Title

Imagining a post–intentional phenomenology of cisnormativity

Abstract

My original plan for this thesis project was to conduct a phenomenological study that focuses on how cisnormativity influences and emerges through a clinician’s development of micro-skills, especially those who are transgender, Two Spirit, and Intersex or otherwise n...
Show moreMy original plan for this thesis project was to conduct a phenomenological study that focuses on how cisnormativity influences and emerges through a clinician’s development of micro-skills, especially those who are transgender, Two Spirit, and Intersex or otherwise non-conforming to the colonial gender paradigm (TTSI+) (Lugones, 2007). However, I struggled to find any phenomenological or clinical consideration of cisnormativity as a phenomenon, and it is rarely articulated as a system immersed in white supremacist bio-essentialism. So, this thesis is a philosophical inquiry that is grounded in Vagle’s post-intentional phenomenological (PIP) paradigm (2018). This inquiry details: 1) how the PIP paradigm may nurture more nuanced investigation of bio-essentialist systems of oppression, 2) how critical phenomenological and post-structural concepts in may be utilized to attend to cisnormativity as a phenomenon that is a part of the imperialist white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchy (hooks, 1997; Yancy & hooks, 2015), 3) the productions and provocations of cisnormativity that emerged through my research process, 4) how these findings connect to current music therapy and related care work literature, and 5) what research project ideas have emerged for future study. Overall, I assert cisnormativity affects everyone, not just TTSI+ people. It is urgently important to slow down and open up to ways cisheteropatriarchy emerges through our habits, through text, and through theoretical frameworks, and to ways we may retroactively and proactively shift these dynamics. I hope my work enables all to nurture their reflexivity and resistance to bio-essentialist oppression through attending to relationships and holding consideration for the more-than-visual.
Show less

Year Issued

2023

Author

Inmon, Braedyn D'mitri

Sub-title

A philosophical inquiry