Where Biology Ends & Sexism Begins

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrlxVSEMHFfCCNG7bu1DqXa-GRorScMt-U6b9cdOXTx91o5pAXf0Q40T4KXTWdef1fZMfTl_1RJlpiKQLmy4TyLn3tSK6PCIM4263ZJNrXBsSFx7dvg6ca0VP1U45nH_x1GKjrpp43ysr/s1600/wimp1.png

"Though he does not stop to trouble himself with the problem for long, Straus makes a few remarks in the attempt to explain this "remarkable difference." Since the difference is observed at such an early age, he says, it seems to be "the manifestation of a biological, not an acquired, difference" [p. 157]. He is somewhat at a loss, however, to specify the source of the difference. Since the feminine style of throwing is observed in young children, it cannot result from the development of the breast. Straus (1966) provides further evidence against the breast by pointing out that "it seems certain" that the Amazons, who cut off their right breast, "threw a ball just like our Betty's, Mary's and Susan's" [p. 158]. Having thus dismissed the breast, Straus considers the weaker muscle power of the girl as an explanation of the difference, but concludes that the girl should be expected to compensate for such relative weakness with the added preparation of reaching around and back. Straus explains the difference in style of throwing by referring to a "feminine attitude" in relation to the world and to space. The difference for him is biologically based, but he denies that it is specifically anatomical."
-Irish Marion Young, Throwing Like a Girl, page 138

Anyone who has ever read a Cosmopolitan or a Seventeen magazine has probably stumbled across an article that announces to the reader all the Differences Between Men and Women, written by a Very Important Person With Credentials So You May Actually Believe Their BS. Even if you have never ventured into this section of Barnes and Noble before, you have probably heard these myths being announced somewhere else, whether it be in an pseudo-academic text or a Facebook post. Many people have been convinced that men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and that the two will never be able to understand each other because their differences span the length of the Milky Way. All astronomical references aside, it is absolutely vital for the sake of feminism that one understands these myths as myths, with no legitimate facts to back any of them up.

Physically speaking, men and women are indeed different. This is not a lie. What do boys have that girls don't? A penis and the rest of the male reproductive system. Girls also have their own unique reproductive system, one that is able to grow and sustain human life. These are the basic differences that should be celebrated: men are able to impregnate women with their parts, and in turn women are able to bring a child into existence with their own.

When Straus tries to cite biological differences between boys and girls as the reason their athletic capabilities are supposedly unequal, his logic falls through. He has nothing substantial to back up his claims because before puberty, few anatomical differences keep boys and girls divided, and the ones that do will not have an impact on their ability to perform in sports. If the biological difference is not anatomically based, then what is it exactly? Is there a genetic component that has an effect on one's physical capabilities as a result of their genitalia? Are estrogen and other "feminine" hormones the cause of this? I may not be anything close to being a biology expert, but a little common sense helps me draw the conclusion that neither of their theories are true.

I once read a quote somewhere that said something along the lines of, "The easiest way to insult a man is to call him a woman." Judging by the way we treat women and men with what are considered womanly features and characteristics, their is validity in this idea. Throwing like a girl is a quick and easy way to throw a man under the bus, because God forbid a man be anything less than a raging ball of testosterone and aggression. Athletic men, the ones that I have come to know at least, live in a strange world that goes back and forth between 50s style blatant misogyny and enlightened sexism. They fear being called a sissy and go out of their ways to prove themselves as manly to everyone around them. I see their self-esteem falter as they struggle with their identity as a man. They don't quite understand how to define manhood in their own terms, which leaves them feeling uncertain and disillusioned. As a result, many are prone to strictly adhering to hypermasculine norms in order to be able to fit in somewhere; not necessarily because they agree with it, but because they feel like they have to. When the other option is to be insulted and degraded for their femininity, this is hands down the more preferable route to go. None of this can justify misogyny in sports, but it easily explains the roots in the attitudes in behaviors.

When people attempt to find significant differences in men and women, it allows the patriarchy to flourish. Keeping the two sexes in separate categories allows for us to remain divided and unequal; simply closing the gap between the two would allow milestones of accomplishments to be had in feminism, but our culture's inability to let go of these gender binary rules makes it difficult, borderline impossible, for any progress to occur. Where biology ends and sexism begins, a culture of binary norms keeps the oppressor strong and the oppressed subordinate, allowing these hypermasculine men to continue benefiting from this system.

Fluid Identities in a Solid World

Kate Bornstein in her natural habitat.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3gj7mnRxW1qhjtufo1_500.jpg

"In my case, however, it's not so clear. I identify as neither male nor female, and now that my lover is going through his gender change, it turns out I'm neither straight nor gay. What I've found as a result of this borderline life is that the more fluid my identity has become, and the less demanding my own need to belong to the camps of male, female, gay or straight, the more playful and less dictatorial my fashion has become -- as well as my style of self-expression."
-Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw, page 4

In my previous blog post regarding intersex bodies, I challenged the notion that another person's genitalia should not be the business of others, and that our obsession with other people is passe and, for a lack of a better word, downright annoying. In this blog post I will continue to complain about this invasive behavior so many of us like to indulge in from time to time, as well as offering insight from a transgender woman's perspective as opposed to the intersex.

Kate Bornstein wrote Gender Outlaws in order to tell her story as a queer trans-woman dating a trans-man and how it has affected her life. She starts off reflecting on her own love of fashion and how she uses clothing and accessories as yet another means of self-expression, especially when it comes to her feminine identity. She details how she rigidly stuck to stereotypical feminine styles of dress when she was less comfortable with her identity and felt the need to prove herself to the rest of the world that she is, in fact, a "real" woman. Whatever that means. However, she tells the story about how her lover, transitioning from female to male, has helped her come to terms with her identity. She began to recognize for herself how unnecessary the binaries are in terms of sexual identity and gender identity. Her life, as she recalls, is a mix of a little bit of everything: biological male body and female mind for her, and biologically female body and male mind for her lover. Her own style begins to reflect this mash-up as she cares less and less about sticking to the rules of gender, happily going about things her own way.

Her words are peppered with confidence as she briefly tells her story. She admits to being a great fan of accessories and says that they are the most important part of her wardrobe: essentially, the smaller details make up the most vital points in the big picture. Perhaps I am reading too deeply into her piece, but metaphorically speaking, this is a great representation of how much happier one can be when one rejects the large concepts of the binary and instead invests interest in doing little things to express how one may feel on a particular day. She embraces the fluidity of her identity and, as a result, the fluidity of her fashion sense. It is clear that she has become much more content with her life as a result. Instead of rigidly following the rules, she blatantly breaks them and frees herself from the grips of cisgender society in the end.

Stories like these are always a delight to read because it is always a pleasant surprise to see someone break the rules of our two-gender society and reap the benefits from that lifestyle change. We have heard too many stories countless of times of people who differed from society's expectations of what a "real" man or woman should be: two names that stick out particularly are Brandon Teena and Larry King, both of whom were murdered because outsiders felt threatened by their expression of identity. Brandon was a twenty-something transgender man living in Nebraska and Larry was a flamboyant schoolboy. Though their expressions were different, their tragedies were the same. When the media covers stories of people like Brandon and Larry, it is almost as if they are using their faces of examples of what not to do: "stick to the binary or else you will suffer like these people" is ultimately the message that they deliver. While the voices of people like Kate Bornstein are so hard to find, it is always vital to listen nonetheless in order to see that, yes, you can be happier if you do what you want instead of what people want you to do.

A woman like Kate Bornstein is the perfect threat for the gender binary. She is strong, confident, and almost reckless in her rejection of heteropatriarchal standards for what is normal/acceptable and what is wrong. Her briefing on how her fashion sense reflects her fluid identity is short and sassy, but her message is clear: when I accept myself as I am, I am much more content with my life and I am not afraid to inform others of my newly found confidence. When people like Bornstein come out of the woodwork and declare their brand new liberation as exciting and useful, others will begin to follow suit and down comes the binary.

Fluid identities in a "solid" world are hard to celebrate because so many people try to crucify anyone who falls outside of the norm. Too many Brandon Teenas and Larry Kings have been thrust in our faces as examples of what happens when you try to challenge the system. For the longest time, it has been enough to scare non-binary people into silence, but people like Kate Bornstein are able to break the silence, come out as fluid, and inspire those who were previously frightened to gain their own self-confidence and approach the world with a more fruitful outlook. Whether your outfit is fashionably tacky or your gender expression varies day by day, Bornstein and others will embrace your differences and accept you the way you are, just as society should. Those who benefit from the binary will always be out for the blood of those who do not conform, but it should not be something that silences and suppresses those who seek liberation from these norms. All bodies are created equal and equally beautiful, which Kate Bornstein celebrates in her writing.

Homosexuality and Hermaphroditism

http://bahairants.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/intersex.jpg

If hermaphrodites were exceedingly rare, then ambiguously sexed patients were simply men or women who needed to learn their true sex. Of course, that knowledge could lead to trouble. Suppose, for example, patient X was living as a male in sexual intimacy with a woman. If a doctor decided patient X was not a man, but a woman, X's relationship was homosexual. Hermaphroditism thus might foster homosexuality and, since homosexuality was a prohibited "vice," perversity and immorality.
-Chapter 3 of Bodies in Doubt, page 59

Intersex people carry the burden of a severe stigma with them throughout their lives today, let alone in the nineteenth century and even earlier. Their bodies alone have been enough to have them plastered in medical books that have called them all sorts of names, and most of them -- especially in older times -- have not been pleasant. When you add their sexual preference into the mix, results are clearly disastrous, as stated above. What one may perceive as a healthy and normal heterosexual relationship that functions well, a doctor can easily tear down with labels of "perverse" and "invalid" just by bringing a person's sexual organs into the spotlight for medical scrutiny.

Nowadays people are becoming more open-minded about gay relationships when partners have "normal" bodies, but trans* bodies and intersex bodies are still looked at as a "gray area" and they are not taken seriously as a result. If one's chromosomes are mixed with both masculine and feminine facets, their straight relationship is still questioned by onlookers today. As some stereotypes and stigmas have fallen away over the years due to scientific advances and general knowledge about these issues, one's sexuality in connection with their body and its genitalia is still up for debate to many. Christian groups such as this and also this have offered plenty of their own commentary on this, speaking on behalf of God to tell the intersex community how they should feel and what they should do.

My question is this: who cares?

Why are we so obsessed with other people's bodies, especially when we know how harmless they really are? Why do we go out of our way to talk about and analyze and criticize what is, at the end of the day, a non-issue? Why do we preoccupy ourselves with what is happening in other people's bodies and bedrooms? Who are we to tell someone that their identity and relationship are not only wrong, but also immoral? Why do we care so much about something that doesn't actually matter?

The reason I picked out this particular passage as opposed to others is because I have been asking myself these questions ever since I became interested in feminism, roughly three years ago. These questions do not necessarily pertain to intersex and trans* bodies; female sexuality has been a topic of debate over what is "right" behavior versus what is "improper and/or immoral" since the beginning of time most likely. I vaguely understand the rhetoric that anti-sex misogynists use in order to keep a woman's sexuality repressed, but I never understood why people were so obsessed with the need to interfere with other people's personal lives. I always wondered, and I still wonder, why can't we just leave these people alone and let them live their lives? Now, after finishing Bodies in Doubt, I am asking these questions on behalf of intersex people as well. I believe that they apply equally.

It is true that people react to these sorts of things for two main reasons: they fear what they cannot understand, and they are trying to make themselves feel superior to anything else they find inferior. A physical defect is a perfect source to pick on a person because it is something that is out of their control and makes them stand out in a group of people, even if you can't always see how they are different. These superiority complexes that drive anti-intersex bigots to judge and criticize are completely useless. They run around preaching hatred, spewing insults. They go out of their way to make perfectly adequate people feel inadequate and abnormal, like something is wrong with them for being a little bit different in a way that doesn't even matter in the long run. Yet at the end the bigots always come up short as they channel their own insecurities of their inadequacies through easier targets: the minorities. They make sway culture to believe that being intersex and engaging in such a "homosexual" relationship is wrong, but at the end of the day, they are the ones who are wrong.

It is hard not to get angry when analyzing this topic because while I am not intersex, I find myself taking these judgments personally. If my own body were to be criticized in such a manner I know my self-esteem would be irreparably low. To add insult to injury, making me feel guilty for my sexual preference -- a private matter that should not be scrutinized in the public eye -- would be too much to bear. It is no wonder that so few intersex people speak up even today, since the topic is still controversial and "corrective" surgeries are forced upon non-consenting newborns in order to "fix" something that isn't even bad. It is unfair for the public to tell someone their relationship is illegitimate or perverse just because they do not adequately understand that person's medical condition.

Labels in the twenty-first century have become antiquated and arbitrary. They are a way to divide people into sects rather than bringing together humans on a whole, something that has needed to be done for a very long time. An intersex person's identity and sexual orientation are not things that should not be made into issues because, in the grand scheme of things, they don't actually matter. It is one thing to use labels as a means to celebrate identity, but because these labels are almost always used against people in order to make them feel inferior, it would only make sense to do away with them. It should not matter what a person is, but rather who they are and what they stand for. Once we start measuring people's worth in that manner, the world will be a much tolerable place to be.