The Aesthetics of the Transgender Sublime in French Reproductive Policy

This article examines how current bioethics legislation in France forbids trans men from accessing assisted reproductive technology (ART) and how aesthetic imagery of trans experience may resist such legal prohibition. That is, the aesthetics of transgender pregnancy and its possible focus on the body as a site of resistance has the potential to subvert the grounds on which current French reproductive policy is founded. As it stands, French political groups like GIAPS have been unsuccessful in arguing the unconstitutionality of laws that forbid trans men from accessing ART, because the constitutional law of equality between the sexes need not be upheld if differential treatment is in the best interest of the state. Claims for differential treatment are due to preconceived biases of trans individuals, biases that may be challenged with an increase in exposure to trans experience/trans aesthetics.