Papers by Jenny Rawsthorne
This paper aims to challenge the assumption of the law's impartiality to gender. Gendered identit... more This paper aims to challenge the assumption of the law's impartiality to gender. Gendered identity is constructed and confined by social discourse, and is expressed through homogenizing binary gender norms which prescribe the ‘appropriate’ means of gender performance. The definition of the ‘feminine’ role expected of women is given by men, who in a patriarchal modern society are the dominant gender. I will examine what ‘performativity’ means in terms of gender discourse, and analyse how exclusionary this can be for the gender dysphoric and the transsexual. I will look at the relevant legislation for allowing them legal acknowledgement of their acquired gender, and provide commentary on its ineffectiveness because it perpetuates the gender binary dichotomy. Pursuant to this, I will deconstruct how girls become ‘feminine’; a learning process which crystallizes in childhood rather than any innately biological attributes they may have. I will consider how society responds to deviance from these gender-appropriate norms with condemnation and pathology; none more demonstrably so than in the case of women who kill.
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Papers by Jenny Rawsthorne