The Cis-Normative Economy of Concern

Discourses On Medical Care for Trans Children in Denmark

Abstract

This article takes stock of current Danish perceptions of what it means to be trans as expressed in Danish news media material from 2019 to 2021. Focusing on the healthcare professionals’ growing concern for the transgender boy influx to the Danish Gender Identity Clinics, as these are reported in the media, we investigate the affective logics of concern as expressed in articles and interviews with healthcare professionals working at the Gender Identity Clinics. We argue that new, well-meaning concerns are now replacing previously widespread, pathologizing, and gender binary concerns. We unfold the structure and affective logics of these new worries as well as their implications by asking: Which bodies do the new concerns pertain to, and who/what is thought to remedy such concerns? What societal forms of criticism underpin the worry about ‘too many trans boys’, and what happens when critiques of gender normativity are expressed through the administration of transgender people’s bodies?