The State of Jewish Gender: Affect and Biopolitics in Cisness and Zionism

Both cisness and Zionism seem to be at a crisis point. As increasing numbers of young people come out as trans and nonbinary, those invested in normative gender are engaged in a prolonged campaign of legislative and cultural backlash; some of these same anti-trans figures promote unwavering support of the state of Israel, even as uncritical pro-Zionism wanes among younger Americans horrified by Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. This paper argues that cisness and Zionism are ideologically linked, as biopolitical projects of the state. By analyzing cisness and Zionism as biopolitical projects directed at controlling the affective flows of gender and Judaism, we gain clarity about both the violence of enforcing strict borders (around territory, peoplehood, gender, and subjecthood) and also the inevitability of resistance and refusal.