ABSTRACT

Trans people face biases and barriers in healthcare including health professionals’ lack of training and knowledge of trans health, bodies, and identities. Interactions between health professionals and trans people have been analysed as a site fraught with historical power imbalances, epistemological struggles that position trans people at a disadvantage and one where negotiations of access to adequate services and treatment continue. In this paper, I highlight the need to pay attention to not only how knowledge about trans bodies and possibilities is produced, negotiated and contested, but also to moments of claimed and/or actual ignorance that take place in healthcare. Applying a feminist epistemological lens, I ask what is at stake and what is the function of ignorance in the trans patient/health professional relationship. Such exploration is crucial if we recognize that practices of ignorance are often entangled with practices of exclusion and oppression. Methodologically, I draw on qualitative in-depth interviews with 18 health professionals in the UK conducted as part of a larger research project on trans health. In analysing the multi-faceted manifestations of ignorance within the data and linking them to feminist taxonomies of ignorance, I explore how ignorance can be critiqued and transformed.

摘要

跨性别者在医疗保健方面面临偏见和障碍，包括卫生专业人员缺乏跨性别健康、身体和身份的培训和知识。卫生专业人员和跨性别者之间的互动被分析为一个充满历史权力不平衡、使跨性别者处于不利地位的认识论斗争以及关于获得适当服务和治疗的谈判仍在继续的场所。在本文中，我强调不仅需要关注关于跨性别者和可能性的知识是如何产生、协商和争论的，而且还需要关注医疗保健中声称和/或实际无知的时刻。运用女权主义认识论的视角，我问什么是利害关系，以及无知在跨患者/健康专业关系中的作用是什么。如果我们认识到无知的做法往往与排斥和压迫的做法纠缠在一起，那么这种探索就至关重要。在方法论上，我借鉴了对英国 18 名卫生专业人员的定性深入访谈，这是一项更大的跨性别健康研究项目的一部分。在分析数据中无知的多方面表现并将它们与无知的女权主义分类法联系起来时，我探索了如何批评和转变无知。