SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Gendered subjects are rendered legible in our political landscape when the law addresses them, and thus law plays an indispensable role in processes of change. Methodologies in gender work to theorise the nuance of lived experiences and individualism, but it is challenging for them to independently bring about change. Legal strategies, on the other hand, work to create and define the contours which shape global societies, but fail to integrate nuance into its analysis. This article argues legal strategies alone prove insufficient in bringing about meaningful change, especially as they pertain to the issues of gender and sexuality. Consequently, this article will thus reflect on the “situatedness” of law as a power tool, analysing the effects of its construction, and who gets to construct it. Moreover, it will analyse the limits of the law as a mechanism of enacting true change, illustrating how gender methodologies may imagine possibility beyond legal strategy.