ANTHR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: The Third Sex, Hermaphrodite
22 Oct 2015
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Document Summary
Genes of males and females are almost the same. What makes us different lies in the margins of our genetic make up. Children born as intersexual have ambiguous genitalia. Parents expect to have either a boy or a girl. Xx chromosomes = female produce estrogen. Xy chromosomes = male produce testosterone. Appears to have male sex organs on the outside but has female organs on the inside. However, tests show that joshua"s body is producing testosterone, he is recommended to be raised as a boy. The parents put the child (while he was a baby) under intense corrective surgery to fix his genitalia into a male"s. They are born appearing normal, but may change later on. She was born a girl, but actually has testes in her abdomen. Her intersexualness is kept secret from her. She was raised a female and looked like a female, she also identifies herself as female. Causes sarah"s body to be insensitive to testosterone.
