Un/naturality: The Trans Body between Monstrous and Natural

The trans body has often been understood and reclaimed as either natural or monstrous. These two qualities stand opposed, in a dichotomy mirroring the colonial construction of nature as something with rigid and enclosed borders. Instead of thinking of nature and monstrosity as opposites, this article considers the ways in which, within both nature and the trans body, naturality and monstrosity further each other’s existence. Through an analysis of monstrosity and naturality as complementary and enmeshed and close readings of poems by contemporary trans poets, the analysis proposes to articulate the trans body as un/natural. The article uses the terms un/natural and un/naturality to condense the ambivalence and duality of the trans body, rejecting the natural/unnatural binary where the trans body and nature too often find themselves trapped. The analysis starts by analysing the correlations in the colonial constructions of both the natural and the monstrous. Then, with references to poetry by Kai Cheng Thom and Oliver Baez Bendorf, it explores ways to envision nature and monstrosity together, to demonstrate that the trans body is indeed natural, but only in its monstrosity. The article concludes by considering how the trans body can reveal the un/naturality of nature itself and point at ways to open its borders to include the unnatural and the monstrous.