Rethinking gender and human rights through transgender and intersex experiences in South Africa

The South African Constitution has been well known for its progressive entrenchment of gender, sex and sexual orientation into the Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, it was only in 2004 when the transgender and intersex rights were explicitly secured with the legal adjustment of their sex description and it was only two years later, in January 2006, when the term ‘sex’ in the Bill of Rights finally included and secured the rights of intersex people in South Africa. The South African medical system poses particular challenges for transgender and intersex people due to the scarity of knowledgeable professionals, the rigid understanding of gender and sexuality and discrimination based on gender identity and biological variation. There is also a lack of statistics and a need for more research to be done with transgender and intersex individuals in South Africa to deepen understanding of their particular sexual and human rights. This Article is an endeavour to rethink the constructed meaning of gender and human rights in light of the narratives of transgender and intersex individuals living in South Africa. The Article is based on investigation into particular governmental practices deployed by different social actors (medical service providers, researchers, LGBTI activists, transgender and intersex people themselves) in producing transgender and intersex individuals as subjects governed within a fixed gender order frame that is rooted in biological dualism. In the Article governmental practices are understood within the Foucauldian theoretical framework (Foucault, 1978b Foucault M (1978b) ‘Governmentality’ published in G Burchell, C Gordon & P Miller (eds) (1991) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Google Scholar) as diverse heterogeneous ways and discursive techniques through which specific individuals and groups are constructed as ‘problematic’ and governed. These governmental practices are scrutinised through an analysis of routine, repetitive acts of situated ‘doing gender’, on the one hand, and the possibility of activating modes of undoing the gendered norm, on the other. There are two practices discussed: practice of naming and techniques of gendering biology.