SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Chromosome, Heteronormativity, Gender Identity
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Sexual Dimorphism
- Deviation from normal→ high peaks are the normal
- Males vs. females
- Intrinsically different because there is no overlap whatsoever
Bimodal Sex Continuum
- There is no systematic studies of normality
- No chromosomal testing and no investigation of our sexual difference
- What we do know indicates that there is some overlap
- Different expectations on physicality,
Medical Construction of Sexual Dimorphism
- Construction = Work involved in producing idea/ phenomenon
- Social vs. literal work
- Chase (1998):
- “Pediatric genital surgeries literalize what might otherwise be considered a
theoretical operation: the attempted production of normatively sexed bodies
and gendered subjects through constitutive acts of violence” (31)
- “Medical regulation of bodies that QUEER the foundations of
heteronormative identifications and desires” (Chase, 1998: 31)
- Intersexed bodies or the intervention of these bodies
- 90% become female
- Females defined in terms of “lack”
- Cannot combine male with female> feminization
- Genital-focused process
- Multiple tests, processes
- Culminate in genital intervention: Too big/ too small
- Why? (Kessler)
- Intersexed infants
- Reductive→ reduce to a point of lack
- Role of medical language and authority in process
- “Lies” in service of the good > heroism
- What is the “good”?
- Example of posturing, presentation of the “natural”
- Secrecy, shame, physical violence→ long-term suffering and chronic
pain (high concentration of nerves)
- Failure of social and medical imagination
- Problem construction and problem resolution
- Alternatives?
Readings
- Blackless
- Macro
- Biomedical
- Chase
- Micro (personal perspective)
Document Summary
Deviation from normal high peaks are the normal. Intrinsically different because there is no overlap whatsoever. No chromosomal testing and no investigation of our sexual difference. What we do know indicates that there is some overlap. Construction = work involved in producing idea/ phenomenon. Pediatric genital surgeries literalize what might otherwise be considered a theoretical operation: the attempted production of normatively sexed bodies and gendered subjects through constitutive acts of violence (31) Medical regulation of bodies that queer the foundations of heteronormative identifications and desires (chase, 1998: 31) Intersexed bodies or the intervention of these bodies. Culminate in genital intervention: too big/ too small. Reductive reduce to a point of lack. Role of medical language and authority in process. Lies in service of the good > heroism. Example of posturing, presentation of the natural . Secrecy, shame, physical violence long-term suffering and chronic pain (high concentration of nerves)
