(HS Fielding 058985 2022) Ethical Curiosity with Trans and Non-Binary Clients: Practices to Dismantle the Entitlement to Know

Course overview

As providers we are often taught that curiosity is a value worth cultivating in ourselves, that is a pro-social virtue that promotes growth, learning, and connection. But in work with erotically marginalized populations, such as trans and non-binary clients, curiosity can have a shadow side, and it can often be deployed in such a way that it replicates, however unconsciously, dynamics of oppression. As philosopher Perry Zurn writes, trans and non-binary folx "consistently experience themselves as the object of" cis folx's curiosity, and often at the hands of providers. Through lecture, case study, brainstorming, and discussion, this recording will introduce the concept of ethical curiosity, a model of relating and being-with as providers that respects and empowers our trans and non-binary clients and dismantles an entitlement to know!