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The politics of gender transitioning in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Eleonora Garosi
Eleonora Garosi*
Affiliation:
PUEG (Programa Universitario de Estudios de Género), UN AM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Mexico City, Mexico
*
∗Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In Western societies the sex–gender binary informs individual experiences of gender transitioning. As with every passage of status, gender transition is regulated by formal and social norms aimed at re-establishing the ‘proper’ correspondence between sex and gender. In Italy, national legislation regulates the formal process of transforming one's gender, identifying medical science as the ‘proper’ social authority to manage gender transitioning in society. Only trans people who conform to social standards of sexual ‘normality’ are allowed to officially change their gender. However, in everyday life, alternative modes of gender transitioning exist and constitute a solid foundation to claim formal recognition by the State. This study is based on a qualitative sociological investigation of the process of gender transitioning in Italy that was carried out in Turin between 2008 and 2010.

Keywords

gender transitioningtrans-normativitysex–gender binarysocial accomplishment
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 17 , Issue 4: Special Issue: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy , November 2012 , pp. 465 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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