Supervisors info:
Μάρω Παντελίδου-Μαλούτα, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ
Κύρκος Δοξιάδης, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ
Γεράσιμος Κουζέλης, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
During the fall of 2017 the Greek Parliament discussed and voted the Gender Recognition Act, a bill initiated by the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, with the title “Gender recognition act-National Institution for Elaboration, Observation and Evaluation of the Action Plan for Children’s Rights and other provisions” (law 4491/2017). The legal regulation, introduced by the party of SYRIZA, brought the discussion of gender and sexuality back to public. The reactions caused by the bill were intense, both from conservative elements who conducted the regulation in the name of nation, religion and patriarchal family, and from radical movements who welcomed with enthusiasm and emotion the gender recognition act, stressing alongside the restrictions that it sets on the fight for eliminating gender and sexual discrimination. The disagreement about the definition of gender which is understood either as a socially constructed stereotype, or as a stable natural fact, expresses the main debate between the political parties. This study attempts to analyze the political discourse of parliamentary parties, during the discussion and voting of the right to gender self-determination. Emphasis will be given to the debate between SYRIZA and ND, as it epitomizes to a great extent the general debate between the political parties.
Concerning the structure of the study, the methodology of discourse analysis is being described first and afterwards, the feminist perspective on gender and sex is being presented, in order to understand the way gender inequality has been formed, consolidated and reproduced. The discourse of political parties will be approached by the aspect of the third-wave feminist deconstruction theory, which intends to point out the socially constructive character of gender norms, in order to eliminate the classification within the gender binary. This is a radical theory of subject formation that fights for the visibility and legalization of androgyny, multiplicity, fluidity and variability in gender identities, against sexist, homophobic and transphobic attitudes, caused by the gender binary. The presentation of the basic theories on gender and sex is being followed by the description of the feminist battles and the resulting state policies in the Greek political changeover. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the transition from the period of development, the generalized sense of progress and the integration of feminist demands, into the total absence of gender during the period of crisis. The prevalence of neo-liberal individualism strengthens the naturalization of social inequalities and the conception of every social right as an extreme left concession. Priority is given to the rescue of financial system, at the expense of social policies for the protection of vulnerable social groups, at same time that the economic crisis intensifies social exclusion. The third chapter about the feminist movement in the Greek society is being completed with a description of the failure that characterizes policy measures established to resolve social problems.
The chapter of the theoretical review is being followed by the presentation and analysis of the gender recognition act as well as the national, European and international legislation concerning transgender individuals. Afterwards, the parliamentary debate on the legal recognition of gender identity is being investigated in an attempt to map the perceptions of SYRIZA and ND on gender and sexuality issues. In particular, the research focuses on the discourse of the social institutions invoked by the political parties, on the way in which every party promotes itself, the different approaching on gender, will, truth, science and privilege and finally, on their political targeting. The central assumption of this paper is the universal perception of gender as a binary system and the general reinforcement of the conservative reflexes of the political system. In spite of SYRIZA's attempt to link the content of the bill to the emancipating ideology of the left, a connection accepted by most political parties, the right to gender self-determination, in the way it is institutionalized, is nothing more than a moderate liberal regulation that is far from the actual realization of free will.
Keywords:
Gender, transgenderism, gender recognition act, parliamentary discourse analysis 2017, SYRIZA-ND conflict
