The Power of Society

I found Fausto-Sterlings' "Dueling Dualisms" quite intriguing and interesting. I'm glad she provided a thorough example to illustrate her purpose for the article. Her example of Mary Patrino's situation clearly demonstrated the difficulty of placing intersex people into polished categories of gender. I was horrified by how Patrino's situation was handled---she had been completely stripped of her athletic career and social respect because she had been born intersex and did not even know it. These type of situations reflect the power society has on identity. The concepts of 'natural' and 'normal' are conflicting words, which society plays on frequently. Our society defines 'normal' as male and female---nothing else. Yet, what science and medicine has shown us is that 'natural' people aren't always male or female, regardless of society's depictions. It is imperative to educate society about 'natural' beings and their existence in society, so those people do not have to fall into a category that doesn't define them.
In Creed's "Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys, and Tarts" Creed discussed a series of misconceptions many people have about lesbians. Throughout our media, lesbians are portrayed as sexy models, who perform sexual acts with each other to satisfy a man's pleasure. Even with Professor Bailey's google search of "lesbians", the results with only pornographic pictures confirmed these stereotypes. I'm glad that Creed corrected these stereotypes by examining lesbian women in a detailed manner.
These two issues connect to a broader issues lingering in our society. One, the problem with intersex is that it is not exposed in our culture. People need to learn about this issue to understand its existence and to accept it. I know that a few shows, such as Grey's Anatomy have tackled intersex issues, which is very positive. In addition, our media must stop labeling lesbians as sexy, wild women. As long as our media allows these type of depictions, the stereotypes will never be eradicated.