Sexing the Body Chapters 1 and 2
I was really curious while reading this as to the frequency of people who are intersex. Fausto-Sterling gives so many examples of the variation that is out there that it seems like this could be a pretty common thing. I found this website that actually has statistics from a study done by Fausto-Sterling.
http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency
The most shocking stat was at the end where it says the total number of people whose bodies differ from normal male or female is 1 in 100. That means that most of us probably know at least a couple of people who have some sort of abnormality of their sexual organs. That really reminds me that we need to be more sensitive about this subject because you never know who it might be affecting.
When Fausto-Sterling talks about the gender continuum and how not everyone is completely male or female, it made me wonder what should the people in the middle be called? How do they want to be treated? I'm sure Fausto-Sterling will bring up these issues in the future while we read this book. At what point along the continuum does someone switch from one thing to the next?
This is a two-part segment of 20/20 about intersexuals that I foundon youtube. The most surprising thing I saw was that one woman had a clitorectamy as a baby and now she cannot have an orgasm. I think that was kind of short-sighted of her doctors to not think about what would happen to her as an adult. It begs the question is it better to have genitals that look normal or to be able to have pleasurable sex with abnormal genitals? I think the women in this video would argue for the latter. The woman in the video who did not have any surgery seems to be very happy with her life and I think that by appearing on television she was a voice for intersexuals and maybe some young intersexuals watching that show might see her and have a better understanding of their situation and give them hope for a happy future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv1yk2Va9qc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHbBTEeayEU&feature=related
Michele-
ReplyDeleteI think the statistics you found are very noteworthy. It surprised me just from what was brought up in the reading how many intersexual babies are born, definitely more than I would have guessed. There was a point in the chapter that mentioned doctors who neglect to reference to parents of newborns born intersexual any other families who have or are going through the same situation. It seems a little selfish for the doctors to not take the time to help these families when clearly there are a substantial number of them. I know if I were a parent in the situation the least I would want is someone to talk to and to know that there are other people out there going through the same thing. I hope this reading does, as you point out, make our class aware of the situation and sensitive if we should have face it.