Feb 07
3
Intersexuality
Just saw the movie ‘Transamerica’ written and directed by Duncan Tucker and starring Felicity Huffman. You might already know that the story was inspired by a debate on sexual morality between Duncan Tucker and actress Katherine Connella. At one point, he tells her that maybe she has to have a dick to understand his view, and she tells him that’s what she has. She’s an intersexual, and was raised as a boy.
Depending on how intersexuality is defined, the incidence could be as high as 1% of live births, or as low as 0.018%. Did you know that in fetal development, it’s the presence of an SRY gene that causes the gonads of the fetus to develop into testes. Without that gene, the gonads develop into ovaries. And from there, the development of the internal reproductive organs and genitalia depend on hormones produced by the gonads, and the cells’ response to those hormones. Understandably, variations can happen along the way.
I have an acquaintance who’s intersexual. Also a family member who was female, but didn’t have reproductive organs, much like T.S. Eliot’s wife Vivienne. Apart from that, she was healthy, and so is my acquaintance.
Been thinking about gender a lot, wondering why I’m so much more comfortable with men, and in particular, gay men. Most of my boyfriends were gay. Wonder why that is. I’m also very drawn to anything gender bending. The movie ‘Transamerica’ for instance – just loved it!
More info on Intersexuality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersexuality
Intersexual individuals are treated in different ways by different cultures. In some cultures intersexuals were included in larger “third gender” or gender-blending social roles along with other individuals. In most societies, intersexed individuals have been expected to select one sex, and conform to its gender role.
Since the rise of modern medical science in Western societies, some intersexuals with ambiguous external genitalia have had their genitalia surgically modified to resemble either male or female genitals. But there are increasing calls for recognition of the various degrees of intersexuality as healthy variations which should not be subject to correction. Some have attacked the common Western practice of performing corrective surgery on the genitals of intersexuals as a Western cultural equivalent of female genital cutting. Despite the attacks on the practice, most of the medical profession still supports it. Others have claimed that the talk about third sexes represents an ideological agenda to deride gender as a social construct whereas they believe gender is a biological reality.
Corrective surgery is generally not necessary for protection of life or health, but purely for aesthetic or social purposes. Unlike other aesthetic surgical procedures performed on infants, such as corrective surgery for a cleft palate, genital surgery may lead to negative consequences for sexual functioning in later life (such as loss of sensation in the genitals, for example, when a clitoris deemed too large/penile is reduced/removed, or feelings of freakishness and unacceptability) which would have been avoided without the surgery; in other cases negative consequences may be avoided by surgery. Opponents maintain that there is no compelling evidence that benefits of such ‘normalising’ surgery outweigh the potential costs.(Similar attitudes are present in some cases of botched infant circumcision, in which the solution might involve intensive medical and parental efforts to reassign the male baby to a female identity.) Defenders of the practice argue that it is necessary for individuals to be clearly identified as male or female in order for them to function socially. However, many intersex individuals have resented the medical intervention, and some have been so discontented with their surgically assigned gender as to opt for sexual reassignment surgery later in life.