"March Madness"

While misleading titles can be annoying for some readers, I figured I'd clear the air in the second sentence of this blog so the NCAA doesn't come down on me for using their trademark slogan (which wasn't theirs to begin with). I am writing this in March, and I wanted to write about the madness covered by Judith Butler in her intro to Undoing Gender.

While I have loosely been familiar with terms like transsexual (TS), transgender (TG), and hermaphrodite, I knew little about what the words truly meant, or the differences between them. While Hermaphroditus of Greek mythology clued me in (not personally) to the last of the three terms, I didn't get a full understanding of the spectrum of gender until I took a brain-development and neurology course in college. There I learned of the many processes involved with biological gender determination including chromosomes, hormone levels, hormone receptors, and many more. Essentially, I learned about the many variations of intersex individuals out there. In a Teacher Education course I finally learned about TS and TG and what separates them. I even read some adolescent fiction on it (Luna for those who are interested/ curious).

With all of the handy knowledge I collected, Butler was still able to hit me with a left hook with an issue regarding TS, TG, and intersex people. While TS and TG people identify with the opposite gender or sex they have been labeled with in the American sex dichotomy, intersex people and queer theorists seek to get rid of labels entirely. I had never thought of the conflict before, especially when surgery is involved. Butler was able to make a strong point on the matter, "although intersex and transsex sometimes seem to be movements at odds with one antoehr, the first opposing unwanted surgery, the second sometimes calling for elective surgery, it is most important to see that both challenge the principle that a natural dimorphism should be established or maintained at all costs." Forcing people into roles that don't fit them can be tragic, as was the case for David Reimer. So why is there a continuation of labeling process? Probably because people tend to fear what they don't understand. So society crams everyone into two neat little boxes so that the next generation grows up not understanding any more than the previous one, and the cyclical monster takes hold.