Imagined legal subjects and the regulation of female genital surgery

Iribarne, M; Seuffert, N

Imagined legal subjects and the regulation of female genital surgery

Iribarne, M Seuffert, N

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Publisher:: Informa UK Limited
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Australian Feminist Law Journal, 2018, 44, (2), pp. 175-201
Issue Date:: 2018-07-03

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Iribarne, M
dc.contributor.author	Seuffert, N https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0489-5521
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-11T02:11:43Z
dc.date.available	2022-09-11T02:11:43Z
dc.date.issued	2018-07-03
dc.identifier.citation	Australian Feminist Law Journal, 2018, 44, (2), pp. 175-201
dc.identifier.issn	1320-0968
dc.identifier.issn	2204-0064
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161654
dc.description.abstract	In this article we analyse the regulation of female genital surgery in Australia with a focus on New South Wales. We argue that the categorisation of some surgeries as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and others as Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) participates in the production of a constellation of gendered legal subjects, produced in language and law, that contribute to maintaining the raced and gendered status quo in Australia. Our analysis demonstrates that there is not one legal subject (or object) position for women produced through these laws; a range of legal subject positions are produced in and through this specific set of legal provisions, and these subject positions may shift over time. We analyse three legal subjects, produced relationally. First, anti-FGM feminists and female parliamentarians, who, through campaigning for and participating in passing these laws, enter into a partnership across gender with male lawmakers, become authors of law and full legal subjects of western liberal democracies in that process. Necessary to the emergence of these women as full legal subjects and authors of the law are those subjected to these legal provisions. The creation and prohibition of the category of FGM, through the definition of a wide range of varying cultural practices of female genital cutting, or female circumcision, as ‘mutilation’, creates the image of the ‘mutilated (brown) female’ as subjected to the law. Finally, a new subject of FGCS also emerges through these laws: the figure of a relatively privileged (white) woman who is saturated with sexuality and defined through the decision to mutilate her body in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. This figure, which we call the ‘new hysteric’, is the third gendered legal subject that we discuss.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Informa UK Limited
dc.relation.ispartof	Australian Feminist Law Journal
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/13200968.2018.1526056
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	1602 Criminology, 1801 Law, 2002 Cultural Studies
dc.title	Imagined legal subjects and the regulation of female genital surgery
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	44
utslib.for	1602 Criminology
utslib.for	1801 Law
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-09-11T02:11:42Z
pubs.issue	2
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	44
utslib.citation.issue	2

Abstract:

In this article we analyse the regulation of female genital surgery in Australia with a focus on New South Wales. We argue that the categorisation of some surgeries as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and others as Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) participates in the production of a constellation of gendered legal subjects, produced in language and law, that contribute to maintaining the raced and gendered status quo in Australia. Our analysis demonstrates that there is not one legal subject (or object) position for women produced through these laws; a range of legal subject positions are produced in and through this specific set of legal provisions, and these subject positions may shift over time. We analyse three legal subjects, produced relationally. First, anti-FGM feminists and female parliamentarians, who, through campaigning for and participating in passing these laws, enter into a partnership across gender with male lawmakers, become authors of law and full legal subjects of western liberal democracies in that process. Necessary to the emergence of these women as full legal subjects and authors of the law are those subjected to these legal provisions. The creation and prohibition of the category of FGM, through the definition of a wide range of varying cultural practices of female genital cutting, or female circumcision, as ‘mutilation’, creates the image of the ‘mutilated (brown) female’ as subjected to the law. Finally, a new subject of FGCS also emerges through these laws: the figure of a relatively privileged (white) woman who is saturated with sexuality and defined through the decision to mutilate her body in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. This figure, which we call the ‘new hysteric’, is the third gendered legal subject that we discuss.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161654