Linton on Hermaphrodite Outlaws: Ambiguous Sex and the Civil Code in Nineteenth-Century France @maksdelmar

Anne E. Linton, Visiting Assistant Professor of French, Boston College, has published Hermaphrodite Outlaws: Ambiguous Sex and the Civil Code in Nineteenth-Century France at 138 Representations 87 (Spring 2017). Here is the abstract.

Hermaphrodism became a zone of frenzied publication in nineteenth-century France, when numerous doctors recommended adding a “neuter sex” or a “doubtful sex” category to the Civil Code alongside those of “male” and “female.” Although attempts to add “doubtful sex” to the code were rarely intended to protect hermaphrodites, the legal silence regarding hermaphrodism actually afforded some doctors and patients the leeway to live in ways others wished could be outlawed.

Va @maksdelmar.