Beyond Gender

Decoloniality And Interpersonal Spatiality In Bettcher's Theory

Abstract

In the work Beyond Personhood, Talia Mae Bettcher adopts ontological pluralism and Lugones's decolonial critique to develop her theory of interpersonal spatiality. Bettcher advocates for the elimination of the modern/colonial gender system, which has shaped the notions of sex, gender, personhood, subject, and self. For Bettcher, this system is incapable of accounting for trans oppression and phoria, thereby contributing to the perpetuation of violence against trans people. In response to this problem, her work proposes an understanding of interpersonal relations centered on systems of boundaries that regulate relations of proximity, distance, and intimacy. This understanding, termed interpersonal spatiality, replaces the modernity-founded notion of personhood with interpersonal objects, which are, in turn, inherently relational and constructed by boundaries of access manifested through self-presentation. By prioritizing the relational aspect of social experience, this theory reveals how the systematic violation of boundaries of access structures trans oppression.