1. Sexing the Body
Anne Fausto-Sterling
Lynnea Brumbaugh
2011

2. That sexe which prevaileth
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Turn to page 30
1843: Levi Suydam’s story
Conveys “political weight” our culture places on ascertaining “correct” sex
Conveys deep confusion that arises when “correct sex” cannot be easily determined

3. Why such deep confusion?
Because we are “deeply devoted to the idea that there are only two sexes” (30).

4. Why do we insist on the dichotomy . . .
. . . when in nature (and some cultures), there is none?
Our entire social order is built upon the dichotomy.
Why do we
Why do we

5. Look at page 44 There should be only two sexes.
What are three unexamined assumptions behind
physicians’ humanitarian desire to help intersexuals?
There should be only two sexes.
Only heterosexuality is normal.
Gender roles define psychological health.

6. Of Gender and Genitals
In era of The Feminine Mystique, medical views coalesced: intersexed babies must be normalized. (p. 46)
(surgery pictures on pp )
In 2000, intersexuality was still a medical emergency (p. 44)
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

7. Even Beyond Surgery . . .
“If we choose to eliminate mixed-genital births through prenatal treatments We are also choosing to go with our current system of cultural intelligibility.
“If we choose, over a period of time, to let mixed-gender bodies and altered patterns of gender-related behavior become visible, we will have, willy-nilly, chosen to change the rules” (p. 76).
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

8. Of Gender and Genitals Two lies: Truth:
Intersex condition is extremely rare
There’s no one to talk to about it
Truth:
1.7 percent of all births are intersexual (p. 51)
There has been since 1993 an Intersex Society of North America (
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

9. What if you had an intersexual child?
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

10. Transsexuality and Transgenderism
By requesting surgery, transsexuals “enact the logical extreme” that body, sex, and gender must conform (p. 107)
Transgenderism:
More radical revisioning of sex and gender
Accepts kinship among those with gender-variant identities
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

11. Sexing the Brain
The Brain “remains a perfect medium on which to project, even unwittingly, assumptions about gender” (118).
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

12. Sexing the Brain
“The specialized research article, which presents numbers and extracts meaning from them, is really a defense of a particular interpretation of results” (136).
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

13. Sexing the Brain CC is a highly variable piece of anatomy
Scientists work hard to “fix” it.
It won’t hold still.
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

14. Sexing the Brain
To “know” if there is a gender difference will mean to find a way to make the CC say the same thing to a bunch of investigators
Fausto-Sterling thinks this unlikely (144)
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

15. Sexing the Brain
Must achieve social and cultural peace about gender equity before we can trust even our scientific frameworks (145)
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five