Date of Submission
Spring 2015
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Christopher McIntosh
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper seeks to address the capacity for gender reclassification policies to benefit trans persons through the lens of how ‘the state’ recognizes trans persons. The terms of and conditions before legal and civic recognition control trans subjects in service of pre-existing norms and structures rather than serving trans persons in view of the challenge they pose to the status quo, the multiplicities of their existences, as well as their pre-existing socio-economic realities and socio-historical devaluation. The institutional recognition of trans persons in light of its limitations and effects demonstrate the creation of a “valued” trans subject. Consequently, their (mis)recognition occurs through withholding recognition until one becomes controlled, fixable, governable, and ‘normativity’ valuable—characteristic of state recognition.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gershbein, Sabrina, "The Body as Bureaucratic Property: (Mis)recognition of Trans Subjects" (2015). Senior Projects Spring 2015. 240.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2015/240
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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