Gender Labeling Research Paper

In this section of chapter 3 Georgian Davis talks about the power the medical field had on the topic of the intersex body. Georgina set up an interview at a pediatric medical center with Dr. I who was a well-known expert of the intersex body. After the publication of the “Consensus Statement of Management of Intersex Disorders” intersex language had been replaced with the terminology DSD (Disorders of Sex Development) in the medical profession. As mentioned in chapter 2 she reiterates critiques that the medical field have undergone based on their inability to diagnose honesty to people with intersex traits. She noted that the medical profession can either do harm or good to the intersex community based on its position in the level of gender structure. In the medical profession, there was not always a form of naming abnormalities. It began with the Greeks and continued into the 18th century until they created a classification of the many medical traits. Sociologist Phil Brown argues that for there to be diagnostics there has two be two parts to complete it. One the diagnosis is technique which includes forming the classification by using various tasks and techniques. While the work diagnosis includes clinical evaluations and task. By using this form of diagnosis, we can better understand intersexuality.

The documentary Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis depicts the tragic experience of a young boy and the psychologist who attempts to “treat” him after an unfortunate accident. In a time of little knowledge of sexual variation Dr. John Money proposed the theory that a boy could be raised as a girl, but after years of failed attempts this theory would be shattered. This story began when twins Bruce and Bryan went in to the hospital to have a routine circumcision operation at 7 months of age. On the 27th of April 1966 Bruce was the first of the two twins to be operated on, but the procedure would not go as planned. The boy’s parents were soon informed that their son’s penis had been fully burned off in a nontraditional attempt to burn the foreskin away from the penis. In a position of great confusion the Reimers became hopeful in light of such tragedy as they later became aware of the work of Dr. John Money, a man who was becoming a pioneer in the field of sex change surgery. In meeting with this man the Reimers were informed that their baby boy could live a normal life as a girl.

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are cases where there is a discordance of genetic sex and internal and/or external sex organs at birth related to suppression of, or overexposure to sex hormones in utero. DSDs can also stem from insensitivity to androgens. When these hormonal abnormalities occur, the best general description is that either internal or external genitalia do not form or do not form correctly. In some cases, for example, female genitalia may have a more masculine appearance or the girl may present with both male and female external genitalia, but no internal components such as a uterus (Helgeson, 2012). Wisniewski specifies that study of DSD has provided a greater understanding and appreciation of the impact of hormones on behavior, which has in part caused a reassessment of DSD-related treatments. However, she also emphasizes that socialization and learning have significant influence on gender and gender-role development, but only when prenatal androgen exposure is not a factor. Wisniewski added that she would like to see a gender marker that could be identified from birth and used as part of the formula for predicting gender development. Unfortunately, her own research demonstrates far too much societal and cultural involvement in gender and gender-role development

Gender identity, as defined in Webster’s Dictionary is, “the totality of physical and behavioral traits that are designated by a culture as masculine or feminine” (Webster, 2014). The first words said in the delivery room are often “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” Intersex children, who fall in between the scientific gender spectrum for male or female, are put through genital mutilation surgery and hormone treatment to abide by one of the two categories. Children who are born with an intersex condition where reproductive or sexual anatomy that do not fit typical females or a typical male’s norms should not have sex assignment surgery performed. This should be decided by the child when they are mature enough to make that decision for themselves. This is morally wrong because the social and cultural need to place intersex individual’s into the category of one sex or the other can have negative impact on their mental and physical health and many of the surgeries done on intersexed infants were done more for the benefit of parents, healthcare practitioners, and society, than for the infant. In the long run, this surgery done at such a young age can cause an unstable quality of life filled with shame and a feeling of exclusion from society along with the possibility of losing sexual functions. I will be mentioning evidence of cases that demonstrate that it’s impossible for intersex individuals who have had sex reassignment surgery that it did not help them identify with the rest

First and foremost, a person’s genitalia does not and cannot define their gender, as gender is an expression and is unrelated to genitalia. One’s assigned sex at birth, based solely off of genitalia, is defined as that person’s ‘cisgender’(insert citation). This may be different from the gender one expresses themselves as. People who must represent themselves as their cisgender are enslaved into their body; they are stuck in place, being restrained by the crushing weight of a ball and chain of societal values, with no say as to what they truly believe they are. Each and every individual suffers, knowing they do not pertain to any kind of body that which they identify with. Ignorant parents and doctors find themselves misgendering their children at birth, and as an unfortunate consequence, for the rest of their lives. The child never is able to express their opinion as what they themselves may identify as. One possible example of a parent showing at least a shred of respect for their newborn could be showing their baby the color spectrum and allow them to pick their favorite color that represents a gender. That is one of the ideal

Is it a boy or a girl? When we first hear about the announcement of a new life coming, our brains right away insist on “knowing the gender”. In the essay Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell, discuss that gender is a form of separating people by characteristics. Not necessarily because there is a biological reasoning behind classifying someone by gender.Eckert and McConnell are definitely right, from birth we teach our children to associate with their gender and their gender only. They provided many examples of why they believe that as a society we are teaching children from birth, to be associated with their gender and their gender only. Gendering children has been produced by

Various medical conditions that do not fit the binary norms of the reproductive systems are considered as intersex. Intersex individuals may have pronounced male or female reproductive anatomy but are mismatched internally. They may also have anatomies that phenotypically differ than the normal. Some consider patients whose injured genitals were reconstructed and reared following the newly-assigned genitalia as intersex (Diamond and Beh, 2008). A conservative count of about 1 in 1,500 to 1 in 2,000 births are identified as intersex births but may vary depending on the condition at infancy and in late diagnoses of specific intersex conditions (Blackless et al, 2000).

Children are the greatest gift parent could ever experience and raising them to be productive individuals is an important goal to most parents. A child’s sexuality usually does not come into question as the parent raises their children, parents naturally nurture their child based on their natural sexual gender. Nurturing a child’s natural sexual gender simply means raising that child as a boy if the child is born with male genital or raising the child as a female if the child is born with female genital. Although, the concept of nurturing a child’s natural sexual gender seems natural but not all parents agree. David Reimer was born a male child yet his parent raised him as a female.

This was a problem because they only judged the babies on their external genitalia, not their hormones or chromosomes. In more recent days there are clinics that specialize in the treatment for intersex babies. John money was in charge of this new wave, and believed that gender identity is changing for about 18 months after birth. He suggested that the surgeons should do the surgery that makes the most sense for each child, and then the parents should raise them to be the gender that the doctors surgically transformed them into. He thought his treatments were working until one of his patients became an author and told the story of his life. Since John/Joan lost his male parts at birth, Dr. money gave him female genitals and suggested he be raised as a girl. The problem was he wanted to be a man. John/Joan’s story sparked other people to speak up about their rejected sex assignments. Next, McCullough gave a speech at LWPES that argued all the forms of intersexuality should be seen as normal, and doctors should avoid irreversible assignments. The author Sterling believes that treatment should be ethical and medical principles with a more casual approach (Sterling,

Let me give you a scenario; It’s 3:00am. Rushing down the halls of a hospital you are on your way to support a person who is doing one of the most beautiful and complex things in life. Giving birth. You are the doctor in the room. Cutting the umbilical cord you hand the mother her child. She smiles up at you with tear rimmed eyes and you wrap the child up in a blanket and hold out to her a beautiful baby _____. Boy or girl? It doesn’t really matter which you say so long as you say one or the other, right? Within a few moments after birth and a quick scan between the legs of the child will enable you to develop a gender label for the child that they will carry for the rest of their life relevant to their sex.

It is often recognized that a baby boy with genitalia is supposed to grow up to become a man. Anything that deviates from the norms of what the society perceives is “not

At birth the first words announced are “it's a boy” or “it's a girl!” What many fail to realize that before categorizing based on genitalia, its a human. Humans have the freedom to choose how they choose to identify their selves. The categorization of female and male are not based on the written rules of science, but the unwritten rule imposed by society. If one is born with a male reproductive organ, he must associate himself with all aspects of a boy. The same goes for those born with a female genitalia, she must be considered a delicate princess. What if the delicate princess decides that she does not want to be a princess but a strong athlete? All individuals have the freedom to choose how to live their lives. However, when the subject is about gender, society begins to judge and regulate those who choose to associate themselves with the opposite gender of

(Sterling 1993:21) Fausto-Sterling further critiques the biological understandings of gender/sex by believing that sex is socially constructed because nature does not decide on who is seen as a male or female physically. Rather, doctors decide for the children what will be deemed as "normal heterosexual males or females," (Sterling 1993: 22) by the inhabitants of society.

Much research has been done on the influences of nature and nurture within the topic of sex and gender. ‘There is a world of difference between male/female and masculine and feminine: whereas the former are supposedly biologically prescribed, the latter are psychological characteristics shaped by the experience of growing up’ (Hollway et al. 2002, p119) This explanation goes some way to describing the perception of sex and gender. The biological approach emphasizes the physiological processes and, in most cases, it is the hormones and genes that determine the sex, and to some extent the behaviour patterns. These behaviour patterns were the subject of a study by Money & Erhardt in 1972 who research the behaviours of 25 girls who had been exposed to male type hormones in the womb. It was suggested that the girls exhibited a tomboyish behaviour and played more boyishly as a consequence of these hormones. The evolutionary arguments for sex differences focus on the different reproductive strategies between males and females. This approach concentrates on the optimal reproductive style which is the behaviour

Contrary to popular belief, gender and anatomical sex refer to two distinct and separate constructs as each develops at different times and in different parts of the body. John Money coined the phenomenon that codes for masculinity or femininity as "Gendermaps" (1). At a very early age and through an interaction of both nature and nurture, this gendermap imprint is established. What makes gender identification and sex so frequently parallel to each other is that gendermap evolvement is notably also induced by hormones that emanate from the developing fetus (1).