Towards a bodily relativism: barriers, pathogenies, and thresholds of non-binary and genderless bodies

Abstract

Nonbinary and agender bodies are perpetually erased from social arenas and collective debates, in which they are often deliberately excluded or simply ignored. The negative perception of trans* and genderqueer identities is connoted by the widespread refusal of acknowledging existential declinations unrelated to dualistic views of gender identity or conformity to gender norms and customs, keeping unnoticed all those forms of corporeal non-normativeness, including disabilities, older ages, a non-white color of the skin and further physical differences, often considered to be “pathological”. Setting the body as a matter of social construction and, at the same time, as the threshold between educational, political, cultural, medical and legal processes, this article carries out a theoretical insight on the intertwined developments and understandings of nonbinary and agender corporealities and points out their socio-cultural ramifications in the Italian context, processing a general overview of bodily activities and corporeal patterns in marginalized communities. It is set as a working hypothesis, epistemologically grounded in queer theory and intersectionality theory, that attempts to problematize Italian academic discourses on genderqueerness and to promote more inquiries on the topic, fostering a discussion on queer embodied experience, conceptualizations of “pathogenic” bodies and institutional barriers to stigmatized identities.

Keywords: nonbinary, agender, genderqueer, non-conforming body, embodiment.