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.

Pink and Blue

K.I.S.S., keep it simple stupid. Things should be straightforward and need not be complex, what you see should be what you get. If the child is a girl, she must like pretty colors, play dress up, be very emotional, and grow up to want to marry her prince charming. If it is a boy, he must love sports, all things rough, and grow up to be a tough strong man. If the child is born with both male and female genitals, then is makes more sense to simply make the child a female because she will have better reproductive capabilities.
Congratulations ma’am you have given birth to a________. It is so interesting how the word inserted in that blanks affects so many factors. From the onset there are also minute things which already show a privileging of a particular gender. Boys are given bricks, toy truck and other geometrically stimulating toys. So when they perform better in math and sciences, it is assumed they do better because males have that innate ability and boy’s and girl’s brains develop extremely differently.
Unfortunately, we run into problems and complexities which result from trying to lump things into simple categories. There is such a discomfort with the unknown or ambiguous that we search for answers in science, something we perceive to be infallible, concrete; yet science is also influenced by culture which is anything but infallible. So the reasons provided for how to understand intersex individuals, different sexual orientation and sexual expression is not as definite as they seem.

Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys, and Tarts

I found Barbara Creed's article Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys, and Tarts to be extremely interesting. It showed me a perspective on the topic that I had never even thought of. From the ideas presented in the reading, I was able to see the difficulty society has in accepting a female sexual relationship. For instance, when speaking of Freud explanation as to why two women may be attracted to one another, I could not help but wonder why the world needed this answer. Why does there need to be a clear cut reason for why this type of relationship occurs? I understand that times are changing; however, I feel like in order for us to excel, the first step that we need to take is to accept what is occurring in present times. By questioning why such relationships occur, we are only hindering our progress.
The perspective of a male on a lesbian relationship is another point of this article that really demonstrated the views of society. I feel that men are not only threatened by the lesbian relationship because it may affect how they are viewed in society, but moreover because they feel they are not in control. It seems that in many of the articles that we have read, the role of women is to cater to men, to please them. This assumption, in my opinion, signifies that belief that men are the more dominant race; it is not important how a woman may feel, she is merely the object that will allow a man to feel a certain way. Furthermore, I think that men are threatened by a lesbian relationship, because they fear women sexuality. For instance, there are images that are seem as dangerous that relate to the sexuality of a female, such as the image of Medusa's Head.

Ma vie en rose: My life in pink

I just finished watching the movie “Ma vie en rose.” The end of this movie has left me with mixed-feelings. Although Ludovic is eventually accepted by his mother and family, he is openly shunned by the neighbors and society. It is a brilliant move for director Carole Scotta to set the movie in France where the stereotypical roles of gender are prevalent. In fact, there are many instances in the film where these roles are illustrated. For example, the dad is expected to provide for the family while the mother is expected to cook. Clearly, these gender roles are enforced at a young age. At the children’s show and tell day, the girls bring dolls and the boys bring trucks. When Ludo brings dolls to class, his teacher asks him, “But you want to be like Ben (the male doll), right?” As Ludo reveals his desires to be a girl more and more, these gentle suggestions turn into harsh attempts to “normalize” him. Ludo’s parents take him to see a psychologist and the neighbors sign a petition to kick him out of school. Even Ludo’s mother cracks under the pressure of society’s revulsion of her son, telling him, “it’s all your fault.”
Ludo’s experience is similar to Maria Patino’s ostracization after she was found to be a man by an Olympic committee. Like Ludo, Maria felt her loved-ones dessert her after she broke the mold of “normal.” Like “Dueling Dualism” and many of the other articles that we have read, the film explains that there is no normal. One of the neighbors says that her husband is not like Hanna’s husband; everyone is different; every family is different. One family may have one child and the next family may have four. Clearly, no set definition of “normalcy” can be given. This message is made concrete when Ludo meets Chris, or Christine, one of his female neighbors who enjoys activities that are traditionally enjoyed by males such as sling-shooting and dressing up as a cowboy. After this idea of “normal” is deconstructed, Ludo’s mother comes to a realization of her own. She realizes that no matter what, Ludo is still her child. A child. Not a little boy or a little girl, but a little child.

Ma Vie En Rose

While watching Ma Vie En Rose in the multimedia library I tried not to cry and make too many sniffling noises.  The movie was profound and did an amazing job of depicting the life of a young boy who struggled with his identity and sexuality.  The readings of the intersex that we read during this class became animated throughout this movie and made a lasting impression on me.  Throughout the movie, Ludovic is convinced that he will one day become a girl and be able to marry his best friend.  His parents, friends, and entire neighborhood disapprove of his feelings and desire to be a girl.  His family is almost completely torn apart until the end of the movie when he is accepted by their new neighborhood.  It was hard to watch a young boy not be able to understand why others thought he was wrong, including his parents.  His biological condition did not seem abnormal to him until others pointed out that this was the case.  

It was upsetting to see Ludovic's father try to force him to act more masculine in hopes of quickly fixing his "problem."  Ludovic's family and friends avoided the emotions that he felt in hopes of making him "normal."  Had his parents by the end of the movie continued to make him hide who he was, I think that Ludovic would have had more problems psychologically as he developed.  I wish that the movie had jumped to when Ludovic was mature in order to highlight his acceptance into society and allow viewers to realize it is much easier to accept everyone than condemn them.  The only person who truly tried to shed light on the situation was his teacher who wanted all of the students to accept each other despite their differences, since as she said: they were all different.  It is idyllic to think that everyone is capable of dealing with and accepting different sexualities and genders, but why can't this be possible?  

Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys, and Tarts

This article by Barbara Creed introduced me to a topic that I had never before considered, the different stereotypes associated with the lesbian body. Before, this article I was only aware of one stereotype associated with lesbian women and that was the masculine or "butch" depiction of lesbian woman. Creed talks about this masculine body stereotype in a mainly historical perspective. She mentioned the historical trials that took place in France and Holland to determine the fate of tribades; these women who were blurring the gender lines were dealt with as Creed mentions in one of three ways: legal, surgical, or lethal. All of these methods preserve traditional gender lines. 

Another interesting topic brought up by Creed is the one-sex model versus the two-sex model. Earlier on in history the woman body was viewed as an inverted male body. This point of view is what allowed some women to be pardoned for their homosexual behavior because it was believed they were actually men. However, later on when the two-sex model triumphed in popular opinion the woman body was now viewed as an inadequate and essentially incomplete version of the male body. This model led Freud to develop his theory on female homosexuality. He proposed that it arrived from "penis envy", the desire of the women to be a man. 

The animalistic female body is a stereotype that I had never heard before. The connection between homosexuality and bestiality seems to be just another way to explain homosexuality in unfavorable terms and to make it socially unacceptable. The last stereotype Creed talks about is the narcissistic lesbian body. According to this theory the lesbian woman is totally vain and self-involved; her female partner is often depicted as a mirror image of herself. So the lesbian relationship according to this stereotype is a way to further express the self-absorption of the women involved. In each of these theories it seems that men are always trying to find a way to express female homosexuality in a way that still puts men first. For the tribade stereotype women homosexuality is explained as women wanting to be men. The other stereotypes also display homosexuality as wrong or as in the narcissistic stereotype selfish. Men are probably threatened by female homosexuality because it threatens their traditional role in society.

American Issues with Normalcy

In reading Chase and Kessler's articles on transgender genital reconstruction, I am faced with a question which I have never considered. As is noted in both articles, this minority is often silent, and the transgender condition is associated with embarrassment. I think that an aspect of American society is the desire to be "normal," and this desire is clearly reflected in the practice of cosmetic surgery on abnormal genitalia of infants.

As Chase pointed out, parents are usually eager to "fix" their child's problem quickly and early. It is generally accepted that without a clear, fixed gender, a child will not be able to function normally in society. However, as her personal experience goes to show, the surgical option is not really the solution to the problem. In fact, her life was more negatively affected by the attempts to fix the "problem" than the actual problem itself.

Kessler delves more into the concept of the desire to be "normal" in her discussion of elective cosmetic surgery. Through giving individuals the chance to look "normal," the concept of normal has changed. Kessler even claims that the "distinction between 'normal' and 'ideal' has collapsed." I definitely agree that the more our society relies on surgery to conform to social norms, this concept will become skewed. In a society where fitting in is idealized, it is definitely problematic to have a constantly shrinking perception of what is accepted as "normal."