intersexuality

what are various ways in which culture-bearing humans have interpreted and lived with this natural ambiguity? and why?

a) cultures have accommodated the ambiguity
hermaphrodite (hermes + Aphrodite)
1) hijra in India— not so much a ‘natural category’ of person, but a role that can
subsume a range of sex/gender nonconformists
including intersexuals but also what in west would call eunuchs (castrati),
homosexuals, transsexuals, transgendered persons

2) guevedoche (‘penis at 12’) Dominican Republic
= the hereditary genetic mutation that Cal has in Middlesex, which in US has no popular name and is treated as a medical condition — 5 alpha-reductase — "treatable"


We have learned from listening to individuals and families dealing with intersex that:
* Intersexuality is primarily a problem of stigma and trauma, not gender.
* Parents' distress must not be treated by surgery on the child.
* Professional mental health care is essential.
* Honest, complete disclosure is good medicine.
* All children should be assigned as boy or girl, without early surgery."