Techno-Redemption of transsexual bodies: Appropriation of technology and Self-Management of Unfinished identities

• Published in: Revista mediações Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 239 - 259
• Main Authors: Alejandra Roca, María Alejandra Dellacasa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 01-06-2015
• Subjects: Biociencias; Cuerpo; Identidades cyborgs; Transexualidad
• ISSN: 2176-6665
• DOI: 10.5433/2176-6665.2015v20n1p239

In this paper, we want to explore the modifications and procedures that delineate limits between the notions of body, sexuality, and nature. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in public institutions of Buenos Aires and La Plata (Argentina), we examine the medical-legal process concerning "sex reassignment" in transsexual people, which illuminates the unfold senses about the plasticity and precariousness of 'human essences', as well as the tensions between what human is (identity) and what he/she wants to be (project). We discuss the proposals of transhumanism, accepting that the soteriological dimension of biosciences enable the hopes of techno-redemption. Finally, we intend to contribute with a reflection about the role of scientific categories and the political perspective of the emergence of identities and collective resistances about the tutelage of cognitive and material control of the biosciences.