Fascist energizing: rhetorics of transantagonism as affective metabolism

Abstract

This introductory essay argues that trans rhetorics are a crucial method for grappling with the speed, scope, and ascendance of contemporary fascism. Yet, rhetorical studies have yet to robustly engage with trans methodologies and epistemologies, a refusal with dire consequences for academic labor in this climate and the future of the field. Pushing against the scarcity logics that render “trans issues” as “niche” or a “cultural war,” this essay develops a way of reading fascist energizing. Through the concept affective metabolism, I argue trans people are imagined as resources to exhaust, alongside others captured by grievance politics. Consequently, fascist energizing is a way of metabolizing fear into authoritarian control, with consequences for trans people alongside laborers in communities for reproductive justice, climate, and disability justice.