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Temporalities of Transition: Trans- temporal Femininity in a Human Musical Automaton
Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education, Gender Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6047-4369
2015 (English)In: Somatechnics, ISSN 2044-0138, E-ISSN 2044-0146, Vol. 5, no 2, p. 197-216Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article takes as its point of departure the social media presence of a human musical automaton called Rabbit. As part of the US-based band Steam Powered Giraffe, Rabbit is performed by Bunny Bennett, who recently came out as a transgender woman. As a result of this shift, Rabbit is being transformed from a male automaton into a transgender female robot. The news of the transformation hit like a bomb in the emotionally invested fan base. The story of the transitioning robot is an intimate coming together of technologies, imagination, and transgender embodiment. It is a story that deserves scholarly attention for two reasons: This case offers ways of re-casting the discussion in transgender studies within a post-humanist framework of somatechnics. Secondly, it is a case which foregrounds an understanding of gender as a question of time. In focusing on transition as a continuous, open-ended process, gender is primarily understood as a temporal form which cuts or vibrates through the body in highly material, embodied ways. The domain of queer temporality is rather densely theorised, but what about trans- temporality? If queer temporality first and foremost deals with sexuality and time, what would it mean to shift the focus to gender? Drawing on Gilles Deleuze on time, this article is a contribution to the field of transgender studies on the question of trans- temporality in a technological vein.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015. Vol. 5, no 2, p. 197-216
Keywords [en]
Deleuze, femininity, feminist theory, online fandom, social media, technology, transgender studies, trans-temporality
National Category
Gender Studies
Research subject
Critical and Cultural Theory
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-28607DOI: 10.3366/soma.2015.0161ISI: 000364643300007Local ID: 946/42/2011OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-28607DiVA, id: diva2:862203
Part of project
Clockwork, Corsets, and Brass: The Politics and Dreams of Steampunk Cultures, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P11-0091:1Available from: 2015-10-20 Created: 2015-10-20 Last updated: 2019-08-29Bibliographically approved

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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
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