Euphorias! Positive Feelings Within Negative Conditions

Abstract

AbstractPeople within marginal gender, sex, and sexuality groups are mostly framed within conservative psycho-medical research, or critical empowerment literature. In both literatures, their framing has negative aspects either negating their bodies, identities, health, or function, or positioning within discriminatory contexts. Resisting deficit-based framings, this book uses the concept ‘euphoria’ to investigate when, why, and how marginal gender, sex, and sexuality groups have positive experiences of their diverse variations. These positive experiences appear to occur within, and even in part due or at least in relation to, marginal groups’ repressive and disordering contexts and marginalisation itself. This chapter supplies an overview of the different literatures on euphoria. It relates this work to information on dysphoria. It then supplies an outline of the chapters of the book.