Thursday, June 17, 2010

5 sexes??

The article by Anne Fausto-Sterling, The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough is a piece of writing that everyone should consider reading in order to enlighten themselves. Western culture needs to take off the blinders and come to terms with the very real fact that gender is not a binary concept. In believing that there are only males OR females, society is forcing people that do not fall under the two-fold category to live a life of make believe. Yes, it is a very uncomfortable thing for Americans when someone doesn't fit into our predetermined categories. And sure, I am generalizing here but stay with me.

Just like our society pushes for a person to identify as a certain race and then becomes uncomfortable until that person has been placed in a category, (where we have stereotypes to define them furter) the same goes for gender. Only these "herms" and "ferms" and "merms" have no category within our society. So what do they do? They play make believe and try to pass as either male or female. Could you imagine having a constant feeling of subordination? Yes, because as women we have those same struggles. Women have come a long way in our push for equality and recognition, so who are we to deny those things to another gender? Neither men, nor women as humans have a right to interfere with the bodily make up of infants just to ease uncomfortableness. It's downright inhumane and shouldn't be practiced within medicine unless it be medically necessary for the health of the child.

In other classes at JMU I have been exposed to this issue and one of my previous professors showed us this video. It is quite long, but if you have the extra time, it serves as a strong backing for some of the issues I've brought up in this blog.




1 comment:

  1. Your blogs are so rich and full of content. I'm really enjoying reading all of your insights and seeing what multimedia you come up with to round out your discussion.

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