Könsgränsen - Om samproduktionen av könstillhörighetslagen (1972:119)

The Swedish law for gender assignment in certain cases (Lag (1972:119) om fastställande av könstillhörighet i vissa fall) was adopted in 1972 to regulate the gender confirmation treatment and legal sex reassignment of intersex and transsexual persons. This essay aims to illuminate the coproduction between science and society that made the law as well as its accompanying institutions and regulations possible. With queer theory and the performativity of gender as a framework, the analysis focuses on the limits of normality and the handling of abnormally sexed bodies. The conclusion is that while the coproduction was a continuous process where power was produced through knowledge and concentrated in an institution, it also represented a recognition of intersex and transsexual persons that made them more legible than they had been before.