Passing phantasms/sanctioning performatives: (re)reading white masculinity in Rhinelander v. Rihinelander
RIS ID
68930
Abstract
Racial and gendered subjectivity, as produced and embodied through the act of social classification, is an axiom violently enunciated within law. This paper interrogates the phenomenon of passing within the regulatory mechanisms of law through an exegetic (re)reading of Rhinelander v. Rhinelander (1925), to argue that all identity is the endless attempt to pass into an image of subjectivity through a performative compulsion. This analysis explicates the disciplinary rigor to which white masculinity is subject, and the censure that is called forth upon the detection of performative enuncia- tions that do not receive the imprimatur of social and legal law(s).
COinS
Publication Details
Ehlers, N. 2003, 'Passing phantasms/sanctioning performatives: (re)reading white masculinity in Rhinelander v. Rihinelander', Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, vol. 27, pp. 63-91.