JLE

Sciences sociales et santé

MENU

Between conservatism and gradualism: The medical configurations of “transsexualism” in France (1950–1970) Volume 40, issue 1, Mars 2022

Author
* Doctorant en Sociologie, Centre d’Étude des Mouvements Sociaux – École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (CEMS-EHESS)

The article explores the controversies that took place in France between 1950 and 1970 over the legitimacy of responding to requests for a sex change through hormonal and surgical interventions. Based on an analysis of medical literature, the article identifies the ways in which French doctors have faced three major questions: ontological questions, relating to the way of typifying what trans people are, assigning them a number of qualities, and causally explaining the phenomenon; epistemic questions, which concern the determination of knowledge and relevant forms of objectivity; and finally, teleological questions concerning the types of purposes to attribute to medicine and the definition of therapeutic options. It is at the crossroads of these questions that two normative configurations have emerged around “transsexualism,” one conservative, the other gradualist.