Open AccessLe traitement de l’hermaphrodite dans la littérature juridique de l’Ancien Régime Droit, société et idéologie
Author(s) -
Paturet Arnaud
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sociopoétiques
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2497-3610
DOI - 10.52497/sociopoetiques.1417
Subject(s) - ancien regime , ambivalence , humanities , femininity , birth certificate , hermaphrodite , sociology , psychology , art , politics , political science , gender studies , demography , social psychology , law , zoology , biology , population
Under the Ancien Régime in France, the individual was inserted into a legal system of binary classification shaped around masculinity and femininity already used in earlier periods. Roman jurists and after them the medieval canonists refuted the proven existence of both male and female sexes in one body and such an orientation continued in the West under the Ancien Régime. During these times, this physiological feature was assimilated to deviant and condemnable sexual behaviours. The study of several trials against hermaphrodites shows the social embarrassment caused by sexual ambivalent. This strange physiognomy was enough to suggest he was a criminal or a debauchee. Nowadays, French legal system is fortunately milder but remains organized around a unique and defined sex as stated in the birth certificate. Therefore it fails to recognize the concept of third gender. A mental revolution has to rise on this point.