Trans* Leben und Lohnarbeit: über geschlechtliche Regulierungen und mikrologische Klassenkämpfe

In this article, I critically analyse contemporary trans* labour politics in the Global North-West. Focusing on the inclusion of trans* people into the labour market and avoiding a critique of capital, I argue, they reproduce the hegemonic regulation of trans* and gender-non-conforming lives. This regulation is based on participation in wage labour, as I demonstrate. To lay out this argument, I first trace the constitution of recognizable trans* subjectivities vis-à-vis Fordist and neoliberal social and labour market policies in Austria and Germany. Against this background, I analyse contemporary trans* politics aiming the inclusion of trans* people in recognized wage work. I contrast these politics with a trans*feminist critique of the wage labour norm in an interview with a trans*feminine worker and activist. I show how this approach not only addresses trans* precarity on the terrain of recognition, but is also resistant to the regime of neoliberal wage labour.