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More than a Woman? Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Medical Law

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Abstract

This article examines law’s representation of embodied female identity in the context of two medical law cases, R. v. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, ex parte Blood andB v. Croydon Health Authority. Through an examination of contemporary critiques of female embodiment, in particular the work of Judith Butler, two discursive strategies are suggested for their potential to reconfigure the sexed subject within legal discourse. Firstly, the act of transgression – the flight from purportedly fixed subject positions – can be read in the case of Bloodand calls into question law’s ability to contain and sustain sexed identity as prediscursive and immutable. Secondly, the exposure of the historical formation of the female subjects of legal discourse, demonstrated through a genealogical reading of B v. Croydon Health Authority, contributes to the feminist theoretical project to destabilise traditional gender categories and enables us to think beyond the category of ‘Woman’.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Kirsty Keywood

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  1. Kirsty Keywood
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Keywood, K. More than a Woman? Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Medical Law. Feminist Legal Studies 8, 319–342 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009288503511

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