The Made-Up State: Technology, Trans Femininity, and Citizenship in Indonesia

Review "The Made-Up State illuminates what the body must do to achieve recognition and a sense of belonging as a citizen. Warias cultivate a modern self through showing expertise in crafting their own bodies, which can then be used to craft other exemplary bodies. In telling warias' stories of achievement, this book is in itself a wonderful achievement." -- Sharyn Graham Davies, author of Gender Diversity in Indonesia"Well-researched and carefully analyzed, Hegarty's book is a compelling study of how dynamic transgender identities emerged in the context of postcolonial political and urban transformations in Indonesia and why waria stories matter to the history of Indonesian nation building. Outstanding." -- Suzanne Moon, author of Technology and Ethical Idealism"At a moment of renewed global interest in trans peoples' lives and rights, Hegarty provides us with a compelling account of how warias, trans women in Indonesia, have repurposed state developmentalism to claim femininity and appearance as a legitimate field of technical prowess. Hegarty's thoughtful, moving analysis introduces us to courageous trans women, their pride in being recognized as experts in glamour, and their adroit navigation of a profoundly heteronormative landscape and cisgender beauty norms." -- Carla Jones, University of Colorado Boulder, coeditor of Re-Orienting Fashion"Conceptually rigorous and built upon a stunning historical examination, this book is a much-needed and timely contribution to queer and trans studies in Indonesia. Hegarty connects the politics of 'being seen' and 'acceptance' of Indonesian trans women with the broader idea of a nation's progress, spatial governance, and citizenship. His trenchant analysis highlights various creative agencies of trans women in navigating the state's regime throughout history." -- Hendri Yulius Wijaya, author of Intimate Assemblages"Thoroughly researched and elegantly written, this book traces the history of Indonesian trans women's quest for national belonging. Acutely attentive to the precarious work of making space for gender nonconformity, Hegarty's compelling analysis reveals the centrality of outer appearances to claiming citizenship in the postcolonial city. A major achievement." -- Annemarie Samuels, Leiden University, author of After the Tsunami"An exquisitely nuanced account of how new technologies and developmentalist notions of the modern man and woman informed transgender selfhood in New Order Indonesia. Meticulously tracing the dynamics of transgender discourse, Hegarty locates modern identities as emerging within the 'unruly knowledge' fashioned at the intersection of local agency and global connections." -- Peter A. Jackson, Australian National University, author of Capitalism Magic Thailand"The Made-Up State is a breakthrough. Hegarty's detailed historical and ethnographic analysis links trans femininity in Indonesia to the interplay of urban governance and emerging technologies of gender. This book will be invaluable to queer studies, Southeast Asian studies, Science and Technology Studies, and beyond." -- Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, author of The Gay Archipelago Product Description In The Made-Up State, Benjamin Hegarty contends that warias, one of Indonesia's trans feminine populations, have cultivated a distinctive way of captivating the affective, material, and spatial experiences of belonging to a modern public sphere. Combining historical and ethnographic research, Hegarty traces the participation of warias in visual and bodily technologies, ranging from psychiatry and medical transsexuality to photography and feminine beauty. The concept of development deployed by the modern Indonesian state relies on naturalizing the binary of "male" and "female." As historical brokers between gender as a technological system of classifying human difference and state citizenship, warias shaped the contours of modern selfhood even while being positioned as no