Hil Malatino Livres

What does it mean for trans people to show up for one another, to care deeply for one another? How have failures of care shaped trans lives? What care practices have trans subjects and communities cultivated in the wake of widespread transphobia and systemic forms of trans exclusion?Trans Care is a critical intervention in how care labor and care ethics have been thought, arguing that dominant modes of conceiving and critiquing the politics and distribution of care entrench normative and cis-centric familial structures and gendered arrangements. A serious consideration of trans survival and flourishing requires a radical rethinking of how care operates.

How the “bad feelings” of trans experience inform trans survival and flourishing. Some days—or weeks, or even years—being trans can feel overwhelmingly negative. Hil Malatino highlights the lack of space for trans individuals to process or express these feelings, which are often viewed with suspicion as they challenge narratives of acceptance or reinforce harmful stereotypes of trans identity. In this work, Malatino initiates a crucial conversation about the emotional realities of trans lives, including fatigue, envy, burnout, numbness, and rage, amidst the pervasive casual and structural transphobia. The emotional experiences of trans individuals are often framed negatively, whether in discussions of childhood trauma before transition or the ongoing antagonism faced post-transition, particularly for trans people of color. Despite this, society discourages the expression of despair or despondency. By centering these marginalized feelings, the work proposes an affective trans commons that transcends political debates about inclusion. Recognizing powerful emotions like anger and exhaustion is essential for fostering justice-oriented advocacy and organizing, ultimately recalibrating new avenues for survival and well-being within the trans community.

Merging critical theory, autobiography, and sexological archival research, Hil Malatino explores how and why intersexuality became an anomalous embodiment requiring correction and how contesting this pathologization can promote medical reform and human rights for intersex and trans people.