Critical Transfeminist Design

30/04/2024 - 22-05-2024

The seminar Critical Transfeminist Design provided an insightful exploration into the intersections of gender, technology, and society from a transfeminist perspective. In this post I will like to reflect the highlights of the class and personal opinions about it.

Highlights of the seminar

Here are some of the highlights (At least what I understood) of the seminar:

The seminar explored phenomenology and corporeal existence through Heidegger's works, emphasizing the body as the center of lived experience. Heidegger's approach highlighted how our physical presence is fundamental to understanding our existence.

Donna Haraway’s cyborg concept challenges traditional boundaries, proposing new frameworks for understanding own identity and technology. Her ideas rethink human and machine interactions, promoting a more flexible view of identity.

Finally, Judith Butler’s ideas on performativity highlight how bodies act on societal norms but also have the potential for resistance. Butler emphasizes the performative nature of identity, showing how societal norms can be challenged and redefined through individual actions.

My take on women in a capitalist society

Feminism in capitalist societies faces contradictions between striving for gender equality and capitalism's profit nature. True liberation must go beyond legal reforms to address economic and social structures. Capitalism sustains gender inequalities through wage gaps, labor segregation, and exploitation of reproductive labor. Mainstream feminism often aligns with corporate interests, overlooking real issues and marginalized women. A transformative approach, based on socialist ideas, aims for real gender equality and social justice by changing the economy, making workplaces fair, providing strong social support, and shifting cultural norms.

Reflection

While the seminar on Critical Transfeminist Design did not directly align with my craftsmanship project, it was intellectually enriching. The discussions on the construction and regulation of bodies and identities within society were pretty engaging to me.

In conclusion, the seminar was valuable to me to expand my knowledge of feminist theory and its contemporary applications, fighting to reshape societal norms.