Fragmentation and manufactured ambivalence: Necessary unlearnings for intersectional critical action with queer and trans youth

Abstract In this conceptual paper, we chart a call to action for scholar‐activists on critical consciousness among queer and gender‐diverse children and youth by introducing two emergent, empirically grounded concepts: fragmentation and manufactured ambivalence . We contend in the white‐capitalist‐cis/heterosexist‐ patriarchal U.S., interconnected structures of oppression create and maintain falsely singular master narratives to prevent the building of solidarities. These seemingly singular narratives inculcate fragmentation —the psychological experience that if one is situated at one or more dominant default socio‐structural axes (e.g., Whiteness, nationality, cisgender identity, etc.) they are automatically removed/absolved from reflection and action around oppression on minoritized axes. We discuss how scholar‐activists and those looking to work with queer and trans children and youth must create consciousness‐raising systems to do the work of defragmentation, while also addressing manufactured ambivalence —a paradoxical emotional response of being simultaneously critically reflective and skeptical that critical action can produce meaningful structural change.