Sexing the Body

Anne Fausto-Sterling

Lynnea Brumbaugh2011

That sexe which prevaileth

Turn to page 301843: 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

•Chapter Two

•Chapter Three

•Chapter Four

•Chapter Five

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 . . .

• Our entire social order is built upon the dichotomy.

. . . when in nature (and some cultures), there is none?

Why do we Why do we

Look at page 44

• There should be only two sexes.

• Only heterosexuality is normal.

• Gender roles define psychological health.

What are three unexamined assumptions behind

physicians’ humanitarian desire to help intersexuals?

Of Gender and Genitals

• 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)

•Chapter Two

•Chapter Three

•Chapter Four

•Chapter Five

Even Beyond Surgery . . .

• “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).

•Chapter Two

•Chapter Three

•Chapter Four

•Chapter Five

Of Gender and Genitals

• 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/)

•Chapter Two

•Chapter Three

•Chapter Four

•Chapter Five

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

•Chapter Four

•Chapter Five

• CC is a highly variable piece of anatomy

• Scientists work hard to “fix” it.

• 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)