RE-THINKING QUEER BODIES THROUGH LAW
The paper is an attempt to examine body and its construction in the colonial period and its post colonial impact. I locate this body in the category of queer subject. The colonial administration created the 'category ' of the queer subject as a result of governance, i.e. through the adoption of Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’) in 1860. Section 377 of the IPC criminalized sexual offense against the order of nature (non-procreative sex). The paper historically draws out Section 377 of the IPC. Through a close reading of the judgment the paper focuses on analysing the limits that the law poses to a discussion of sexuality. The paper, while recognising the importance of law and legal spaces acknowledges the
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the use of knowledge to rationalise, systematise and police the Indian subjects), is used as a framework by post-colonial analysts in analysing the constitution of the subject to the formation of the state. India has two parts to the colonial history. The former when East India Company had the reigns of command and latter when the Crown controlled the functioning of India. The two differed in the way in which power was exercised.
Post the Revolt of 1857 saw a reconstitution of the colonial power. One of the most significant one was the adoption of the IPC in 1860. The IPC was introduced without either an understanding of the Indian community or consultation with Indian leadership. The colonial administration implicitly created the 'queer subject ' by criminalizing sexual intercourse 'against the order of nature ' in Section 377 of the IPC. The primary occupation of the paper is to provide a different reading of the 2009 Delhi High Court Judgment on Section 377 of the IPC(Naz Foundation (India) Trust vs. Government of India &Ors WP (C) No.7455/2001 (Delhi High Court July 2, 2009). The paper first historically draws out how the queer subject came to be placed under Section 377 of the IPC. Having done this I spell out the frame of my analysis. In the third section in the paper I provide my different reading of the judgment. In the last two sections I provide the critique of the judgment, examine the limits of law the judgment and paradoxes within law based
In this section of chapter 3 Georgian Davis talks about the power the medical field had on the topic of the intersex body. Georgina set up an interview at a pediatric medical center with Dr. I who was a well-known expert of the intersex body. After the publication of the “Consensus Statement of Management of Intersex Disorders” intersex language had been replaced with the terminology DSD (Disorders of Sex Development) in the medical profession. As mentioned in chapter 2 she reiterates critiques that the medical field have undergone based on their inability to diagnose honesty to people with intersex traits. She noted that the medical profession can either do harm or good to the intersex community based on its position in the level of gender structure. In the medical profession, there was not always a form of naming abnormalities. It began with the Greeks and continued into the 18th century until they created a classification of the many medical traits. Sociologist Phil Brown argues that for there to be diagnostics there has two be two parts to complete it. One the diagnosis is technique which includes forming the classification by using various tasks and techniques. While the work diagnosis includes clinical evaluations and task. By using this form of diagnosis, we can better understand intersexuality.
By around the year 1920, The British have taken control of more than 25 percent of the human population. India was one of those colonies. Originally used by the British East India Company for a source of Cotton, Indigo, and Tea, The British took complete Economic, Social, and Political control of India before the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. With many natural resources and a huge population of potential consumers, India had become the ¨Jewel in the Crown¨ of the British Empire. The administration of India that Britain created was superbly efficient, leading to the construction of massive infrastructure throughout all of India, and the education of some elite class Indians. On the other hand, British rule of India served the needs of the British
The following thesis will lay out the progression in the LGBTQIA movement along with the deficits that these individuals have encountered throughout history. An interdisciplinary perspective through historical,
From the time of the 1500s, a policy of expansion known as imperialism had been practiced by many countries due to political, economic and social reasons. The result of imperialism can be viewed differently based on a person or country’s perspective. Some country benefited from imperialism while others are imperialized and taken over. There are two time periods of imperialism, old and new imperialism. Old imperialism occurred from the 1500s-1700 while new imperialism occurred from the 1700s to the 1900s. Old imperialism focused on mercantilism and conquering while new imperialism focused on capitalism and obtaining resources. One area new imperialism was practiced was the Indian subcontinent.
Canada’s laws are presented to be unbiased and non-discriminatory. The law promises every individual the right to life, freedom of expression, well-being and uses sparkly language to prove that no one is above the law despite sexual orientation (Canadian Human Rights Act, 1985). However, this is not the case in regards to homosexual individuals. This paper will discuss how homosexual suffer from discriminatory laws in their everyday lives. The discriminatory laws further lead to myths, ideologies and labels that are imposed on homosexuals (Fedders, pgs.787-789, 2006). Also, in this piece of writing two cases will be introduced to further prove how the law can be discriminatory even though it appears to be sparkly with persuasive language
This essay will examine Canada’s Human Rights record since 1914 through the reactions of the Canadian government and Canadian peoples. From the example of the government reaction to the LGBTQ community through 1910 to today, one can see Canada’s human rights record through domestic policies that both excluded and later included those of differing sexualities. From the example of the Canadian people’s attitude to the LGBTQ community through 1910 to today, one can see Canada’s human rights record through social attitudes that both excluded and later included those of differing sexualities. From the example of employer’s reaction to the LGBTQ community through 1910 to today, one can see the economic impact of Canada’s human rights record
Americans are often seen as a beacon of freedom but are the people truly free? The citizens of America are entitled to their rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of choice but when it comes to their sexuality or gender identity, their freedoms are limited whether by law or by a person’s opinion. Although there are rights that are law, it does not mean the people would obey the laws accordingly. Discrimination and harassment against transgender and people of a different sexuality is common among people under the age of 25. Studies shows that about 49 percent of transgender people under the age of 25 have attempted suicide because they were harassed (Ford). Transgender people are allowed the same basic rights as other citizens, but
This essay will consider law reform in the context of homosexual relationships between men. In particular, it will look at the various influencing Acts, establish the different legal principles and scrutinise how the changing social attitudes have affected the development of this law. It will only focus on the broader context and will not include other influencing changes such as LGBT adoption laws, discrimination etc. In order to reach a conclusion of the effects of these …. secondary sources such as books and the Westlaw website.
The body once established as “natural” and binary sex an unquestioned “fact,” is the alibi for constructions of gender and sexuality, which can purport to be the just-as-natural expressions or consequences of a more fundamental sex. It is on the foundation of the construction of this natural binary sex that the binaries of gender and heterosexuality are likewise constructed as innate. This narrative “gives a false sense of legitimacy and universality to a culturally specific and, in some cases, culturally oppressive version of gender identity” (Butler 329). Without a critique of sex as produced by discourse, Butler claims, the distinction of sex and gender used to contest the constructions of binary gender and enforced heterosexuality would be wholly ineffective.
“Discrimination [dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuh n]: treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.” Right from the dictionary, the definition is clear. Look back 95 years to 1920, where women across America raised their voices and fought back for the right to vote. Now take a look back 48 years ago when in 1967, interracial marriage was finally legalized. These were all monumental events fighting against discrimination. However, the definition is still blurring in minds of some across America as a multitude of bills are being passed permitting people to act with bigotry towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts just being one of them. In discussions of bills such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, or RFRA’s, one controversial issue has been whether or not they permit discrimination. On one hand, those supporting the laws argue that they only reinforce the free practice of religion. On the other hand, those against them contend that with their vagueness it plays out as disguising legal discrimination. My own view is that the RFRA’s and other anti-LGBTQ+ laws should be repealed or at the very least backed with a state wide non-discrimination law for LGBTQ+ individuals. This is in order to prevent a large amount of service being denied to LGBTQ+
First and foremost, I do no believe there is a comparison between civil rights and gender/sexual orientation (gay individuals). To compare the two in any shape or form is to diminish, underestimate, depreciate and compromise the severity of the crimes committed against black people at the hands of their white slave masters. Civil rights were not just about granting freedom to black people, but it was about restoring the general dignity of humans regardless of their race. The humiliation black people suffer was catastrophic, it threatens the existence blacks in America. A whole generation of black people was stripped of their human dignity, ripped apart and mutilates like cursed animals. To disenfranchise an entire generation in such a way just because of the color of their skin meant that an entire generation of people was at the verge of extinction.
Justice Nariman’s judgment shows us that with the right kind of conviction, it is possible to uncover the importance of free speech as a value unto itself within our larger constitutional scheme. That the court has defended the Constitution’s ideals of tolerance with a sense of vivacity and integrity, and that it has provided the jurisprudence of free speech with an enhanced and rare clarity, must give us hope. It must allow us to believe that we can now challenge the noxious culture of censorship that pervades the Indian state. It also shows us that we do not need an American style First Amendment to achieve liberal ideals; what we require, as the court has demonstrated here, is a government that confirms to our own Constitution, which, when
While bodies have been scrutinized throughout history at a biological level, feminist and queer theorists look at the body as a site for sociopolitical thought. Bodies operate as devices through which people can experience the world. Each body is uniquely located in a specific space and time. Feminist and queer writers view the embodied-self rooted within a specific location and environment. Feminist and queer studies - informed by critical race and postcolonial theory and cultural analysis - explore the limits of subjectivity in a global climate that excludes certain bodies, particularly those that do not and/or cannot fit within a white, middle-class, cisgender, heteronormative,
In the History of Sexuality Vol. 1, Michel Foucault writes the body as a constructed and manipulated agent, the locus of sociopolitical discourse and power. To Foucault, the body cannot exist before the law (that which holds and ascribes its meaning). Similarly, sexuality cannot free itself from relations of power (Butler 1989:603). Indeed, the body is culturally contested; it is incapable of independence from any particular structuralized narrative. The ubiquitous yet uncertain subject of sex, as Foucault describes, is an “imaginary point, the consequence of materiality fully invested with ideas” (Butler 1989:603). He writes; “Nothing in man— not even his body – is sufficiently stable to serve as the basis for self-recognition or for understanding other men” (Foucault 1980:153). The culturally constructed body then, asserts a multitude of identities. The body is molded by distinct regimes of life, broken down by “rhythms of work, rest, and holiday” uprooted by cultural significant values, habits and moral laws (Foucault 1980:153).
In this project, I will identify the relevant issues with the law as discussed in the case of Rhomaine Miyando Mohan (“Mr.Mohan”) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] , accompanied by a critical analysis of the judges decision in the Upper Tribunal and the Court of Appeal. The legislation put before parliament in June 2012, sets out the new provisions relating to private and family life. In effect, it is illustrating the amendments made to the Immigration Rules, which essentially apply to the aforementioned case.