Society has engrained in us that there are only two sexes: male and female. We can only check one of these boxes; we are one or the other. However, a greater continuum or spectrum of sexuality exists, which can be difficult for us to comprehend. What does it mean to be intersexed? Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex tells the fictional tale of Calliope/Cal, whose individual narrative will help us to place the societal and personal ramifications of intersexuality into context. Cal, who currently identifies as a man but was born as a girl, introduces his condition: 5-alpha-reductase deficiency syndrome. He clarifies: “I’m not androgynous in the least. 5-alpha-reductase deficiency syndrome allows for normal biosynthesis and perhipheral action of testosterone, in utero, neonatally, and at puberty. In other words, I operate in society as a man” (Eugenides 41). However, even in his life as man, he must take precautions in order to protect himself from other people’s (likely negative) reactions: “I use the men’s room. Never the urinals, always the stalls. In the men’s locker room at my gym I even shower, albeit discreetly” (41). He also shares that are moments where he is plagued by his past: “Suddenly there she is again, doing a hair flip, or checking her nails. It’s a little like being possessed…” (41).
The disorder is autosomal recessive, so Cal traces his family history to explain inbreeding may have contributed to the presence of this genetic mutation . What will be particularly interesting to see unfold is what Cal refers to as his multiple births: his initial birth as a baby girl, a second as a teenage boy, and now possibly a third as a grown man. How can Cal navigate these transitions within a society that is so unwelcoming of difference?
Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of Sexing the Body, offers a more academic approach to this issue of sex as a binary system and considers the manner in which different cultures throughout history have addressed intersexuality. She explains that European and American cultures have long been devoted to this idea because the state and legal systems demand such a divide: distinctions based on who is male versus female determine who can vote, own property, claim inheritances, etc. As a result, medical history shows that many intersexed individuals have been coerced into surgery to “fix the problem.” Fausto-Sterling explains: “the individual him/herself shared with medical and legal experts the right to decide which sex prevailed but, once having made a choice, was expected to stick with it. The penalty for reneging could be severe. At stake was the maintenance of the social order and the rights of man (meant literally)” (Fausto-Sterling 36). How do you choose what gender to be? How is Cal able to change his identity from female to male? What will the reactions of his family and peers be? What will it mean to his personal identity development?
After explaining the various definitions of “hermaphrodite” that have existed throughout history and the corresponding political and social underpinnings, Fausto-Sterling concludes on a slightly different note. She writes: “Deepening understandings of the physiological bases of intersexuality combined with improvements in surgical technology began to enable physicians to catch most intersexed individuals at the moment of birth. The motive for their conversion was genuinely humanitarian: a wish to enable individuals to fit in and to function both physically and psychologically as healthy human beings” (Fausto-Sterling 44). This crusade against intersexuality was waged with (some) good intentions: people have a strong desire to fit in and to be a part of the group. History has shown that these individuals who are ambiguous in terms of gender have been met with confusion and sometimes disgust; is it crazy to want to help people avoid such a lifestyle? However, Fausto-Sterling continues: “But behind the wish lay unexamined assumptions: first, that there should be only two sexes; second, that only heterosexuality was normal, and third, that particular gender roles defined the psychologically healthy man and woman” (44). We are still trapped by these ideas of norms. Instead of forcing people to fit into one of two narrowly defined boxes, why can’t we expand the options and being to accept people as they are?
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The question I found myself asking over and over while doing these readings was: What goes on in the minds of people like Cal to make them decide they want to be a different gender? Even though gender is a much more complicated word than I originally thought, there still has to be some sort of revelation that encourages people to "make the switch." Did Cal feel as though she was attracted to women and therefore needed to be a man to avoid being coined a lesbian? Did she feel as though she was supposed to be a boy her entire life? I found it interesting (and almost a little creepy), when he describes how his younger, female self often creeps up on him and he finds himself flipping his hair or checking his nails...it's almost as though he has two personalities. This is what I am most interested in finding out as we continue with this book, and I think the reason most people are scared of people who don't fit into a gender category: we simply don't understand the motives. We don't understand how someone could feel so disconnected from the gender they are born with that they feel the need to undergo surgery and correct themselves.
ReplyDeleteThen again, it's not always a matter of surgery or switching; some people simply have no gender to begin with. This seems to be the biggest reason why hermaphrodites weren't accepted (and still aren't). There are so many rights and responsibilities that go along with what gender category we fit into, and when someone fails to do that, they find themselves in the midst of chaos. As Fausto Sterling said, "The rights of inheritance, forms of judicial punishment, and the right to vote and participate in the political system were all determined in part by sex" (36).
I'm also interested to see how Cal's parents deal with his surgery. Although I can see how the complications of gender categories would cause people to want surgery or to feel as though they were born the wrong gender, I can't help but feel bad for their parents. It must be a very difficult situation to raise your child as a baby girl and buy her bows and pink blankets and to later learn that she wants to be a boy...it must be like losing the child you thought you would always have. This is likely why it's so hard and secretive when parents and physicians are forced to decide at birth what sex a child should be. There simply is no right answer, but those parents will still live day to day wondering if they made the right one.
As Colleen pointed out in her post—and as was mentioned in class on Tuesday—one of the issues that seems to be perpetually associated with intersex or transsexual people is the difficulty or motivation behind choosing a gender. The choice to change gender is often deemed especially problematic because it means the person is willfully placing themselves outside the two-gender system.
ReplyDeleteIn class on Tuesday, we discussed how transexual and intersex individuals are often seen as transgressing gender boundaries precisely for this reason. However, the complicated social structure of the two-gender system often mandates that they conform to a single gender-identity, and thus are forced to divide the sexual and gendered middle-ground safely into two societally-defined sexes and genders.
The Fausto-Sterling reading summarized the way this sexual and gender binary has been constructed (or not) through history, and discusses the ways intersex people were dealt within before surgery offered them a ‘normal’ life—and also rendered them invisible. In particular, it was interesting to read the ways in which gender and sexual practices were intrinsically linked to distinguishing how to classify an individual’s anatomical sex. In a time when homosexual acts and cross-dressing were (severely!) punishable by law, the ability to categorize people as either male or female was extremely important.
This attitude—that sex defines gender defines normal sexual activity—is, as Fausto-Sterling points out—inherently heteronormative and sexist. Ambiguity of biological sex undermines institutions that defined a woman’s place in the social hierarchy. Furthermore, the existence of ambiguous genitalia made it impossible to persecute homosexuality.
The treatment of intersex individuals suggests that there is an intrinsic link between gender and biological sex and that, furthermore, gender must inherently define sexuality. The question of why a person would choose to change sex and the complications of defining ambiguous biological sex has often been linked to sexual preference. As Colleen wrote, why would someone want to change sexes? To make homosexuality more socially acceptable? Are transexual people necessarily attracted to the same sex before their change?
However, I think this attitude undermines the existence of gender as a means of self-identification that can exist outside sexual attraction. In Middlesex, Cal occasionally finds himself struggling to repress girlish behaviors he has learned when he was younger, although we are not led to believe that this femininity is accompanied by impulses of homosexuality. Furthermore, gender becomes part of our identity long before we are sexually attracted to anyone. As such, although societally gender and sexuality may be unavoidably linked, I think gender can be discussed without the need to defer to sexual preference.