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Right To Self Determination Gender

1475 Words6 Pages

Gender and the Right to Self-Determination

Submitted By: Kaustub Narendran – 31LLB14

The conception of the realm of the ‘self’ is central to issues involving the recognition of identities. Conceptions of the ‘self’ in modern times, especially since the Enlightenment era, have referred to the fiction of the fully-possessed rights-bearing subjects of western modernity. However, the conception of ‘self’ for an individual who belongs to a marginalized community is not individual but is rather collective in nature. It is defined in relation to the ‘other’ and is in dialectic opposition to that other.
The border between the self (marginalized) and the other is characterized by a vague sense of horror (known as abjection). This sense of horror …show more content…

Thus self-determination, as understood by the contemporary anticolonial, black power and anti-prison movements, which is also consistent in the case of gender, is the recognition of the identity and the potentiality of freedom encompassing recognition, liberty and dignity.
This essay tries to make the point that the ‘choice’ is fundamental to this conception of gender self-determination. That until there exists the absolute ability to choose and determine one’s gender, to be its sole judge and the right to be recognized by the gender that one chooses, the ideals of liberty and dignity cannot be effectively extended to the Trans community. The progress (or the lack of it) that has been made on this front in the Indian context shall form the centerpiece of the …show more content…

By stating that there exists a ‘real trans-person’ the committee essentialises the transgender community. Further this creates a pigeon-hole wherein certain choices fit the norm of the screening committee and are thus protected whereas other choices that are deviant from that norm are disregarded. This would lead to a further fracture within the transgender community between those who subscribe to a particular ideal and those who don’t. This fracturing is a much greater a problem in such societies because individuals who belong to the transgender community, a community that has been historically marginalized, identify themselves only through a collective identity. This compartmentalization threatens to destroy their conception of

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