Discomforting Power: Bodies in Public

Abstract

In this work, I draw from oral history interviews with queer and trans disability justice activists in Seattle, WA. I posit a theory of comfort that interrogates how “being comfortable” in certain spaces gets allocated on the basis of social privilege. I argue that comfort is only bestowed on and felt by some bodies, often at the expense of others. Who gets to be comfortable? And how is the feeling of comfort or the feeling of discomfort differently experienced based upon one’s social status and embodied identity? When does comfort get noticed and when does it go unnoticed? When does comfort become coded? I posit that terms like “safety,” “privacy,” and “cleanliness” become code words for comfort in some contexts, especially concerning public bathrooms. I move from broad accounts of discourses around public bathrooms to particular fears, events, and lenses. My interlocutors discuss their experiences of avoiding drinking water, facing possible violence, peeing on themselves and taking extra clothes everywhere as a result of lack of accessible bathrooms, facing illness from chemicals in the bathrooms, and staying out of public because of the problems with public bathrooms. I interrogate the implications of the construction of comfort for activism, organizing, and identity, arguing that comfort becomes an oppressive and defining force that is used as a weapon against marginalized people.