Download these Power Point Slides Sex gender

Download these Power. Point Slides

Sex, gender, transsex, transgender Talk presented at the Symposium on Global Health Olivia Jensen April 7, 2013 April 6 -7, 2013 University of Montreal, Quebec

about Olivia… • • • Born… in the deep winter of 1943 in a farmhouse in Springbank, Alberta Educated… in the public schools of Calgary, Vancouver and at the University of BC Joined Mc. Gill’s Faculty of Engineering in 1973 and then Faculty of Science in 1984 Married: 1975 – son of 33, daughter of 30, both Mc. Gill graduates; grandson 4, granddaughter 2 Divorced: 1989 “Transition”: 1989 with some following medical interventions

The Atlantic -- online

Sun News Network

The Verge -- online

Huffington Post: 2012 -01 -04

The Parent Dish: 2013 -03 -13

The Internationall Business Times (Daily Mail)

* The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Some terminology (OED). . . trans- (prefix) across, but also beyond gender †kind, sort; (gram. ) any of the three ‘kinds’, masculine, feminine, and neuter, of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. XIV. — OF. gendre (mod. genre ) — Rom. * genero , f. L. gener- GENUS. sex males or females collectively XIV (rare before XVI ); condition in respect of being male or female XVI. — (O)F. sexe or L. sexus m. , rel. to synon. secus n. man pl. men human being; adult male OE. ; vassal, manservant XII ; (dial. ) husband XIII. OE. man(n) , mon(n) , pl. menn (: - * manniz ), also manna , monna , corr. to OS. , OHG. man (Du. man ; G. mann ), ON. mar (g. manns , pl. menn ), Goth. manna (g. Mans. . . woman OE. wfman(n) m. , later fem. , f. wf woman + man(n) MAN ; a formation peculiar to Eng. (not in the oldest OE. records). Assim. of fm- to -mm- is evident in late OE. sp. , and rounding of wim- to wum-, wom- in XIII.

. . . Words, words. . . a confusion of definitions Turner's Female Pansexual y irl Drag Queen n it t ma n o Sexualities Bisexual e W G Id Cis r ge n Heterosexual Lesbian Transvestite de n e Sexder Transgender Boy G Transsexual Homosexual M an Klienfelter's Transman Asexual Super male Male Drag King

Confusing sex with gender • Until ~1700 s: gender sex – derivative of Greek humours (genders) • Biological definitions: sex gender – reproductive possibility – morphology (penis or not? ) – chromosomal (XX or XY or ? ? ) • Cultural definitions: – Why such simple bimodality in western culture? How recent is this enforced bimodality? • Colloquially now, sex gender . . . but No! Sex is not gender!

The world begins to agree. . . I first started selling this political story in the late 1980 s. Then, it was iconoclastic but now the world is coming onside. . .

The man who would be Queen? • I have not read the book, probably won't bother to. . . but not because I don't expect to agree with Bailey's model. I just don't bother to read much “gender” theory anymore. I have my theory of me and us and it satisfies me and many of us. A precis of Bailey's model? A lot of it makes perfect sense to me!

More careful definitions? • Technical/psychological definitions: – Sex: male or female among several common sexes. . . (of the physical) -- based in biology… – Gender: man or woman among several common genders. . . (of the spirit) – source in biology? A possible biological basis for gender?

Some of us just don't fit! The common bimodal attachment of each sex to one of but two genders leads to identity conflict. • If we hold to this simplistic bimodality of sex and gender, not all of us will find a coherent place. • Apparent sex: which gender? Apparent gender: which sex? . . . problems?

AIS • Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (perhaps as many as 1 in 13000 “apparently female” births) – XY chromosomes – chromosomally “male” – morphologically “female” – procreatively “neither” • Olympic “sex testing” found XY women in – Barcelona: 5 of 2406 competitors – Atlanta: 8 of 3387 – Sydney and following: no further testing; a formal policy for transsexual/XY-AIS athletes since 2004 www. isna. org and now Accord Alliance

Ambiguous births. . . The intersexed: – Proportion of “genitally abnormal” babies born: 1 in 100 – Number of “surgically normalized” babies: 1 to 2 in 1000. . . and almost always: “feminizing” surgeries

Sexes • How to define sex: – Sex is evermore (in legal and bio-medical domains) determined by the sex chromosomes. – If so, one cannot possibly change sex! • If sex is determined by chromosomes, then, what are the common sexes? … – male (XY) – female (XX) – and many others? … Some of the others. . .

…Sexes • Other sexes? – Turner’s (X 0) – Klinefelter’s (XXY, XXXY and variants) – “super-male” (XYY) – mosaics (XXY+XX, …)… . . . this can be legally problematical?

Littleton vs. Prange Texas 4 th Court of Appeals • Christie Lee Littleton's wrongful death – malpractice suit; defendant Dr. Mark Prange – Littleton's husband died in surgery due to apparent malpractice – Court held Littleton's suit invalid as her marriage was invalid in Texas because she was legally male (XY chromosomes!) – Court held to “chromosomal sex”. . . then, what of AIS?

# X chromosomes (1096 genes/X) Chromosomal sex map # Y chromosomes (98 genes/Y)

Gender 101. . . • Julianne Imperato-Mc. Ginley discovers that gender is “inherent” Her study of male pseudohermaphrodites in the Dominican Republic showed that the strength of the “nature of gender” overwhelms a “nurtured gender”. The 1974 article in Science

Genders… • How to define gender? : – A fundamental sense of self or identity probably already well established in utero. – Gender is expressed, especially, in the mode chosen for social interaction but it does not follow that ones gender is simply a social construct. – Mode or style is chosen to fit, best, in adaptation to ones essential sense of gender. Modes and styles are the social constructs.

…Genders • Common genders? – Man (boy) – Woman (girl) – …The plains Indians of North America describe as many as 7 possible and distinct genders. That we live, now, in a simplistically bimodal society much complicates ones choice of mode for “expression” of ones gender.

Gender transposition field? Pillard & Weinrich (1987)

Gender transposition field? Pillard & Weinrich (1987)

Gender transposition field? Pillard & Weinrich (1987)

Transgender… • Those who don’t/can’t conform to the gender that commonly accords with their sex…transvestites, two-spirited, perhaps drag queens and kings, and transsexuals. – M-to-F transsexual: an XY person (male) chooses to live with a social role more commonly appropriated to an XX person (female), with strong desire to be female – F-to-M: XX lives with gender role normally appropriated to XY, with desire to be male Our problem? An incoherent sex-gender accord? An illness? A neuro-atypical disorder? No! …we simply face a lack of acceptable “social gender roles”! roles”

What gender models do we have? • Here is the major problem facing a transgendered individual and, perhaps, many intersexed as well. • How does one define ones place in and mode of interaction with the rest of a normalizing society? • If one only has a choice between man and woman, which should one choose? • Might each of us find or seek to create another more appropriate model for ourselves?

… unfortunately, gender and sex matter. . . • Gender and sex and the confusion of gender with sex pervades our legal systems and our social organization. . . • We are only, now, unravelling the legalistic and social mess that has accumulated in the past few centuries. . . Normally, here, I would introduce a series of exemplary problems faced by transgendered people. . . let's skip these detailed stories. If you download the Power. Point slide set, you can turn on these stories.

All this introduction… now back to the story and some personal politics… • Many transgendered people choose to live in the “other” gender. . . “another” gender! They “transition”! • Many choose or desire medical, hormonal, psychotherapeutic and other procedures in establishing comfort in this “other” gender. • Very few of those who “medicalize” retreat to “former” gender… Pauli’s estimate: 1. 6%. • Many, perhaps most, establish successful posttransition lives… See Lynn Conway’s website.

…but, • Can we really find our place? – I don’t think that either of “the two genders” is our place… – I suggest that our gender is somewhere else…, distinct from that of ordinary man or woman… – I call myself a transsexual woman… and the adjective is absolutely important. . . at least to me!

Discussion? • I am open to answering almost any question that you might have concerning transsexuality and gender… • You should know, though, that what I offer as answer might be better received as just one transsexual woman’s opinion. . .