According to Milton Diamond, children with genital impairments at birth are being reassigned to surgery to be transformed physically into women (1997, p.1). But where has the psychological part of these individuals left behind? Is this newly made up female capable to embody society’s expectations about women? Will these individuals be able to conduct themselves as women in an intimate relationship? Female gender mutilation and gender reassignment surgery seem to be about fixing the problem momentously on the outside, but as a human being is composed of body and spirit, shouldn’t there be a correlation between the two components. In this paper, we will examine the position of three authors, and should there be a correlation between the body and spirit, perhaps Ms. Nancy Ehrenreich is absolutely correct in establishing that by not condemning those types of surgery, Americans are bias based on cultural misconceptions and prejudices. Diamond emphasizes in his article on how Scientifics attribute gender identity to the environment. Consequently, given this line of reasoning in the medical field, there is the predicament in raising a male child with a futile penis or a female child with a dysfunctional vagina, as Diamond states. In most of the cases they chose to implant a vagina in these children (1997, p.1). However, the implantations of a vagina in these children will not change the fact embodied by their genes, no matter how much encouragement, psychological therapies or even intake of estrogen would befall, none of these will change what they truly are. Human kind comes to this world with specific characteristics encoded in their chromosomes, these biological factors must be allowed to develop and function as they are in ...
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...Ehrenreich seems to present a more comprehensive approach. She seems to argue in favor of humanity as a whole, and deplores FGM; the female genital mutilation practice wherever it exists, be it in Africa, or here, in the United States. Her read is a compelling, educated approach to these inhumane practices, which can only be combated with education.
Works Cited
Diamond, M. & Sigmundson K. (1997). Sex Reassignment at Birth: A Long Term Review and Clinical Implications. Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 1: 3-4
Ehrenreich, N. & Barr, M. (2005). Intersex Surgery, Female Genital Cutting, and the Selective Condemnation of “Cultural Practices.” Harvard Civil Rights- Civil Liberties Law 13-14: 17: 19-20
Kuhnle, U. & Krahl, W. (2002). The Impact of Culture on Sex Assignment and Gender Development in Intersex Patients. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 6-8
In How Sex Changed by Joanne Meyerowitz, the author tell us about the medical, social and cultural history of transsexuality in the United States. The author explores different stories about people who had a deep desired to change or transform their body sex. Meyerowitz gives a chronological expiation of the public opinion and how transsexuality grew more accepted. She also explained the relationship between sex, gender, sexuality and the law. In there the author also address the importance of the creation of new identities as well as how medication constrain how we think of our self. The author also explain how technological progress dissolve the idea of gender as well as how the study of genetics and eugenics impacts in the ideas about gender/sexuality and identity. But more importantly how technology has change the idea of biological sex as unchangeable.
Everyone dreams of the day they will meet their children. From a young age, you can hear people saying the plans and desires they have for their future boy or girl. Our society is constructed in such a manner that everything operates under this male-female dichotomy. However, this system of operation is not always applicable. Cases where this is evident is when intersex babies are born. Intersex babies are born with genitalia that do not pertain entirely to either males or females, hence the term, intersex. Parents are unsure of what to think about their child. What should they name it? What colors shall they dress them in? Will they raise it as a boy or a girl? They are consumed with questions that are normally answered by assignation to a sex category.
A single moment, a single movement, a single protest against the system is the first step to finding change. For every parent that says “leave my child intact”, it would be one day closer to a time when it will be socially appalling to cosmetically alter an infant child who is incapable of consent or comprehension. The fluidity, complexity, and ambiguity of human sexuality extends far beyond sexual preference and onward into gender and sex. Accepting that some things will never fit within a textbook definition, and celebrating difference rather than condemning it, would fulfil the dream of many minds such as Fausto-Sterling and Butler as well as the author. Only time and individuals that dare to reject the flawed system can ease the binds of ignorance that tie society so tightly to an outdated Victorian mindset of sex and gender.
Posed in the 1870s, there was scientific evidence of developing fetuses exhibiting both female and male potential that spurred the thought of human bisexual composition in the early 1900s. An anonymous editorial published in 1906 in the British Medical Journal exclaimed that “women’s suffrage suggested that this underlying hermaphroditic constitution could affect basic gender identity, expressing itself in hermaphroditic personalities” (Carstens, 65). The notions correlated with sex reversal implied that even during the early 20th century, society was not able to separate biological sex and gender identity, blurring the categories and separating the female and male based on pre-determined gender roles. Men were still seen as the innovators of the human race, whereas women were the carriers of the race; their reproductive organs dominated by the man’s. Social anxiety gradually rose due to low birthrates, questioning how the human race would thrive, or simply how men would again dominate the female race because their grips were slipping from women’s reproductive
Gibson, B., & Catlin, A.J. (2011). Care of the Child with the Desire to Change Gender-Part 1.
Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage Or Violation of Rights?" Guttmacher Institute: Home Page. Frances A. Althaus. Web. 15 June 2010. .
There are many different facets to the nature versus nurture argument that has been going on for decades. One of these, the influence of nature and nurture on gender roles and behaviors, is argued well by both Deborah Blum and Aaron Devor, both of whom believe that society plays a large role in determining gender. I, however, have a tendency to agree with Blum that biology and society both share responsibility for these behaviors. The real question is not whether gender expression is a result of nature or nurture, but how much of a role each of these plays.
In Doing Gender authors West and Zimmerman argue the concept of gender being an outcome of daily life rather than an outcome from a physician with an ultrasound with only two permanent results. The meaning behind the term gender invokes different connotations of either masculine or feminine qualities that lay the groundwork for societies preexisting roles. Society today views gender as being either of masculine or feminine form however the controversy with this is how this is determined in our society today as well as in the past. Both authors fall upon the idea that sex is a disposition of birth whereas gender is a disposition of your actions after your birth. “It is necessary to move beyond the notion of gender display to consider what
It is important to understand the difference between gender and sex. The English language defines “sex” by using the anatomy that an individual is born with. In other words, the reproductive organs that makes someone female or male. “Sex” also includes the chromosomes that someone obtains to make them male or female, the different gonads, sex hormones and the inner and outer genitalia. When defining gender dysphoria and its connection to sex. Within the gender dysphoria disorder, which is a sex disorder, there are other developments that affect the normal and natural indications of each sex assignments. The use of “cross-sex” hormones, are very popular when someone is trying to masculinize or feminize the individuals original gender.
Osmundson, Joseph. "'I Was Born This Way': Is Sexuality Innate, and Should It Matter?" Harvard Kennedy School. N.p., 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .
Society today suggest that revealing the “gender” or “sex” of a child from the moment of conception forward is a necessity. But, in all actuality to some this is an invasion of their privacy and beliefs. Many believe that raising a child gender specific is not important to their upbringing or to their growth and development. Gender is defined with several different meanings such as the behavioral, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with the one sex. The sex of an individual, male or female, based on reproductive anatomy (the category to which an individual is assigned on the basis of sex) and the personal traits or personality that we attach to being male or female. Sex is defined as the biological distinctions determined by our genitalia.
Preves, Ph.D., Sharon E. "Intersex Narratives: Gender, Medicine, and Identity." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 32-42. Print.
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
For a pregnant couple, it is common to be asked what gender your child is going to be: “are you having a boy or a girl?” However, what happens when it is difficult for a child to be classified in a specific gender? It is known that the XX chromosomes make up the genetic blueprint for a female and XY chromosomes make up the blueprint for a male. However, several people have not been identified as either a XX or a XY child. The condition “hermaphroditism”, commonly known as intersex, is the condition where a baby is “born with ambiguous genitalia…abnormally developed genitals that do not clearly identify the child as male or female” (Switzer 67). Thus, intersex people have been coined with the chromosomes XXXY due to uncertainty of which category they belong to. Usually with this condition, the baby would either have an abnormally large clitoris, an abnormally small penis, or both. Hermaphroditism, which falls under the “diagnosis of Disorders of Sexual Development (DSD), affects 1 in 2,000 children each year” (James). A common resolution is for the parent to choose the gender of the child, have the child undergo corrective surgery, and proceed to rear the child in the role of the selected gender. However, it has been argued that this method negatively affects the child both physically and psychologically. So, should parents be able to choose the gender for an intersex child? Some people might support the idea of parents choosing a child’s gender since it can be seen as a cultural aspect of their family and because parents have the freedom of choice. However, it is unreasonable and immoral for a parent to do so as it causes the child to enter into a struggle of self-identity, it does not allow the child to decide on having reconstru...
Sterling analyzes and criticizes the way society handles the meaning of different when it comes to sexuality and gender. The medicalization and misjudgment of intersex and other sexual ambiguities is heavily derived from our long standing belief in two genders and the appropriate roles they are assigned in playing 'house'. Consequently, a cycle of discrimination against the 'abnormal' rose and seeks to use medicine and higher knowledge to change the unknown based not based on medicine, but our own biases.