Hormonal milieu and its hackers. Herculine Barbin and Paul B. Preciado’s self-narratives as a glitch in the gender matrix

Abstract

This article juxtaposes the memoirs of intersex Herculine Barbin with the autofictional diary of Paul B. Preciado, who is taking testosterone as a drug. The aim of the text is to explore the relationship between the individual and the institutions of power with which one is confronted: for Barbin, it is the 19th century juridical-medical power, for Preciado, it is the contemporary form of capitalism. Power institutions impose specific forms of identity on both figures, placing them in the gender matrix, which is illustrated in the text by the references to the film Matrix (1999). Herculine Barbin is described as a glitch – a mismatched element that distorts the entire gender matrix. Paul B. Preciado is portrayed as a hacker who deconstructs its binary codes, using autofiction and synthetic hormones. The theoretical framework of the text is the thought of Michel Foucault, according to whom resistance remains in immanent relation to power. The embodiment of resistance is illustrated by the concept of blurry subject, who does not internalize the truths imposed by the institutions of power, but takes on an identity game with them.