trans youth in Ontario leverage fashion hacking to intervene into the current context that reinforces heteronormativity, white supremacy, patriarchy and ableism. We draw upon a series of participatory workshops with queer and trans youth, most of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, disabled and/or working class, in two cities in Ontario. During these workshops, the youth deconstructed and reconstructed existing fashion media, clothing and fashion shows to express their experiences, identities and desired futures. We use an intersectional queer world-making framework to analyze the artifacts that the participants created as well as the interviews with them following the workshops. Our findings demonstrate that fashion hacking enables the most vulnerable queer and trans youth to resist and temporarily exist outside of right-wing ideologies, neoliberal capitalism and settler homonationalism. We argue that engaging queer and trans youth in fashion hacking fosters community and skills that can be mobilized beyond these settings to affirm their intersectional identities and resist oppressive movements, policies, discourses and systems.