Response to 9/30 Assignment

As I read the next to chapters of Fausto-Sterling's book, I really started to think about how much language plays a role in our society's inability to accept and embrace more than a strict 2 sided interpretation of sex and gender. Not only do we use pronouns like he/she and him/her, even phrases like "opposite sex" play a huge role in our ideas of gender and sex. Transexuals, who Fausto-Sterling briefly talks about in the second part of her chapter titled "Should there be only two sexes?", must go through an operation to change FROM one sex TO another sex, insinuating that these two sexes are opposite of each other. If sex were on a continuum as we talked about in class the other day, then there wouldn't be one surgery that could switch an individual to the "opposite sex". Society, however, has made all of us feel sort of weirdly about the topic of intersexuals though. As Maria mentioned in her post, our class discussions and readings on intersexuals make many if not most of us feel somewhat weird and uncomfortable. Since it is not a topic that is commonly discussed, specifically on Colgate's campus, it's not something we all feel ok talking about. Issues of homosexuality, although not always, are now discussed on a more regular basis in today's society but it has taken a long time and a lot of activism to get to the point we are at now (though we still have a very long way to go). Intersexuality, however, is not currently a major well-known issue in our society and therefore it is not commonly talked about. As Fausto-Sterling says in her book, it's time that our legal system and government start to see sexuality as more than just two sexes. No longer should we have to check the box of male or female for drivers licenses or airport TSA forms. Since not every US citizen falls into one of those two categories, it does not make sense that everyone is forced to choose between them.