Sexing the Body Anne FaustoSterling Lynnea Brumbaugh 2011
Sexing the Body Anne Fausto-Sterling Lynnea Brumbaugh 2011
That sexe which prevaileth • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five Turn to page 30 1843: Levi Suydam’s story • Conveys “political weight” our culture places on ascertaining “correct” sex • Conveys deep confusion that arises when “correct sex” cannot be easily determined
Why such deep confusion? Because we are “deeply devoted to the idea that there are only two sexes” (30).
Why do we insist on the dichotomy. . . when in nature (and some cultures), there is none? • Our entire social order is built upon Why do we the dichotomy.
Look at page 44 What are three unexamined assumptions behind physicians’ humanitarian desire to help intersexuals? • There should be only two sexes. • Only heterosexuality is normal. • Gender roles define psychological health.
Of Gender and Genitals • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • In era of The Feminine Mystique, medical views coalesced: intersexed babies must be normalized. (p. 46) (surgery pictures on pp. 62 -63) • In 2000, intersexuality was still a medical emergency (p. 44)
Even Beyond Surgery. . . • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • “If we choose to eliminate mixed-genital births through prenatal treatments. . . We are also choosing to go with our current system of cultural intelligibility. • “If we choose, over a period of time, to let mixed-gender bodies and altered patterns of gender-related behavior become visible, we will have, willy-nilly, chosen to change the rules” (p. 76).
Of Gender and Genitals • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Two lies: – Intersex condition is extremely rare – There’s no one to talk to about it • Truth: – 1. 7 percent of all births are intersexual (p. 51) – There has been since 1993 an Intersex Society of North America (http: //www. isna. org/)
What if you had an intersexual child? • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five
Transsexuality and Transgenderism • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Transsexuality – By requesting surgery, transsexuals “enact the logical extreme” that body, sex, and gender must conform (p. 107) • Transgenderism: – More radical revisioning of sex and gender – Accepts kinship among those with gender-variant identities
Sexing the Brain • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five The Brain “remains a perfect medium on which to project, even unwittingly, assumptions about gender” (118).
Sexing the Brain • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five “The specialized research article, which presents numbers and extracts meaning from them, is really a defense of a particular interpretation of results” (136).
Sexing the Brain • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • CC is a highly variable piece of anatomy • Chapter Four • Scientists work hard to “fix” it. • Chapter Five • It won’t hold still.
Sexing the Brain • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • To “know” if there is a gender difference will mean to find a way to make the CC say the same thing to a bunch of investigators • Fausto-Sterling thinks this unlikely (144)
Sexing the Brain • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five Must achieve social and cultural peace about gender equity before we can trust even our scientific frameworks (145)
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