User:Aschultheiss/sandbox

I am interested in the debate between creating a "third gender" for Intersex individuals compared to other ideas such as creating a more fluid spectrum of gender in society/culture or categorizing Intersexuals in the male/female dichotomy.

ISNA Closes Peer Edit
12/02/2013

1) Added: The ISNA gave a statement saying that "at present, the new standard of care exists as little more than ideals on paper, thus falling short of its aim[s]" to fulfill its goals.

2) Changed last sentence to read: The ISNA transferred all of its remaining funds, assets, and copyrights to Accord Alliance, an organization that opened in April 2008, who's goal is to “improve the way health care is made available” to people born intersex. Following this course of action, the ISNA closed.

Emily Martin Peer Edit
11/29/2013 Peer Edited Samafo's writing on Emily Martin with more objective language.

1) Changed to: Emily Martin makes the claim that metaphors that are used to teach biological concepts reflect the socially constructed "definitions of male and female".

2) Slight grammar changes.

3) Changed to: Martin argues that the females’s reproduction system

4) Martin describes the scientific accounts of reproductive biology, stating that they produce images of the egg and sperm often relying on stereotypes that prove to be key to our cultural definitions of male and female. These accounts, Martin claims, imply that the female biological processes are less worthy than that of the male.

Emphasis on Language
The goals of the ISNA were to: progress in patient-centered care, advocate a more cautious approach to surgery, and to get rid of misleading language. The last stated goal of the organization was to eradicate what the organization deemed as "misleading language". The ISNA claimed that nomenclature based on hermaphroditism was stigmatizing to intersex individuals, as well as potentially panic-inducing to parents of intersex children. The suggested solution put forth by the ISNA was to restructure the system of intersex taxonomy and nomenclature to not include the words ‘hermaphrodite’, ‘hermaphroditism’, ‘sex reversal’, or other similar terms. This "standard division of many intersex types into true hermaphroditism, male pseudohermaphroditism, and female pseudohermaphroditism" is described by the ISNA and its advocates as confusing and clinically problematic.

Hermaphroditism
The ISNA attempts to dispel what it sees as "harmful language" by providing information on Intersex definitions and prevalence. The Intersex Society of North America states that the term hermaphrodite is a "mythological term" and is a "physiologic impossibility". A further explanation is given by the INSA website stating that true hermaphroditism would be an individual being both fully male and fully female, but that this cannot exist.

The Intersex Society of North America provides information on an alternative view on the term hermaphrodite:
 * Indented line

While some intersex people seek to reclaim the word “hermaphrodite” with pride to reference themselves (much like the words “dyke” and “queer” have been reclaimed by LBGT people), we’ve learned over the years it is best generally avoided, since the political subtlety is lost on a lot of people.

Intersex in the Sex Anatomy Spectrum
The Intersex Society of North America claims that intersex is a socially constructed label that reflects actual biological variation. These variations range from chromosomal deviations from the standard male or female body, to deviations in reproductive organs that may or may not be visually expressed, to hormonal variations. The ISNA lists ambiguous genitalia as a commonly cited case of intersex, but there exist variations of lesser degree. The INSA claims that intersex anatomy is not always present at birth, and sometimes does not manifest until the age of puberty. Considering the wide range of variations that are considered intersex, as well as the perceived socially-constructed nature of gender and biological sex, the ISNA places intersex within a sex anatomy spectrum. The ISNA's argument is that intersex individuals can be thought of as being on a spectrum or continuum, in which there are no clear demarcations of where male ends and female begins.

Intersex Frequency
The ISNA claims that there is no concrete definition of what counts as intersex, therefore statistics on the prevalence of biological sex variations may be controversial. The INSA cites Anne Fausto-Sterling's article that reviewed medical literature from 1955 to 1998, in which an attempt was made to gauge the frequency of intersex conditions.

The following is a summary of the frequency statistics:

The Binary System: How the Standard Model Excludes the In-Between
The standard model of the difference between sex and gender is dichotomous, in which sex is biological and gender refers to the social roles. Within this model, sex is either male or female; gender is either masculine or feminine. The standard model of sex as biologically male or female leaves room for nothing in-between, and has created regulatory schemas for what the culturally and socially acceptable human body is supposed to look like. The standard model is normative, and the dichotomy of sex is reinforced throughout science. Gender, also dichotomous in the standard model, is illustrated through the social construction of gender roles and definitions of gender identity. Within this norm, biological males are meant to identify with masculine traits such as aggressiveness. By contrast, biological females are conventionally thought of as having an engrained “nurturing” quality associated with their feminine identity.

Dominant ideas of sex and gender classifications are sorted into strict binaries; an individual is either male or female and there is no intelligible category between the two. This model also provides society with norms and roles for ways in which boys and girls are “supposed” to act, and when a behavior or biological characteristic doesn’t fit, it is labeled with words such as abnormal, weird, or an anomaly. Thus, society shapes its beliefs for normative behavior around what science dictates, while at the same time science is influenced by culture and society. Modern scholars criticize the dichotomies among sex and gender. One criticism is that the normative model does not take into account the societal and environmental influences that may impact gender identity. Physical characteristics of biology, such as genitals and gametes, are used in the dominant model to define which behaviors should be followed and are “gender appropriate”, as well as the “inevitability of contemporary sex roles” (Fausto-Sterling, 76). Anne Fausto-Sterling argues against these strict definitions of sex and gender through a discussion on intersexual children, and the ways in which doctors and society enforce regulatory schemas. Fausto-Sterling claims “knowledge of biological variation, however, allows us to conceptualize the less frequent middle spaces as natural, although statistically unusual” (Fausto-Sterling, 76). '''The practices performed on intersexual children reflect the ideology of the dominant model of sex and gender, in which culturally unintelligible bodies were surgically modified to fit into the concrete definitions of what it is to be male or female. An alternative model that Fausto-Sterling suggests is one in which cultural conceptions of sex and gender is viewed on a spectrum with overlapping qualities.'''

Another criticism of the standard model is that it places sex and gender into very strict boxes, which do not allow for similarities between categories. This in turn highlights the differences between males and females, referred to as “absolute differences”. However, some scholars argue that although differences exist, they are slight, malleable, and not absolute. This is the case with Lynda Birke, as she states that with “the exception of the external genitals, there are rather few differences between girls and boys until they reach puberty” (Birke, 312). Birke also addresses how certain terminology pervades the dichotomy between “maleness” and “femaleness”, such as with hormones being labeled male or female in nature (Birke, 313). The standard model does not take into account the many ways in which males and females are similar, for example when Birke cites oxygen capacity similarity among male and female athletes (Birke, 315).

Additionally, the standard model of sex and gender claims physical differences among males and females that become widely accepted and normative. Theories on intellectual differences are compounded by findings in science, although the evidence can be insufficient. Birke is critical of scientific findings that emphasize male/female differences; such as when the dominant model in science suggested that female brains weighed less and were therefore inferior in intellectual ability (Birke, 317). However, studies that concluded this difference did not take into account the proportion of brain weight to body weight –which revealed that male and female brains had no difference.

Other scholarly criticisms of the standard model include the blurred lines of what exactly is being specifically measured and tested, as in the case of testing for sex differences in brain abilities that overlap with other abilities. Differences between males and females tend to be “often exaggerated out of all proportion” as well as cornered into unchanging fixed ideologies, when in reality biology and society are both subject to changes (Birke, 320).

'''The dichotomy in sex and gender creates rigid rules by which society, culture, and science is expected to follow. When bodies, ideas, or events that do not fit the conventional mold confront science, they are thought of as anomalies rather than “natural”. Society and science are both influenced by cultural norms, which lead to dichotomies that do not take into account the immense variability that exists in the natural world. Alternative suggestions to the standard model include changing from binaries to spectrums, so that sex and gender are viewed as continuous rather than ‘fixed’.'''

Pages Edited
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex_Society_of_North_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex#Prevalence

11/21/2013: Added citation to ISNA made various efforts to spread intersex activism on the Intersex Society of North America page.

11/29/2013: Added "Hermaphroditism" subsection to Intersex Society of North America Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex_Society_of_North_America#Hermaphroditism

11/29/2013 Peer Edited Samafo's writing on Emily Martin with more objective language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Martin_(anthropologist)#The_Egg_and_the_Sperm

Wikipedia Group Final Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stm278/sandbox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ghofherr/sandbox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aschultheiss/sandbox