Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2011
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Women's and Gender Studies
Committee Chair
Theriot, Nancy M.
Author's Keywords
Transsexual; Cartesian; Transgender; Subjectivity; Foucault; Ulane v. Eastern Airlines
Subject
Transsexualism--Social aspects; Transsexuals--Legal status, laws, etc.; Transsexualism--United States--History; Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984; Huffer, Lynne, 1960-
Abstract
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.
Recommended Citation
Clark, Andrew Edward 1986-, "The madness is catching : transsexuality and the Cartesian subject." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 254.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/254
