Essay on Anne Fausto-Sterlings The Five Sexes - 1151 Words

Exploring the Social Standards of Sex and Gender There are several sources that tell a person how to be a man or woman. Science tells us by recognizing the X or Y chromosomes. The media shows us through the physically ideal celebrities that grace the covers of magazines and flaunt their bodies in commercials. Sports, wrestling, cars, and blue for the boys. Dresses, make-up, painted nails, and pink for the girls. All of these sources, as well as others, have evolved into an expectation that has become institutionalized within society. This expectation, is placement and belonging into the binary system of person: the man or the woman. In Anne Fausot-Sterlings acrticles â€Å"The Five Sexes† and the â€Å"The Five Sexes, Revisited†, the†¦show more content†¦Besides the genders male and female, there is also intersexed. Within that group of intersexed, there are subgroups. Fausto-Sterling explains this in her â€Å"The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough†: Firstly, the term intersex is used in medical literature to describe the so-called true hermaphrodite (possesses one testis and one ovary), the male pseudohermaphrodite (possess testes and some aspects of the female genitalia, but no ovaries), and female pseudohermaphadites (possess ovaries and some aspects of the male genitalia but lack testes). I had no idea that there were subgroups to the intersexed. Due to social conformity, along with the advancement of technology and surgical procedure intersexed persons are aimed to be fixed at birth. Although otherwise healthy, there is a need to perform surgery on the baby in order to remove certain sexual organs that dont fit with the perfect idea of what a girl or boy should look like. This often leaves scars, and the psychological and emotional confusion along with it. â€Å"The Five Sexes Revisited† focused on the importance of therapy over surgery. Medical ethicist Laurence B. McCullough of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor Collefe of Medicine in Houston, Texas â€Å"contend[ed] that in the process of assigning gender, physicians should minimize what he calls irreversible assignments: taking steps such as the surgical removalShow MoreRelatedThe Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough by Anne Fausto-Sterling1781 Words   |  7 PagesIn the article â€Å"The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough†, Anne Fausto-Sterling makes some very compelling points. One of her main points is that the western worlds binary system of sex is to constraining and proposes that instead our system should be increase to five, or possible more, sexes. This paper will explain the premises of her argument and important terms. This will be followed by a counterargument as to why three sexes are the max needed and that Fausto-Sterling view could leadRead MoreThe traditional biological understandings of sex and gender create a binary concept mainly in the800 Words   |  4 PagesThe traditional biological understandings of sex and gender create a binary concept mainly in the Western culture by having two strictly fixed options of male or female. This binary notion of gender and sex was put to the test by both Anne Fausto-Sterling and Oyeronke Oyewumi. Sterling argues that rather than just two separate ends, biological gender occurs across a continuum of possibilities. This spectr um of anatomical deviation by itself should be enough to disregard the simplistic notion ofRead MoreSex : Strict Dimorphism Or Sexual Haploid1620 Words   |  7 Pagessociety has been recognized largely as a western cultural viewpoint. While not everyone agrees with this viewpoint, one biologist that plays a role in this discussion is Anne Fausto-Sterling. She is an expert in gender development and wrote extensively on the subject of gene and gender. In this paper I will discuss Fausto-Sterling’s view on sex and gender, and how she undermines the idea of strict universal dimorphism. Being that sexual dimorphism is the favored view of most in the scientific communityRead MoreGender Inequality Between Men And Women908 Words   |  4 Pagesand sex binaries through examples found in cultures throughout the world. In Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article, The Five Sexes, she discusses why the sex binary of male and female is not enough. She contends that â€Å"biologically speaking, there are many gradations running from female to male; and depending on how one calls the shots, one can argue that along that spectrum lie at least five sexes—and perhaps even more† (Fausto-Sterling; 21). The three subgroups within the sex spectrum have a mixture of