Willful lives: Self-determination in lesbian and trans feminisms

Challenging the determinism evident in assigning gender at birth, this commentary examines how lesbian and trans feminisms resist gender fatalism through willful self-determination. Conceptualizing gender fatalism as a prophecy and drawing on Sara Ahmed’s (2016 Ahmed, S. (2016). Living a feminist life. Duke University Press.Crossref , Google Scholar) work on gender fatalism and willfulness and Talia Mae Bettcher’s (2014 Bettcher, T. M. (2014). Trapped in the wrong theory: Rethinking trans oppression and resistance. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 39(2), 383–406. https://doi.org/10.1086/673088Crossref, Web of Science ® , Google Scholar) work on reality enforcement, I argue that most lesbian and trans feminisms defy the fated outcomes predicted by gender assignment and coerced by the biopolitical regimes of gender enforcement. Instead, these feminisms share a common thread of self-determination that is a site for coalition building and solidarity. I echo this call for a rejection of gender fatalism and for the collective work of gender liberation through living willful lives built from self-determination through bodily, sexual, reproductive, and gender autonomy.