Questioning Sex

First off, I would like to start my post by saying how much I am enjoying Anne Fausto-Sterling's Sexing the Body. I love her clear and concise messages which demonstrate her arguments perfectly. I think she is very thought provoking while at the same time not forcing her opinions on her readers. I think that she has done a very good job of opening the door for her readers to think about the questions she proposes. By illustrating briefly the way in which "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" were defined throughout different eras and highlighting the problems which are attached to these definitions, Fausto-Sterling allows her readers to grasp factual information while being able to have an internal debate about what these issues mean to themselves, and to modern society as a whole. I am particularly interested to see how she continues to develop her theme of dichotomy throughout the text and the impacts that having a dichotomous, dualistic society has, particularly in the area of gender and sexuality. I think that i agree very much with the idea that there is no way to fit every person into one of two choices. I found it very interesting to read about the "sexual continuum" and the Kinsey Scale as a way in which people have tried to assert that there are more than a handful of ways to identify one's self.

I was most struck by the two examples in these chapters of times when the sex of people was publicly questioned. The first example came in the opening pages of Sexing the Body. When Spanish hurdler Maria Patino was forced to undergo genetic testing to determine her ability to qualify as a woman under the eyes of the IOC, there was a huge public outcry. This reminded me of a more recent example (one within my lifetime) of South African runner Caster Semenya, who was forced to undergo similar testing to prove that she was in fact a woman. Although Patino's results were made public and eventually caused people to question how we identify and "test" one's sex, Semenya's genetic test results were never released. Although she was allowed to maintain her medals and compete in some races, she was barred from others. There is still much debate and rumors about Caster Semenya and her sex/eligibility to compete.

The second example which i was particularly drawn to was from the opening paragraphs of Fausto-Sterling's second chapter, That Sexe Which Prevaileth." The story of the 1843 resident whose sex was questioned when he registered to vote is one which i had never heard of before. People tried to deny him of this right by citing that he was "more womanish" and that he did not qualify as a part of the community (i.e. men) which reserved the right to vote. Eventually, Suydam was able to cast a vote, but it soon arose that he menstruated and had other feminine qualities. Although it is unknown if his vote was rescinded, I think this is a very early example which proves that sex bias and traditional gender disassociation is not a modern issue, but rather, it has been around for many generations. (As a side note, as Fausto-Sterling points out, writing about someone like Suydam is challenging because of the English dichotomy of pronouns, for my own convenience i used masculine forms, but perhaps this is not right. It is interesting to think about how something as commonplace as language can fuel these debates and raise issues while dealing with issues regarding to sex and gender).