Define: WTF temporality
a looping time structure in which visibility and progress coexist with backlash and surveillance
This study examines how trans* students…
navigate the WTF and how their survival strategies generate epistemologies that reclaim the present as a site of possibility.
What did Foucault say about sexuality?
Sexuality is not “self,” but produced by power, it’s a product of historical power/knowledge systems, often institutionalized in medicine, law, and psychology. Foucault is deeply skeptical of the notion of an authentic self existing prior to and outside of power relations. He sees the very impulse to discover one’s “true sexuality” as an effect of power.
Where and when did WTF come from?
Bettcher, 2019, Hypatia, What is Trans Philosophy?
The phrase is a pun on “What the f-ck?” and alludes to Foucault’s central arguments about how sexuality is not a repressed, natural aspect of the self. It is something that is produced by power and knowledge.
The purpose of this literature review is to…
… define this contradictory temporality and its manifestation in higher education, situate the study within that framework, identify gaps in prior research, and outline how this study addresses them.
How did Bettcher push back against Foucault?
Bettcher acknowledges the power structures Foucault identifies but insists on centering the lived experience and self-knowledge of trans people. For Bettcher, the self’s authority is a powerful tool of resistance against oppressive narratives.
Trans Identities and First-Person Authority (2012)
What is a temporal loop and how does it reveal the contradictions of neoliberal futurity?
loop of deferred progress, conditioned by present compliance. It means that you comply now in exchange for justice in the future, but that’s constantly delayed, looping around to, just behave now….
What is the Munoz Paradox?
Muñoz’s argument that queer people are paradoxically and simultaneously pushed out of mainstream society and burdened with a utopian vision to transform it.
Define Neoliberal Futurity
neoliberal futurity is the idea that liberation lives somewhere ahead.
What’s the difference between Neoliberal Futurity and Munoz’s queer futurity?
Neoliberal futurity defers transformation; Muñoz’s queer utopia imagines it.
Your work refuses both deferral and fantasy by reclaiming the present as a site of creation.
Why are both Neoliberal Futurity and Queer Futurity potential traps?
Neither one takes action:
Neoliberal futurity disciplines through deferral (“wait for inclusion”).
Even well-intentioned utopian futurity can slip into romantic deferral (“someday we’ll be free”).
How is S&K WTF an applied in 1) field, 2) focus, 3) purpose, 4) method, 5) outcome?
Field - Media & Speculative Fiction v Higher Ed
Focus - Cultural tempor & trans representation in speculative media v institutional tempor & lived exper
purpose - reconceptualize spec as a tool for living in WTF v reframe survival, care, and joy as epistemologies in higher ed
method - Critical media analysis v. Speculative inquiry + trans epistemologies
outcome - Theoretical reframing of speculation v applied framework for institutional transformation
What is your theoretical framework?
Kean (Critical Trans Framework) = institutional/educational grounding & educational critique
Samer & Keegan (Trans Speculation / WTF temporality) = core temporal-theoretical lens, provides the temporal/epistemic lens (how time, recognition, and futurity structure trans* experience)
Bettcher and Nirta = theoretical genealogy, showing where the temporality concept originated
