Unexpected Bodies with Lars Z. Mackenzie

"Unexpected Bodies: Apprehending Gender Non-Conformity in an Era of Fraud Prevention" with Lars Z. Mackenzie

In this presentation, University of Minnesota Feminist Studies Ph.D. Candidate Lars Mackenzie will explore strategies that trans people employ to resist their marginalization by actively committing forms of identity theft, seizing temporary access to resources that they have been categorically excluded from: identification documents, housing, and surgical procedures.

More Information: Lars' dissertation examines how the specter of fraud shapes transgender life in the United States. Representations of trans fraudulence are infused in popular culture and politics: from the “reveal” of a trans woman’s identity in The Crying Game to “bathroom bill” legislation that declares trans women are really men who cross-dress in order to access sex-segregated spaces. Trans people who change their names, bodies, and/or sex classifications are accused of being fraudulent and intentionally deceiving others of their true identities to the detriment of society. When gender non-conformity is equated with dishonesty, fraud accusations further disparities and enable multiple forms of harm against trans people, from violence in sexual relationships to restrictions in health care, housing, employment, and credit access. Drawing upon interviews and interdisciplinary discursive analysis, Lars argues that trans people disrupt normative ways of encountering and accounting for bodies and situate associated anxieties over trans fraudulence within broader concerns about identity and identification in the 21st century.

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