“I Lived and Learned”: Violence, Survival and Self-Making in Trans Women’s Lives in Istanbul, Turkey

<p>This article examines life story narratives of trans women in an effort to understand how violence produces and shapes their lives and subjectivities in Istanbul, Turkey. After delineating the main forms of violence that target them, it looks at the ways through which trans women negotiate, challenge and transform the parameters of their life-worlds through an engagement with their violent experiences. I especially focus on trans women's production of a particular kind of knowledge which enables them to claim an authoritative voice and construct themselves as subjects who have access to the hidden realities of life that are not accessible to others who did not go through these experiences. Next, turning my attention to trans women's creative work on their subjectivities, I show how they actively work to cultivate themselves as ethically good, disobedient and struggling beings, as individuals and as a collective, and how the transmission of this construction forms and transforms their selves and relationships. Underlining the intricate ways in which processes of oppression, exclusion and violence affect and inform gendered lives and strategies of survival, this discussion highlights the interconnections between power, subjectivity and resistance, and the productive tensions inherent to the positions of marginality and the potentialities of survival in dire times and places.</p> <hr /><p>Este art&iacute;culo analiza relatos de la vida de mujeres transexuales en Estambul, Turqu&iacute;a, en un intento por entender c&oacute;mo la violencia crea y da forma a sus vidas y subjetividades. Despu&eacute;s de describir las principales formas de violencia que sufren, se ve de qu&eacute; forma las mujeres transexuales negocian, se enfrentan y transforman los par&aacute;metros de su mundo, a trav&eacute;s de una lucha contra sus experiencias violentas. Especialmente se centra en la producci&oacute;n por parte de las mujeres transexuales de determinado conocimiento que les permite sostener una voz autorizada y construirse como sujetos que tienen acceso a realidades escondidas de la vida que no son accesibles a quien no vivi&oacute; estas experiencias. A continuaci&oacute;n, la atenci&oacute;n se centra en el trabajo creativo de las mujeres transexuales sobre sus subjetividades, y se muestra c&oacute;mo trabajan activamente para cultivarse como seres &eacute;ticamente buenos, desobedientes y luchadores, de forma individual y colectiva, y c&oacute;mo la transmisi&oacute;n de esta construcci&oacute;n forma y transforma su ego y sus relaciones. Subrayando la forma intricada en la que los procesos de opresi&oacute;n, exclusi&oacute;n y violencia afectan y conforman la vida desde una perspectiva de g&eacute;nero y las estrategias de supervivencia, este debate pone de relieve las interconexiones entre poder, subjetividad y resistencia, y las tensiones productivas inherentes a las posiciones de marginalidad y el potencial de supervivencia en situaciones y lugares terribles.</p><p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2700226" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2700226 </a>