Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic research in Argentina and Spain, this paper analyses how “fraud” operates as a moral and political category shaping disputes over trans labour rights, legitimacy, and citizenship across state institutions, media discourses, and feminist and trans activist arenas.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how the notion of “fraud” operates as a moral and political category in contemporary disputes over trans rights in Argentina and Spain. Drawing on comparative ethnographic research situated in the anthropology of political sexuality and moralities, the paper analyses how accusations of fraud circulate across institutional, media, and activist arenas, producing regimes of suspicion that exceed legal frameworks.

On the one hand, public and bureaucratic discourses frame trans inclusion as a potential abuse of rights, mobilising “fraud” as a technology of moral regulation that disciplines gendered and sexualised forms of labour and citizenship. These dynamics resonate with global anti-gender narratives that seek to delegitimise trans people as workers, beneficiaries of welfare, or political subjects. On the other hand, the paper explores internal tensions within trans and feminist activism, where debates over the “true spirit” of quota policies reveal competing moral economies of deservingness, vulnerability, and political legitimacy.

By following how “fraud” is invoked, contested, and resignified in everyday interactions with state agencies, activist spaces, and media narratives, the paper shows how moral distinctions between legitimacy and illegitimacy shape access to work, rights, and recognition. Rather than treating these disputes as purely ideological, the analysis foregrounds their material consequences for trans livelihoods and political strategies.

The paper argues that an anthropology of moralities helps to grasp how advances in gender and labour rights coexist with enduring regimes of suspicion, compelling feminist and queer movements to navigate these tensions without relinquishing hard-won gains.