In the current debate on prostitution, Judith Trinquart’s medicine thesis, which acknowledges the idea of a mental dissociation syndrome affecting people who prostitute themselves, is used to justify the position of those who refuse to listen to what these people have to say. Even if such a study is obviously valuable, for as the author herself says, practical studies on the question are lacking, it is a matter of debate whether this approach isn’t yet another symptom of the creeping medicalization and psychiatrization of politics.

Two days after the collapse of the Twin Towers, the international media revealed the faces of those responsible for 9/11. Among them, Aïcha El Wafi sees her own son, Zacarias. What follows is of course the sorrow of a mother who has suddenly become the parent of the number one enemy, but more importantly the story of a woman who leaved the patriarcal evil of Marocco to raise her son in France, taught egalitarian values, until he becomes sexist by fascination for radical Islam.

The fight against terrorism in the US since 9/11 has resulted in a number of distressing measures that primarily affected immigrants and asylum seekers. The investigations focused primarily on them, and this bias had repercussions on their legal status and fundamental rights. But the panic-stricken political climate has also allowed the US administration to pass a legislation which might endanger the very foundations of civil liberties for everyone. This article illustrates how impulsive and passionate reactions on security issues can endanger the legal principles of freedom, at the very moment that our occidental democracies wave the flag of justice and liberties.

The images of homosexuals and transvestites which are very common in the manga universe (both cartoons and comics), far from being the traditional figments of heterosexual fantasies that commercial industries propose, actually carry feminist principles, and show a desire to transform male and female gender roles.

 

Our anti-choicepals

The split of 1998/99 between followers of Mégret and those of Le Pen has showed the internal divisions of a party which to outsiders seemed monolithical. For the young members of the party, who belonged to structures like the FNJ or RE , this split manifested a strong dividing line between the image of the militant as “soldier and adventurer” and that of the “organicist intellectual”. But it is also problematic for the construction of these young people’s identity as well as questions of loyalty to the elders and the strategies of other, better-prepared figures of the party.

This article retraces the story of Lee, a 24-yr-old F to M (female to male) transsexual who lives in California. Lee is a good example of a new generation of transsexuals, or as he calls it a “generation X of transmen”. There has been considerable progress in the living conditions of transsexuals in the US in the past 30 years. This testimony illustrates this phenomenon, shows what young transsexuals go through today, and puts an emphasis on the emerging F to M community.

Natacha Taurisson has been an activist at the ASB since 1998 and she became its president two years ago. In this interview, Natacha gives us her personal definition of sexual identity and gender. She also tells us about the experience of being deprived of offical documents, its consequences in the everyday life of a citizen, and the troubles transsexuals have to go through in a society in which freedom of choice is denied.

The juridical situation of transsexuals has significantly improved in the past few years. The French case-law is not evolving altogether spontaneously, but under the pressure of decisions coming from the EU Court of Human Rights. Difficulties still exist in the legislation, be it for the registry of civil status, the reimbursement of medical interventions, or questions of marriage and adoption. The development of a specific legislative text to counter conservative reactions remains to be accepted.

The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe (Bounthavy Suvilay)

ON A LU : Louise Michel : Mémoires - Dans l’enfer des tournantes (Samira Bellil) - Jusqu’où va-t-on descendre ? (Alain Soral) - Bruxelles, Bruno et les cadeaux (Bruno Gaudens) - L’idéologie raciste (Colette Guillaumin)

ON A VU : Le festival Cineffable

ON EN PARLE : Le PaCS, trois ans déjà ! - Une militante de RAWA en France

 

To subscribe - bookshop - others publications - top of the page