...In my opinion, I totally agree with the guidelines of the group “Bioethics and Intersex” within the German Network DSD/Intersex because their ethical point of view upheld the equal human right of the children with ambiguous genitalia and the intersex people. When people are born on earth, they have right to decide for their lives. In the 1960s, many doctors did early corrective surgeries for infants with ambiguous genitalia in their early childhood because they thought that the best way to help the affected babies to facilitate stable gender identity and appropriate gender role behavior in society. However, this solution had resulted in many consequences. For instance, it could cause negative consequences for their physiological function or...
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...I was very quick with my question, and only asked why to their answer, and when they did, I said thank you! And I moved on from the conversation, unless they wanted to talk more about it, which some of them did. RC and I had a long conversation about how we don’t want children at all, she even said that the older she gets the less she wants a child, and I agreed with her. I did not want to force the conversation to go in a direction, to see if intersex would ever come up. About 2% of the population is intersex (Fausto-Sterling, 2000) and in North America, this can make parents feel uncomfortable because they cannot put their child into a category. When preparing for the child to arrive, it’s typical to make a baby room, buy clothing and...
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...For centuries the human race has divided themselves into two categories, male and female. This concept has gone unquestioned until now, but society now understands there are more than male and female, but also intersex. Although people are intersex, hormones in their bodies show a preference to either testosterone or estrogen, which society uses to classify them to either male or female. There should still remain a distinction between the sexes, however, intersex people should be free to decide whether to identify with one sex or stay intersex. They should be permitted to decide because no one should be forced to conform to what society deems right and wrong, also their bodies contain both parts male and females identify with, and… From fashion...
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...When is Surgery Right for Intersex Infants? When a fetus is born the physician holds the infant up and announces whether it is a boy or girl. In about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births occur where the child is born with noticeably atypical genitalia (Intersex Society of North America, 2008). A group of conditions where there is a discrepancy between external and internal genitals is known as intersex (Kaneshiro, 2009). Intersex is also known as hermaphroditism. The term hermaphrodite came from the joining of the names of Greek god Hermes, god of male sexuality and Greek goddess Aphrodite, goddess of female sexuality (Kaneshiro, 2009). Standard medical treatment usually consists of looking at the genitals, determining the gender and then correcting it surgically. The questions is, what if the doctor’s get it wrong? The nonmedically necessary surgeries that are performed are irreversible and can have disastrous consequences. Ethical Concerns The ethical concern is that some physicians perform unnecessary surgery and get the gender wrong. The physician anticipates they know how the child will feel as an adult, but there is no guarantee that the child will feel like the chromosomes to which they are assingned. Surgery is an easy process for physicians, but is an extremely difficulty process for the child. Childen who do not identify with the gender they were surgical given can have profound psychosexual devlopment delays and deficits, and delayed or absent normal encounters...
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...Numerous intersex, who identify as transgender, claim that they never felt truly male or female relying upon what sex was recommended to them and felt there’s always a feeling of knowing something wasn't right with them. Most of the children are lied to and told that some other therapeutic issue is harming them and that they must experience a surgical method however are never told the genuine reasons why. As suggested by the story the spider woman had “the head of a sad maiden” which reflects all those patients who are scarred—both mentally and physically—by a methodology overwhelming on surgical ability and light on clarification, mental support, and full divulge (266). “What was most heart-rending, however, was not her outlandish shape but the sincere affliction with which she recounted the details of her misfortune” (266). Humans are curious by nature and frequently have a tendency to be more pulled in to things which are anything but difficult to handle as opposed to something which needs a great deal of speculation to do. And such is the case in point of the spider woman, as an allegory for an intersex identified as a transgender, whose surgical alteration doesn’t seem to really bother them much but her heart-wrenching and simple-to-process tale that complex strongly with the haziness of the...
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...XXY: Hispanic Culture and Gender Identity Juxtaposed The film XXY is based in Piriapolis Maldonado Uruguay, which is a small fishing town on the Atlantic coast. It chronicles the family dynamics and tough decisions related to protagonist Alex’s gender identity in a Hispanic cultural context. In addition to being a moving interpersonal drama, the film depicts Hispanic culture on multiple levels, from typical greetings, food, and family practices, to more intense gender taboos. Alex is a 15 year old intersex Argentinian whose family moved to a remote coastal estate to protect their child from severe bullying. Intersex is a socially constructed category that reflects real biological variation, typically used to describe people born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male1. ¬ ¬¬¬ Alex grew up socialized as a girl and uses female gender pronouns throughout the film. Unlike many parents of intersexed children, Alex’s parents elected not to surgically change their child’s genitals to “fit” one gender or the other. Alex’s mother is struggling with not having her little girl anymore as puberty bring out Alex’s more masculine sexual identity. She has invited an Argentinean surgeon who specializes in gender reconstruction surgery, along with his wife and teenage son, to visit their home and give Alex the opportunity to elect to surgically become more female. The teenage son, who is exploring his sexual orientation...
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...! 1. Gender Binary: Based off of prior knowledge and information from this class, gender binary is described as the two genders that identify with being either feminine or masculine. Though society often believes in this gender binary, we tend to put people into boxes by categorizing them and it isn’t always correct. In the Radical teacher on page 62 this quote sums up some truth and problems, “the mistaken belief that if your body has/does that thing it is a particular gender.” 2. Intersex: An individual who does not have the typical XY or XX body type. These individuals have a mixture of the two. As we saw in the film XXY, Alex is an example of an intersex person. Most people who are intersex often go through medical procedures to for “normalizing”. Society has this way of making these people seen as something that needs...
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...Republic of the Philippines SUPREME COURT Manila SECOND DIVISION G.R. No. 166676 September 12, 2008 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, Petitioner -‐ versus -‐ JENNIFER B. CAGANDAHAN, Respondent. DECISION QUISUMBING, J.: This is a petition for review under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court raising purely questions of law and seeking a reversal of the Decision[1] dated January 12, 2005 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 33 of Siniloan, Laguna, which granted the Petition for Correction of Entries in Birth Certificate filed by Jennifer B. Cagandahan and ordered the following changes of entries in Cagandahan’s birth certificate: (1) the name "Jennifer Cagandahan" changed to "Jeff Cagandahan" and (2) gender from "female" to "male." The facts are as follows. On December 11, 2003, respondent Jennifer Cagandahan filed a Petition for Correction of Entries in Birth...
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...Jamari Lawrence December, 1st, 2015 Prof. Jones Sex, Gender and Sexuality Evaluation of the Queer Theory Embedded deep within the psyche of modern society, gender is a persistent feature of everyday life. It creates normalized behaviors and characteristics for each person, holding them accountable for even the most trivial actions. Individuals are not supposed to step outside the binary male-female framework, otherwise they risk backlash as an attempt to force them back into culturally designated roles. This binary is disturbed by the very existence of intersex individuals – as they cannot be placed into 100% male or 100% female on a binary scale. One of the areas where intersex has caused complications is in organized sports, specifically the Olympics. Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires athletes to be divided into men and women in the various events, the interjection of intersex individuals causes complications with the preexisting system. In societies worldwide, many people are conditioned to believe there are only two genders. However, to many other people this is a misinformed view. In reality there are people who believe that there are hundreds of societies on a world wide level that recognize genders outside the gender binary according to PBS's Independent Lens program. In this essay, I’ll look at how broadly defined groups of family life, the media, work, and politics play in the current gender differences in America, as well as if...
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...Essay # 2 “Based off of my already conceptualized knowledge of the word, I would have to say that a feminist is a person who strongly supports female rights.” This is a quote from my introduction paragraph of the first essay we wrote for this class. Having been in this class and read the works written by feminist authors, I have a better understanding of what a feminist actually is. I also have a better understanding of my identification with feminism. Feminism is an ongoing collection of movements and ideologies that advocate for the betterment of women and a feminist is someone who supports this idea. However, my answer still remains the same as it did; I do not identify as a feminist. It would be an insult to feminist leaders for me to call myself one. I support feminist ideas and feel as though women have been oppressed and still are oppressed, but I am not an active supporter, therefore I would not call myself a feminist. I feel as though a feminist is someone who is active in their support for the movement, i.e. advocating for women by either teaching, writing, protesting, or doing things of that nature to improve the treatment of women. There is a major difference in saying that you support feminism and actually doing something to show that support. To further explain my understanding of feminism, I want to uncover the different layers of oppression that women face. While in the 1900’s the goal of feminism was for women to receive equal treatment to men, feminism is...
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...Depiction of Hermaphroditism in Middlesex Hausarbeit als Abschlussprüfung im Advancedmodul“Female Masculinity”(WS 2013/14)Dozenten Anna Hutnik, M. A. und Dietlind Falk, M.ABachelorstudiengang Anglistik/Amerikanistikder Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf Vorgelegt von:Nicole Jennifer BeckerNicole.Becker@uni-duesseldorf.de BA Anglistik KF, Informationswissenschaft EF, 3. SemesterMatrikel-Nr: 211199703.04.2014 Table of ContentTable of Content I.Introduction 3 II.Hermaphroditism vs Middlesex4 III.Cal's Intersexuality in Society6 III.a. Gender Identity and Transphobia6 III.b. Gender Assignment and Intelligibility9 IV.Dealing with Intersexuality10 IV.a.Stephanides Family and Dr. Luce10 IV.b. Beyond Middlesex: Other Cultures 12 V.Conclusion15 V.a.Outlook17 VI.Works Cited19 Introduction Inspired by the story of Herculine Barbin, a nineteenth-century hermaphrodite who committed suicide in 1868, the bestseller novel “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides deals with the condition of the pseudohermaphrodite Calliope “Cal” Stephanides. Since sex[1] and gender[2] are controversial topics that have been discussed by scholars such as Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault or Judith Butler to name only a few, it can be assumed that the depiction of hermaphroditism in a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel like Middlesex might have an influence on how readers think of the topic itself. Due to this day especially hermaphrodites and intersexuals lack in most countries representation in form...
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...Discuss the role of hormones and/or genes in gender development. (8 + 16 marks) Biological sex is determined by genes, which are on chromosomes. Humans generally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, one pair of which determines sex. Females have an XX pair while males have an XY pair. Chromosomal sex largely controls how masculine or feminine the egg's development will be. Chromosomal sex controls whether an embryo will develop ovaries or testes. The SRY gene on the Y chromosome which only males possess will cause the gonad (the organ which produces sex cells) to develop into testes; a female's gonad will develop into ovaries due to the absence of the SRY gene. External genitalia strongly influences gender development, through the effects of the hormones which they produce and due to psychological and social factors. Hormones also affect the development of the genitalia. Androgens (male hormones) such as testosterone stimulate the development of male sex organs. Genetic females who are exposed prenatally to high levels of androgens may therefore develop ambiguous genitalia and the baby may appear externally to be male. Similarly, genetic males with too little androgens may appear externally to be female - this condition is known as androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS). Hormones also have a powerful affect on the development of the brain. Females and males have different brains, with females generally being better at social skills such as empathising & males generally excelling...
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...Gender Identity August 5, 2013 Gender Identity Paper Gender identity and sexual differentiation form a complex, interrelated paradigm involving genetic inheritance, internal and external physiology, endocrinology, neurological structure, sexual orientation, and socio-environmental factors. Before the 1950’s gender assignment at birth was a matter of ‘predominant sex’; in other words, dependent on external genitalia, structure of gonads, and sex chromosomes (Cohen-Kettenis, 2005). In the wake of the behavioral-cognitive movement that sprang up shortly thereafter, the ‘psychosexual neutrality’ theory was embraced, built upon the supposed, all-encompassing mechanism of experiential learning. More recently a policy of ‘optimal gender’ has been adopted, in which gender assignment is based on reproductive abilities, overall psychological functionality, and psychosexual efficacy. Regardless of which policy is used for gender assignment, an understanding of the underlying genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors involved in sexual differentiation is the key to elucidating the more complicated subjects of gender identity and sexual orientation. When the 23 single chromosomes of the male sperm and female ovum combine to create a genetically unique human zygote, complete with 23 pairs of chromosomes, it is the 23rd chromosome that determines genetic sex (Wickens, 2005). If the alleles of the 23rd chromosome are both an X, then the zygote is genetically female; if one X and one...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Assessment 3 ------------------------------------------------- Working Across Difference With Transgender ------------------------------------------------- And Transsexual Individuals ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Student Name:------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- Clare J Clayton | ------------------------------------------------- Student Number:------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- S2847347 | ------------------------------------------------- Date Submitted: | ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...The topics of sex and gender are very complicated ones; Anne Fausto-sterling focuses on the battle that people who are intersex face. Fausto-Sterling revisits her previous report from 1993 updating and clarifying her previous statements. In her first report she argues that the binary does not truly represent the sexes and that it only works to further marginalize us (including those of us who identify in normative ways) and prevents full equality. She updates her argument to clarify to those of a more conservative standpoint; she does not want a “pastel world” of all androgynous people; but rather wants the world to accept everyone. In her words “Strong colors Coexist with pastels” (Fausto-Sterling, 23). Not only should we accept everyone...
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