WMNS 1103 Chapter Notes - Chapter Additional Readings: Human Sexual Activity, International Association Of Athletics Federations, Sex Verification In Sports
21 May 2018
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“Dueling Dualisms.” by Anne Fausto-Sterling
• Maria Patino: 1988, Spain’s top hurdler fails sex test. She had a y chromosome, her labia
hid testes, and she had neither ovaries nor a uterus. Her life fell apart. She spent two and
a half years convincing the International Olympic Committee and International Amateur
Athletic federation that she was female enough to compete. The IAAF reinstated her but
the IOC would not.
• Androgen insensitivity: She had a Y chromosome and her testes made testosterone but
her cells couldn’t detect it. At puberty, her testes produced estrogen causing breasts to
grow, wait to narrow and hips to widen.
• Olympic committee has long policed the sex of competitors in order to mollify the fear
that women’s sports participation would lead to them being manly.
• Pre 1968: Women just needed to show breasts and a vagina to a board of examiners but
this was seen as degrading. The modern chromosome test was implemented but a body’s
sex is too complex for this DNA test.
• Labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision. Scientific knowledge is used to
help make the decision but we define sex.
• Beliefs about gender impact what knowledge scientists produce about sex.
• 1972, John Money and Anke Erhardt: Sex is physical attributes, anatomically determined
while gender is how one feels internally and how they express that behaviorally.
• Second wave feminists of the 70’s: Believed social institutions promote the biggest
differences between men and women. While men and women’s bodies have different
reproductive functions, that’s really it.
• More we look for clear simple basis for sex, the clearer it becomes that this doesn’t exist.
What we define as male and female is already entangled in our ideas of gender.
• Doctors faced with uncertainty about child’s sex focus primarily on reproductive abilities
or penis size. They try to fit intersexuals in one of the two boxes- male or female because
in order to maintain gender divisions, we must control those bodies that are “different”
• In the 17th and 18th century, concepts of sex and sexuality changed as growing capitalism
needed different methods of control. In the early 19th century, social scientists begin
doing census and survey data, placing more emphasis on sex differences. Imposing a
gender norm is socially driven.
• 1948: Alfred Kinsey, modern notions of homosexuality.
• Categories used to define, measure and analyze human sexual behavior change over time.
• Definitions of homo and heterosexuality are built on two sex model of masculinity and
femininity
• Sex and nature are thought to be real while gender and culture are seen as constructed
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Document Summary
Dueling dualisms. by anne fausto-sterling: maria patino: 1988, spain"s top hurdler fails sex test. She had a y chromosome, her labia hid testes, and she had neither ovaries nor a uterus. She spent two and a half years convincing the international olympic committee and international amateur. Athletic federation that she was female enough to compete. The iaaf reinstated her but the ioc would not: androgen insensitivity: she had a y chromosome and her testes made testosterone but her cells couldn"t detect it. The modern chromosome test was implemented but a body"s sex is too complex for this dna test: labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision. While men and women"s bodies have different reproductive functions, that"s really it: more we look for clear simple basis for sex, the clearer it becomes that this doesn"t exist.
