How Protests Make Americans Foreign

 

This is an image of an anti-trans protest, dubbed "Rally to End Child Mutilation," in Tennessee from October of 2022 in which conservatives railed against gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors. The image depicts a clumped crowd of assorted people, the majority of whom face away from the camera or are angled toward the left, indicating that they may have been marching or watching a speaker. The crowd is mostly white and visually appears to contain men and women of older ages. Many people hold up signs of various colors and sporting printed or hand-drawn words, such as “DO NO HARM,” “VOTE REPUBLICAN,” etc (Farmer 2022). The focal point of the image, however, presides in the right half of the frame–a man dressed in a gray and white flannel and tan puffer vest. His face is mostly hidden behind a bright yellow sunflower-colored sign that he holds up in the direction of the camera. Unlike the other signs, this one is easy to read; it says, “MUTILATION ≠ MEDICINE,” with each respective word centered among multiple lines in capital bold black lettering (Farmer 2022). Rising from behind the crowd are tan stone columns that connect to a stone structure to form the Tennessee State Capitol building. A few men in black suits watch the crowd from the steps of the capitol, surrounded by speakers, signs, and the Tennessee and American flags, the state and country in which this image was taken. 

In The Civil Sphere, Jeffery Alexander argues that within the civil sphere, moral communities utilize cultural codes to curate solidarity and a sense of belonging. These codes, Alexander explains, are articulated through an oppositional binary of characteristics that are assigned to particular people and groups. Groups fall into the category of being "civil" or "anticivil" (Alexander 2006:57). This is done to ensure "civil" communities the right to autonomy and democracy. Or, on the other hand, deny moral communities deemed "anticivil" from the citizen's right to inclusion, solidarity, and democracy. This occurs through the transmission of cultural codes through communicative institutions, which allow present symbolic representations of moral communities and spread them. The cultural codes are then introduced to regulative institutions, which have the authority to allow or deny moral communities to have access to the state and citizenship. In particular, Alexander draws out cultural codes and binary characteristics for the motives of moral communities. For example, a "civil" community may be characterized as autonomous, reasonable, and calm, whereas an "anticivil" community is dependent, unreasonable, and hyper. Alexander contends that the binaries of characteristics allow others to determine the human nature of these communities and therefore grant or refuse them autonomy. He writes that when actors of a moral community’s motives are characterized by "anticivil" cultural codes, they are therefore declared unfit for autonomy or freedom, denied access to the state and the rights that follow, and repressed. 

Alexander’s argument in The Civil Sphere deals with solidarity among moral communities, and an aspect of solidarity can be observed within the image through the collective crowd that takes up the lower half of the photograph’s frame. The people gathered seem to have some things in common–signs, similar means of dressing, mostly white and older, etc.–and the signs signify a moral solidarity. Within the image, the man with the yellow sign represents the moral community being photographed; face covered, he acts as a general character, in a sense speaking for the shared values of each member in the community. The general sentiment that he displays on his sign, that “MUTILATION ≠ MEDICINE,” is that shared value, and Alexander would perhaps thus argue that in the act of attending a protest, the members of this community engage in a communicative institution, effectively broadcasting their values and the cultural codes that they have assigned to themselves and others. The act of protesting in itself could point to a particular binary of motives being assigned, as protesting and commenting on the rights of another group of people implies a self-assigned sense of activity, rationality, and independence while depriving the group being spoken for from their autonomy. The actual words on the man’s sign, however, “MUTILATION ≠ MEDICINE” assign additional cultural codes to the group being spoken for. The argument being made by this man is a popular one questioning the right of transgender people, likely transgender children, to gender-affirming healthcare. Using the word “MUTILATION” and attributing it to transgender people, bold and in all caps to emphasize the shock and severity of such a negatively connotated word, characterizes trans people, who seek “MEDICINE" (gender-affirming healthcare), with anticivil cultural codes. Specifically, “MUTILATION” calls to mind accusations of trans people being polluted with distortion, insanity, and irrationality, all anticivil cultural codes. Indeed, Alexander’s argument in The Civil Sphere suggests that in creating a binary between themselves and trans people, the community in the image attributes civil cultural codes to themselves and anticivil cultural codes to trans people seeking gender-affirming care. The background of this photograph is essential to the communication of these cultural codes, too, as the community attempts to spread their idealization of the oppositional binary between them (as rational, sane actors) and trans people (as irrational, mad actors) before the Tennessee capitol, what Alexander would refer to as a regulatory institution--one which deals with law. It is this law and the application of cultural codes within the law that ultimately would decide who should be allowed or denied access to the state. Additionally, it is the law that allows or denies particular groups of people citizenship, and consequently, the rights that come along with citizenship. Using Alexander's argument, a viewer of this image might better understand the sociological forces at play behind a protest. The cultural codes that the community in the photograph chooses to promote to the capitol can determine whether trans people are granted the citizen’s right to healthcare or whether they are to be repressed, deemed foreign. The image demonstrates Alexander's claim that particular communities question the autonomy of others, “ not only for the sake of civil society, but for their own sakes as well,” being uncivil and therefore unable to practice autonomy nor democracy (Alexander 2006:59). 

Alexander, Jeffery C. 2006. “Contradictions: Uncivilizing Pressures and Civil Repair.” Pp. 193-209. The Civil Sphere. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Alexander, Jeffery C. 2006. “Discourses: Liberty and Repression.” Pp. 53-67. The Civil Sphere. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Farmer, Blake. 2022. From WPLN News. Retrieved March 28, 2024 (https://wpln.org/post/tennessee-lawmakers-vow-to-ban-gender-affirming-surgeries-at-noisy-anti-trans-rally/).

Farmer, Blake. 2022. “Tennessee lawmakers vow to ban gender-affirming surgeries at noisy anti-trans rally.” WPLN News, October 21, 2022 (https://wpln.org/post/tennessee-lawmakers-vow-to-ban-gender-affirming-surgeries-at-noisy-anti-trans-rally/).