It is what it is.

I found one part in Fausto-Sterling's chapter quite interesting. The entire concept of "fixing" intersexuality to me seems like a very controversial issue. Before this dramatic increase in our technology, intersexuals were not forced to be classified as either a male or a female. Fausto-Sterling makes it clear that because of our increase in technology, when an intersex child is born, most doctors declare that h/she is "really" a boy or a girl. She notes that many doctors have banned the word "hermaphrodite" when talking to the parents. Prenatal therapy to prevent intersex children seems like a catch 22. The tests don't prove that it is completely safe, yet if intersex is preventable, I'm sure many parents would jump at the opportunity to declare their child a male or a female. But is it not enough that the child is healthy? Is it worth jeopardizing their health to declare the babies gender? This issue is beyond imaginable, and I would never try to understand the position these parents are in. Yes, it is easy to say that parents shouldn't try and change their healthy children. Or that parent's who know they have CAH in their genes shouldn't attempt prenatal therapy, thus endangering the health of their child. But it isn't fair for me to try and understand what those involved with an intersex child, or even the child itself, is going through. It isn't fair for me to judge Cal or for me to judge anyone who is different. In class, we always talk about doing what is deemed "right." Fausto-Sterling seems to judge those who get caught up in the social definitions of gender, but who is she to say anything different. This may be a very big, very wrong assumption, but as far as I know, she isn't a intersexual, nor has she ever had to deal with intersexual children. I guess what I'm trying to say is we can never truly understand what this 1.7% of the population has to go through. As much as we read our history, or our personal memoirs, we can never know how these people really feel. We shouldn't try and judge intersexuals, or those who were intersexuals but were "fixed" or even the parents who chose to "fix"their children. It isn't fair to them. Unless we actually experience it ourselves, we have no right to say what is right or wrong.

After attempting to read all that was assigned, I came to one conclusion: I have been naive to the entire concept of intersexuality and the relationship between gender and sex. After reading, I still find myself a bit confused. The terminology is foreign, and the concept of gender being different from sex, honestly, had not crossed my mind until this class. But maybe this is the problem. Maybe it is because we are so closed to anything different, and we refuse to accept anything out of the ordinary that when unique cases like this come up, a majority of us feel so ignorant.