The Terrible WeThe Terrible We

"Cameron Awkward-Rich's The Terrible We is both a metacritical investigation of the roots of trans studies and a renarrativization of trans experience. It argues that the foundational gesture of trans studies is the disavowal of maladjustment-the rallying cry, "I am not sick"-most visible in activist attempts to have gender dysphoria and similar conditions removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Against this narrative, Awkward-Rich argues that madness, disability, racial or gendered marginalization, and bad feelings might all be ways to affirm trans experience. Rather than impediments to societal integration and well-being, these mis-fit experiences are also generative for trans life, thought, and creativity. Thus The Terrible We argues for and demonstrates a model of transgender studies that does not begin with the premise that a commitment to doing justice to trans life requires the wholesale disavowal of transgender's historical association with madness. In addition to trans studies, this project makes important contributions to disability and mad studies, as well as queer and feminist affect theory"-- Provided by publisher.