‘Blood, it’s in you to be Governed'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/bsuj56Keywords:
heteronormativity, blood, critical analysis, governance, Canadian Blood Services, humoral medicine, gender, sexuality, one-sex model, two-sex modelAbstract
The author of this paper investigates how blood has been constructed as a gendered and heteronormative cultural product, explored through the use of critical analysis of historical and contemporary uses of blood. Heteronormativity and the fallacy of discrete sexes are then defined and explored to give context to the argument. It is found that through gendering under the two-sex model of opposing male and female sexes, blood is heteronormative. A case study of Canadian Blood Services was used to show how governance is enacted based upon the limitation of a heteronormative construction. This argument is bolstered in a theoretical discussion of the nation-state and the creation of the archetypical citizen, part of which is a compulsory heterosexuality.
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