The Construction of Binary Subjects: State Legibility, Resonance, and Immunological Devices in Public Policy

Abstract

This article analyzes how binary gender categories in Latin American public policies operate as state simplification technologies that, under the guise of technical neutrality, produce institutional alienation and systematic exclusion. The central argument holds that the man/woman binary responds to a structural need of the modern State to make populations legible and manageable, facilitating governmental administration at the expense of violating identities that do not conform to the dominant classificatory scheme. Through theoretical dialogue with Rosa (resonance and expanding reach), Scott (state legibility), Esposito (immunitary paradigm), Bourdieu and Christin (administrative field), and Roth Deubel (baroque political culture), the text reveals five interrelated logics sustaining this binary imposition. The analysis shows that intersex, transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid persons experience "a relationship of relationlessness" with state institutions that only recognize legitimate existences when they conform to standardized categories. New Public Management intensifies this epistemic violence by transforming citizens into quantifiable data. The article documents how street-level bureaucrats face tensions between rigid categories and complex realities, moving from frustration to resignation. It concludes that overcoming this alienation requires transitioning from instrumental appropriation logics toward transformative assimilation, recognizing the constitutive unavailability of identities and leveraging Latin America's cultural pluriverse to build more inclusive institutions