DrAileen Kennedy

Aileen researches on the law of sex and gender from a feminist perspective. She is interested legal regulation of embodiment and has written on body-shaping practices including female genital cutting, cosmetic surgery, voluntary limb amputation and sexing the bodies of intersex and transgender people. She is strongly allied to the intersex human rights movement and supports trans rights for adults and minors.

Aileen is currently working on a range of legal projects assessing the impact of law on the health, wellbeing and human rights of people with IVSC.

She has recently published on legal and professional regulation of genital examinations performed routinely on children with IVSC which is to be published in the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. She has also completed an article on legal restrictions on medical photography of people with IVSC, given the long history of egregious abuses associated with photography of people with IVSC, the focus on pediatric interventions, the emphasis on ano-genital development, the reliance on parental consent, the ubiquitous use of digital devices, and the lack of tight security controls restricting the release of imagery, particulary in light of the pornographic fetishizing of 'hermaphroditism' whidh is readily accessible online.

Together with Annette Bromdal and Agli Zavros-Orr, Aileen has written an article on incarceration of people with IVSC, including comprehensive recommendations for developing a whole-of-institution approach to policy and regulation. 

Aileen is currently investigating experience of transgender and intersex people in the criminal law system, looking at jurisprudence developing in Australian criminal courts around sentencing of transgender and gender-diverse offenders. 

Aileen is also writing on effective methods of regulating medical interventions on minors with IVSC, examining ACT legislative scheme prohibiting unnecessary and non-urgent interventions before a minor is old enough to decide for themselves what interventions they choose. This will include analysis of jurisprudence in the Australian Family Court and modes of self-regulation within clinical and medical practice.