The madness is catching : transsexuality and the Cartesian subject.

Transsexual;Cartesian;Transgender;Subjectivity;Foucault;Ulane v. Eastern Airlines

Andrew Edward Clark, 1986-

University:University of Louisville

Department:Women's and Gender Studies

关键词: Transsexual;    Cartesian;    Transgender;    Subjectivity;    Foucault;    Ulane v. Eastern Airlines;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

This project uses the work of Michel Foucault and Lynne Huffer to examine the creation of the transsexual subject in 1950s American sexology through the Cartesian subject. I argue that medical professionals utilized the Cartesian subject as a standard to create and classify transsexuality as deviant. Further, through their joining, medicine and psychology positioned the transsexual subject in both madness and abnormality. Such a position leaves transsexuals in a subject position that cannot speak for itself and requires medical qualification. I demonstrate how such a subject position, created through medicalized discursive practices, carries over into judicial discourse. I find that the judiciary demands transsexuality be spoken, but utilizes medical discourse to define and interpret transsexuality. Examining Ulane v. Eastern Airlines, I argue that the tropes of the transsexual act as techniques of Cartesianism that require transsexual subjects conform to a properly aligned interiority/exteriority and mind/body.