Production of gendered bodies in the Argentine legal discourse. Analysis of three rulings during the period of 1970 - 2010

This paper analyzes how bodies in contemporary societies are produced and socially regulated through legal discourses. Three rulings produced by the Argentine Justice Department between 1970 and 2010 are analyzed.  These rulings constitute requests for genital reassignment surgery, change of name and sex in legal registers, petitions made by people whose corporalities defy the dominant gender rules. The analysis aims to trace changes and continuities in the epistemic frames available for reading the other bodies crystallized in legal discourse, as well as to inquire the characteristics of the current ways of thinking. The essay shows that through the analysis of the regulation of bodies and sexualities it is possible to visualize mechanisms through which we define what is considered human, and how ideals of citizenship are historically configured.