‘Legal sex’, the formal registration and categorisation of sex,
initiates a sex/gender binary discourse in the UK that limits
substantive sex equality and gender diversity. This article,
employing a Foucauldian legal feminist method, takes an
alternative theoretical approach, and investigates the systems of
power that produce and sustain the sex/gender reality which
society accepts as truth. It explores the extent to which ‘legal
sex’ contributes to the social construction of the sex/gender
binary discourse. It examines the intersection between ‘legal
sex’ and ‘gendered parenting’ to determine the effect of this
system of power. It discusses decertification to evaluate a
method of dismantling the system of power. This article posits
that ‘legal sex’ initiates a ‘truth regime’ by creating a discourse
that is accepted by society as the truth. This discourse informs
and constrains the interactional practices of parents, resulting
in ‘gendered parenting’, which entrenches and perpetuates the
discourse. Decertification of ‘legal sex’, despite limitations,
provides a potential means of dismantling the system of power
by undermining the discourse and weakening the ‘mechanisms
of control’. Ultimately, it replaces the discourse for one that
promotes the intra-variation of sex and gender, and in doing so
advances sex equality and gender diversity.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)