Hermaphroditism

Term Paper # 104005

Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Medical and Health > Medical Studies
Psychology > Physiological

Hermaphroditism

This paper discusses the history of the approach to intersexuality cases, an unusual physiological condition in which the genitalia are ambiguous, also known as hermaphroditism.

2,125 words () | 14 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, as hermaphroditism became an established issue in science, two major concerns were raised by sociologists and scientists: How is sex defined and who has the authority or legal right to decide the sex of intersexed infants? The author points out that, in most cases, the patient is assigned as male or female because society is so conditioned to accept only a binary gender system. The paper stresses that it is not always possible for gender assignment to be purely the patient's decision, especially in the case of a new-born infant. The author underscores that selecting the "true" sex or "brain sex" demonstrates the difficulty in distinguishing between the physical and the psychological factors of intersexuality. The paper concludes that gender cannot be changed by social conditioning.

From the Paper:

"However, this has caused some critics to complain that people might want to go through sex reassignment surgery for inadequate or frivolous reasons, such as a male who wants to speak in a high voice and walk in heels undergoing sex reassignment surgery to become a "female". At a more fundamental level, critics charge that all the surgery does is merely alter the biological sex of that particular male. However, it cannot change the psychological sex, and in fact it is the psychological sex that drives this "male" to undergo surgery."

Sample of Sources Used:

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Danielsson, Magnus. (2005). Intersexuality and its medical and social implications. C-uppsats, 10 poang. Malmo Hogskola: Halsa och Samhalle. Retrieved from http://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/2043/2952/1/Intersexuality,%20and%20its%20medical%20and%20social%20implications.pdf
De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Virago Books, 1974.
Dreger, A. (1998). Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. Harvard University Press.
Dreger, A. (ed.) (1999). Intersex in the Age of Ethics. University Publishing Group.