Sex in western culture is defined by Webster dictionary as; either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions: adults of both sexes. The sex of a child is determined before birth by the formation of genitalia within the womb; consequently, establishing that child’s role within western society. The formation of XX chromosomes and female-labeled genitals (i.e. vagina and ovaries) or the formation of XY chromosomes with male-labeled genitals (i.e. gonads and penis) determines the sexuality and gender normative in which that child is expected to follow. These normatives are directly inline with the heterosexual patriarchy society that dominates
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Fixing Sex: Intersex Medical Authority and Lived Experience by Katrina Karkazis focuses on the many unspoken procedures that intersex people are inclined to partake. Intersex people contain genetic traits that consist of both sets of chromosomes or genitalia. Karkazis explains how doctors in western cultures perform unnecessary procedures in order to create a fixed sex within the normative boundaries. “There’s nothing more challenging or stressful than an infant with ambiguous genitalia. The stress is not that in some instances the infant is acutely ill, the stress, is what the sex of the baby?” (Karkazis ,98). This notion of picking the sex of the baby stems from ideology that gender and sexuality cannot exist without one of the two sexes being chosen. Yet, we know this assumption to scientifically untrue based off the study of other …show more content…
“Gender, race, and sexual diversity come into play in understanding someone’s relationship to power…”(Mascia-Lees, 9). Within western culture there is a gender binary that exist that plays a parallel roles with power in society. A connection between gender and sex is not accurate across all cultures. “Yoruba society, like many other societies worldwide, has been analyzed with Western concepts of gender on the assumption that gender is a timeless and universal category,” (Oyėwùmí, 31). Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí, in her essays The Invention of Women; Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, is self-reflexivity anthropological study of a Yoruba society. Within this essay Oyėwùmí deconstructions western ideology of gender as universal law, through the exploration of Yoruba gender construct. Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí notes how anthropologist beliefs can affect the realm in which a society is implicated. “ Sandra T. Barnes, using a feminist framework, assumes that Yoruba ana-females are subordinate,”(Oyėwùmí ,46). Her assumption in comparison Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí study is arbitrary and untrue. Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí found that anafemale and anamales both shared the same hierarchy standpoint not based off gender but linage. An evident mistake that anthropologist make is to place assumptions of the traditional and cultural beliefs of another culture. An example, of how making assumptions can be dangerous is towards women who choose to wear the
Fixing Sex: Intersex Medical Authority and Lived Experience by Katrina Karkazis focuses on the many unspoken procedures that intersex people are inclined to partake. Intersex people contain genetic traits that consist of both sets of chromosomes or genitalia. Karkazis explains how doctors in western cultures perform unnecessary procedures in order to create a fixed sex within the normative boundaries. “There’s nothing more challenging or stressful than an infant with ambiguous genitalia. The stress is not that in some instances the infant is acutely ill, the stress, is what the sex of the baby?” (Karkazis ,98). This notion of picking the sex of the baby stems from ideology that gender and sexuality cannot exist without one of the two sexes being chosen. Yet, we know this assumption to scientifically untrue based off the study of other …show more content…
“Gender, race, and sexual diversity come into play in understanding someone’s relationship to power…”(Mascia-Lees, 9). Within western culture there is a gender binary that exist that plays a parallel roles with power in society. A connection between gender and sex is not accurate across all cultures. “Yoruba society, like many other societies worldwide, has been analyzed with Western concepts of gender on the assumption that gender is a timeless and universal category,” (Oyėwùmí, 31). Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí, in her essays The Invention of Women; Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, is self-reflexivity anthropological study of a Yoruba society. Within this essay Oyėwùmí deconstructions western ideology of gender as universal law, through the exploration of Yoruba gender construct. Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí notes how anthropologist beliefs can affect the realm in which a society is implicated. “ Sandra T. Barnes, using a feminist framework, assumes that Yoruba ana-females are subordinate,”(Oyėwùmí ,46). Her assumption in comparison Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí study is arbitrary and untrue. Oyèrónké Oyėwùmí found that anafemale and anamales both shared the same hierarchy standpoint not based off gender but linage. An evident mistake that anthropologist make is to place assumptions of the traditional and cultural beliefs of another culture. An example, of how making assumptions can be dangerous is towards women who choose to wear the