Towards a trans-inclusive critical international political economy? Or why trans oppression matters for understanding capitalism and social reproduction

Abstract

Recent scholarship within queer international political economy (IPE) has highlighted the intimate links between sexuality and capitalism, as well as the insights offered by queer approaches to the study of the global economy. This article critically advances this literature by examining the political economic foundations and facets of trans oppression. Against the backdrop of an (anti-) ‘trans culture war’ in the United Kingdom, gender-critical and other transexclusionary feminist discourse has sought to cleave trans people from class struggle and to portray trans activism as separate from, and in conflict with, the goals of the feminist movement. This discourse, I contend, is indicative of a broader lack of understanding about the ways in which trans oppression links to other forms of gender oppression under capitalism. The article argues that feminist IPE, and specifically social reproduction approaches, offer a powerful toolbox with which to illuminate the material bases of gendered, racialised and sexualised inequalities within the global economy, including those experienced by trans people, and to uncover their co-constitutive character. However, theorising trans oppression in/through feminist IPE will require scholars to engage more deeply with queer and trans theorising, specifically accounts of heteronormativity and the body, and to relinquish the cis-normative attachments that shape some accounts of gender, capitalism and social reproduction, notably within the Marxist feminist tradition.