Binary Optics: Colonial Classification of Trans Lives in Algorithmic Technologies

Abstract

This article argues that algorithms are not neutral, but encode colonialist visions from the past into the present that disproportionately harm trans lives. I argue that colonial classification regimes brought forward by Western states that sought to sort, order and classify humans into binary categories—such as binary gender—are extended through algorithmic technologies into the present. This contemporary encoding of colonial classification reinscribes the default notion of binary gender, which makes algorithmic technologies unequipped to account for nuances of gender diversity, failing to comprehend those defying binary categorisation, and directing violence towards trans lives. I suggest that, only by tracing the colonial origins and development of broader sociopolitical ideals of human classification and differentiation along axes of race/gender into algorithmic code, it becomes visible how colonial logics historically permeated and prevail through novel means to this day – curating a ‘binary optics’ continued by algorithmic operations. Critically, this enables us to unveil and understand the extent and implications of how algorithmic technologies encode harmful and exclusionary practices.