Abstract
Who constitute "natural persons"? How do we move from a biological person to a legal standing? And what does a superficial, minor, and feminized category like the ornament have to do with these large questions? This chapter introduces a case that is little known but arguably one of the most significant habeas corpus cases in the nineteenth century in order to track the surprisingly critical role that racialized and feminized objects played in forming juridical ideas of natural and unnatural persons, legal and illegal subjects, citizenship and criminality. What this case reveals about how a body comes to be legally discernible holds profound implications and challenges for how we conceptualize citizenship and civil rights today.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Phallacies |
| Subtitle of host publication | Historical Intersections of Disability and Masculinity |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | 229-251 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780190456368 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2017 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Arts and Humanities
Keywords
- Anti-Chinese discrimination
- Asiatic femininity
- Citizenship
- Immigration
- Legal personhood
- Ornament