I found the way the protagonist of Middlesex describes the two genders inside his body as interesting and reflective of the way our society polarizes male vs. female. First of all, Cal can “repress” the Calliope. Calliope is manifested through “a hair flip, or checking her nails”. I don’t think either of these actions is a result of biology or genetic programming, perhaps they point to women traditionally being less secure and body-focused, and thus Cal categorizes those actions to femininity because they reflect insecurity. Despite socialization as a boy, Cal finds much more safety and confidence in masculinity, saying that doubled breasted suits make him feel better. Calliope’s influence is like being “possessed” and he says that she has little hands, chimp’s feet, a girlish walk, nervous habits, adolescent despair, and causes him to feel “desolate and gossipy sympathy for girls” (Eugenides 42). Instead of identifying as intersex as a cohesive hybrid of two genders, it seems they are polarized and each has a traditional role in the body. The man is confident and dominant; the woman is weak and anxious.
The male-female division reflects our society’s desire to put people into strict roles or categorizations. As Fausto-Sterling writes about in Sexing the Body, this presents an issue because while the “state and legal system has an interest in maintaining only two sexes, our collective biological bodies do not” (Fausto-Sterling 31). The emphasis on biological gender differences between men and women which resulted from increases in medical knowledge created no space to allow for intersex to exist. Instead of embracing an “in-between” biology of sex, there must be a choice to be either male or female, despite cases which indicate that an intersex person can be content with their sexual status.
I think one of the biggest things that prevents intersex individuals from being completely accepted into our society is that our gender pronouns allow for little flexibility. I was very confused about whether to refer to Cal as “he” or “she” because each term has a lot of implications and each is very fixed and rigid. Societal response to confusion and worrying about being political correct results in the intersex simply being left out of the dialogue because the subject is uncomfortable.
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I definitely agree with Stephanie. The in between space between male and female is very little. I think it is really interesting that even bois and intersex people continue to polarize the male and female qualities. I would have expected them to acknowledge the fluidity much more and embrace a kind of hybrid that we mentioned in class and just "be." I am very unfamiliar with that world because I'm not a part of it, but I think that it is these intersex people have the power to make intersex people feel comfortable as they are without feeling the need to repress any certain characteristic that they have. I think everyone, regardless of whether they are male/female/intersex can find examples where they might agree or identify in some way with the other sex, whether it is because a boy grew up with all female siblings, or whether a girl was raised by her father. All of these social situations shape people and can make them identify in a small way with the other sex. For example, unlike most girls, I never had a "blankie" or a teddy bear that I slept with, and I think that because I was raised by my father he did some girly things with my sisters and I and did more "boyish" things like not giving us a blanket and teddy bear to sleep with. So I think that these intersex people, who are both male and female or neither male nor female, have the power to create a real fluidity between our rigid gender stereotypes and I hope that is something that our generation sees as a part of the feminist movement. Additionally, in terms of the polarity between heterosexuality and homosexuality, I wonder if the emergence of the hybrid between the two will coincide with the gender polarity or if that will take more time to accept.
ReplyDeleteI like that Fausto-Sterling includes the history of intersexuality because I think it is important to see how ideas and norms have changed and developed over the years. However, I think the downfall of including so much of the history is that it seems like Fausto-Sterling is trying to overcompensate for the present, and her point that intersexuality is not new becomes a bit redundant. I wonder if her choice to include ancient Greek mythology as evidence of the longevity of hermaphrodites is a bit too obvious of an attempt to justify their presence today. Ancient Greek mythology is often associated with intelligence and academia, and I think there is an inclination to think, if the ancient Greeks knew about it, it must be so! I definitely find the fact that “Plato wrote that there were originally three sexes- male, female, and hermaphrodite- but that the third sex became lost over time” (33) intriguing, but if Fausto-Sterling is including this fact to make people realize the error of gender stereotypical ways, I think she is better off sticking to biology. Perhaps Fausto-Sterling is including these stories simply to stress that intersexuality is something new, but if not, I think her medical points are stronger than her history points to introduce a new way of thinking about intersexuality.
ReplyDeleteI think the readings for this week really highlighted our need to categorize. Even while writing the book Middlesex, the author chose to use the pronoun "she" rather than "he". The fact that there was a forced choice in this situation says a lot about the audience that they are trying to reach. Even's Cal's family displayed an obsession with attemping to gender the baby, especially when trying to decide the gender with a spoon over the mother's belly or planning for the birth of daughter before the baby was even born. It really makes me think, what if the author hadn't categorized the protagonist as "he" or "she", would we be comfortable reading it?
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