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If the State Decertified Gender, What Might Happen to its Meaning and Value?

Cooper, Davina, Renz, Flora (2016) If the State Decertified Gender, What Might Happen to its Meaning and Value? Journal of Law and Society, 43 (4). pp. 483-505. ISSN 0263-323X. E-ISSN 1467-6478. (doi:10.1111/jols.12000) (KAR id:57644)

Abstract

As jurisdictions reform gender identity laws to accommodate transgender and intersex people, this article speculatively explores a more fundamental shift: eliminating state law’s role in determining and assigning gender status altogether. Adopting a feminist perspective, we explore what the meaning and effects of comprehensively reforming legal gender might be in terms of gender’s constitution as a socio-legal property, differentially recognised and protected by diverse but unequal bodies. Our discussion proceeds along two intersecting paths. The first concerns the different classificatory methods which could enable state law, without assigning gender, to continue to regulate gender identity decisions, thereby allowing state law to remain involved in tackling gender discrimination. The second concerns the changing form gender might take in conditions where state law withdraws its allocative function. These paths converge in a final discussion which considers what legal and political effects might follow from gender becoming a property that is individually and collectively cultivated.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/jols.12000
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Flora Renz
Date Deposited: 03 Oct 2016 09:38 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 05:13 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/57644 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Cooper, Davina.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Renz, Flora.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1259-2923
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