GNDS 120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Androgyny, Queer Theory, Structural Violence
31 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
By confronting medicalization, trans people expose the power relations that restrict and control trans bodily autonomy. In a cissexist society, gender normativity takes up distinctive methods, notably medicalization, to produce trans oppression. The medicalization of transsexualism in twentieth century western medical science affected not only transsexuals but all trans people: by attempting to define all trans people"s lives according to a medical model of transition. While medicalization has forced intersex people into medical procedures that are not wanted or needed, medicalization has restricted access by trans people to medical procedures that are wanted and needed. The diverse viewpoints in this film -- both their differences, and their synergies -- represent a key example of conversations within trans, queer and feminist studies. They show that trans people are able to define and discuss the complexities of trans experience in their own terms. Many of us are alive or healthier because of medical technology.
