Soc 345 Exam 1 Lect 4

Front 1

Hegemonic masculinity

Back 1

The creation and vanishing of bodies insured that the organization and leadership of society and the historical course of the nation was to be reserved exclusively for white, heterosexual masculinity.

Front 2

The history of hermaphrodism

Back 2

The history of Hermaphroditism is largely “the history over struggles over the ‘realities’ of sex—the ‘true’ nature of sex, the proper roles of the sexes, the question of what sex can, should, and must mean.”

Front 3

What Aristotle said about hermaphrodites

Back 3

Excess Matter: there was enough matter at conception to create one but not enough for two. The excess matter became extra genitalia.

Redundant Genitalia: Hermaphrodites were beings with redundant genitalia due to the lack of enough fetal material to create two children.

Genitalia as a Tumor: the extra set of genitals was seen as inoperative, resembling a tumor or growth.

Front 4

What Hippocrates said about herms

Back 4

Hermaphrodites belonged to an intermediate sex. Their bodies resulted from degrees of dominance between male and female seeds and the position that the resulting embryo occupied in the uterus. The left side of the uterus produced females, the right side males and the central chamber hermaphrodites.

Challenging Sexual Dichotomy: this model of sexual ambiguity and intermediacy allowed for a whole range of possibilities of sexualities, potentially challenging the male-female dichotomy.

Front 5

The hermaphrodytes vanishing act saw them as:

Back 5

It defined hermaphrodites, not as a third sex, but as a pathological malformation of one of the two sexes.

only a few real hermaphrodites

Front 6

Physicians found it...

Back 6

Physicians found it imperative to catch mix-sexed people at birth and convert them, by any means necessary, to either male or female.

Front 7

The age of the gonads (true sex)

Back 7

consensus was reached that it was the gonads, not the external genitalia, the single most reliable marker of ‘true sex.” The gonads would mark bodies only as male of female, each body having only one sex.

Front 8

Deviant bodies

Back 8

those bodies exhibiting some ambiguity in their genitalia and/or in the direction of their desires were considered “abnormal,” “pathological,” and “monstrous” bodies and the individuals possessing such bodies were considered lacking control, immoral, deviants, and dangerous.

Front 9

"doubtful sex"

Back 9

physicians made a distinction between what was real evidence and what was deceptive in the allocation of sex to individuals. The genitalia could be deceiving leading to incorrect sex naming, “torture’ to patients and parents, and abuses on the part of the misdiagnosed individual.

Front 10

Led to tightended borders and more discipline/control

Back 10

Tighten the Borders: The unusual bodies of hermaphrodites presented powerful challenges to biomedical claims about the natural, inviolable distinctions between men and women, and therefore between male and female social roles. It forced medical men to draw stricter borders between the sexes by explaining what was apparently deceiving into the categories of males and females.

Discipline and Control: Therefore, deviant bodies were subjected to discipline, punishment, and medical treatment. Their bodies needed to be monitored, restricted, and controlled by the authorities. Those bodies could be examined, exhibited, jailed, placed in asylums, or be exterminated.

Front 11

Theory of maternal impressions

Back 11

psychic influences such as fear and desire, on the part of the mother was considered solid proof for the creation of any kind of monstrosities. Trauma, fear, brooding, and wanting a child of a different sex are instances of ‘maternal impressions.”

Front 12

Embriological perspective

Back 12

Arrests and excesses of development in the embryo helped explained hermaphroditism and other ‘monstrosities’ according to medical men. These arrests and excesses would cause genital malformations that would hide a person’s true sex, deceiving us as to the real sexual identity of the patient. The hermaphrodite was a living proof of a ‘primitive’ evolutionary development.

Front 13

Tran sexuality

Back 13

individuals who may not exhibit any indication of inter-sexuality or genital anomalies but who feel, deep within themselves, that the physicality that embodies them does not correspond to their inner sense of gender identity.

Fixing it?: a transsexual person may or may not choose to alter, partly or totally, her/his body to conform to sense of identity.