"Can you see a person's chromosomes? No, I didn't think so."
Identities and Inequalities
While the book and the Jensen article covered a wide spectrum of identity issues, I choose to focus on the dichotomy of gender. The beginning of the chapter focuses on Deirdre McClockey who lived life by all appearances as a successful male. After an sex operation she continues to be successful, as a female. The chapter looks at what this mean, what it takes to be a man or a woman. I agree with Newman what he states "genders are fluid-they can overlap" (55). I view gender as a social construct. I appreciated this chapter because the author broke down the difference with gender and sex, which I think is a line that often gets blurred. While you can be born with into either the male or female category, even this is not set it stone. Gender is something that is taught through socialization and society seems to be a firm believe in dichotomy, male and female, the same as they ten to view sexual orientation. Albert Kinsey argued that "sexual orientation lies along a continuum, with "exclusively heterosexual" at one end of the scale and "exclusively homosexual" at the other" (64). I be live the same could be said for gender. I also focused on the concept of intersexuals, people who's sexual anatomy is not altogether clear. Again I have read this before however it always shocks me to see that "about 90% of intersexuals who undergo "corrective surgery are designed as female" (59). This also usually happens soon after the child if born not because they are facing any health risks but because not "fixing" them "would undermine our culture's dichotomous and essentialist understanding of sex" (59). Please, by all means, completely alter and determine the path a child will go down, without their consent, before they have any say in it, because you are can't put them into one of two categories you are comfortable with.
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I agree with the points you made about gender being a social construct. I also agree with the point you made about society blurring the line between gender and sex. I personally think that society has taught me to confuse the two. I have been conditioned to learn that males and females fill a category. I agree that parents choose a certain sex because it is socially acceptable. They choose the child’s sex whether it will be right for their child or not. I imagine that being a very difficult decision to be made. Although they may not make the right one, I feel it is a decision that should be made.
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