Hey WS 100,
I’m a neuroscientist and I’ve been active in feminist and particularly intersex politics for some time now, so I’m pretty interested in your blog. I’m currently working on a book chapter about science research and gender. I hope you don’t mind me chiming in to your discussion.
I’m not sure what else you have read and I see that some of you have done additional research (the link to the ISNA website is a good reference). I think this is important – Some background on the article you read: as far as I understand, Fausto-Sterling wrote the article without the advising of any intersex persons. It did pique the interest of Cheryl Chase (who someone mentioned in an earlier post) who is now a very well known intersex activist. Cheryl Chase responded to Fausto-Sterling’s arguments and both agreed and brought up problems with her article. This in turn was the start of the current intersex movement led by intersex activists. Interestingly, Fausto-Sterling has published a second article called The Five Sexes Revisited in which she discusses many of the important changes that intersex activism has brought about (to the medical field and broader cultural ideas) and she changes her point of view on her choice of language and analysis (seemingly in response to Cheryl Chase’s initial letter although she does not say so). I think this history is significant and continues to be a problem. For instance, there are still no books published on the topic of Intersex identity/Intersexuality written by intersex persons. Think about this for a second – let’s make a simple analogy here and think about what it would be like if all books about “women” were written by men. (This analogy is only meant as a thought exercise not as a totalizing analogy of the two groupings.) I hope this adds to your discussion. I think that it is important that we challenge the medical “experts” because their opinions and protocols are constantly changing. The fact that historically, intersex persons have been treated very differently (including not being “fixed” or “dealt” with at all) is important in thinking about what kind of world is possible. In just 14 years since Fausto-Sterling’s article was published, the medical protocols for “treating” intersex children has been changed and has been hotly debated within medical, academic and social circles. The fact that Cheryl Chase was featured in the Sunday NY Times Magazine is evidence of changes and the impetus for more changes to take place.
Being trained as a scientist and growing up in the United States, I have had a hard time getting my head around the idea that “differences” are created by scientists, culture, doctors, etc. and not “truths” inherent to our bodies. But then again being able to rely on my experience as a scientist and someone who was brought up in this culture, I have been able to see the ways in which “difference” is constructed by us.
I hope that in this discussion, everyone will keep in mind that we are talking about procedures that are done to real people. Please be mindful of how you discuss this topic, as I don’t think you would want a discussion to take place about your body in your absence. Also, as is true with many of the socially/medically/culturally created categories of difference you will learn about, you can not usually tell who is intersexed and who is not. Even in class you probably don’t know what someone’s (or your own!) internal and external genitals or chromosomes look like – on this blog you definitely can’t tell, so please be respectful.
1 comment:
Welcome to our blog! I'm so glad we are receiving some feedback from a neuroscientist. Like you at the beginning of your research, I am initially having some trouble conceiving of an existence beyond the male/female paradigm. While I have learned of hermaphroditism before, I have never really thought about the serious personal choices that must be made by intersex individuals. I have taken a couple of psychology classes at Emory, and I think that both did a good job of describing the spectrum of sexual variations that exist in populations. One I find particularly intriguing is Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. To me, this variation exemplifies the idea that environmental, chromosomal, and other factors affect an individual's gender identity. One of the intersex videos we watched in class mentioned John Money, a Johns Hopkins psychologist and sexologist who emphasized child "fluidity" to gender assignment up to a certain age and the importance of environment in determining a child's gender identity. Contrarily, I used to think that chromosomes solely determined gender; if one had an XY chromosome pair, one was obviously male. AIS, however, proves that neither of these extreme positions are completely true. People who have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome do have XY chromosomes which produce testosterone, but they do not have the receptors to translate signals produced by these hormones into traditionally male characteristics. Thus, these individuals often appear female in the absence of testosterone. I have heard of some of these individuals deciding to keep their female appearances. However, in the video today, one of the interviewees had AIS and chose to embrace a male identity. I find this an eye-opening example of the importance of personal choice in the decision of gender assignment: neither environmental nor chromosomal factors are sufficient diagnostic tools by themselves.
Of course, Sara G, you would know much more about this than I would. If I have made any errors, I'm sorry!
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