sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies
Abstract
Upon a consideration of self-creation and the introduction of the gender binary a potential limiter of autonomy, sexQreassignment surgery (SRS) beckons significant reconsideration by the biomedical/ethical field, ranging from the transpersons who undergo it to the preoperative processes that oversee it. Autonomy does not underlie a majority of SRS on prevailing biomedical hypotheses; SRS is granted to those candidates who report symptoms of dysfunction and denied to candidates who do not confirm such suspicions. This research proposes that, upon his or her failure or refusal to demonstrate some understanding of the potentially limiting influence of the gender binary, a candidate should be denied SRS for lack of autonomy. Despite disadvantages of the proposal, it attempts to facilitate and preserve autonomy in transpersons’ projects of self-creation via SRS, indict the gender binary as a limit to autonomy, and estrange notions of ‘dysfunction’ and ‘inauthenticity’ currently associated with transpersons.
Publication Date
2015
Recommended Citation
Duffey, Annthony M.
(2015)
"Between Autonomy and Alienation: Creating the Self via Sex-Reassignment Surgery,"
sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies: Vol. 8, Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/sprinkle/vol8/iss1/6
Included in
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons