BOY OR GIRL NOW, MAN OR WOMAN LATER?

Boy or Girl now, Man or Woman later?

Boy or Girl now, Man or Woman later?

Boy or girl? This is one of the first questions new parents are asked. But sometimes it's not so clear. This program looks at the wide variety of intersex conditions, and the dilemmas faced by doctors, patients and parents when they have to make the choice - boy or girl. At what stage in the child's life should the choice be made? And does the choice have to be made at all? It is perhaps strange that feminists have so easily forgotten the intersexed. The management of intersexed children does not end in infancy. Not only does it often entail further surgery and hormone therapy, but it also means giving children some sort of comprehensible account of what is happening to them. Such accounts are, however, rarely honest since it is assumed that it might be psychologically damaging for them to know the truth. At birth it is the medical gaze that determines the answer.

It is the looking at our genitals that will guide all future relationships and identities. Surgeries on infants with ambiguous genitals often occur prior to the 'gender identity gate'. These surgeries often result in scarring, tissue sloughing and/or life-long sensation loss or pain. Vaginoplasties (surgeries to construct a vagina) must be accompanied by life-long medical check-ups and use of dilators. Phalloplasties (surgeries on the phallus) often are to 'repair' hypospadias; that is where the urethra opens along the shaft of the phallus. These surgeries result in heavy scarring, loss of sensation and complete failures result in urine passing through holes anywhere along the phallus. Due to the difficulty in phalloplasties 90% of infants with ambiguous genitals are assigned female (Hendricks cited in Chase 1998b: 210; Newman 1991 cited in Holmes 2002: 169; Creighton and Minto 2001: 1265; Preves 2003: 56).

According to one oft-quoted physician: “you can make a hole but you can't build a pole” (Chase 1998a: 192; Holmes 2002: 169; Preves 2003: 56). In addition to the surgical viability of the tissue the assignment to female stems from certain expectations placed on the phallus as a penis. Will the child be able to urinate in the standing position? Can the phallus penetrate an average-sized vagina? Is it sufficient to compete in the locker-room? (Fausto-Sterling 2000; Kessler 1998). As has been pointed out in the literature these are social considerations not medical ones (Fausto- Sterling 2000: 58; Crouch 1999: 32; Groveman 1999: 35; Kessler 1998: 12). This Many adults may not know about their intersex status.

At the centre of the Gender Role Theory is the insistence that for a child to be successfully raised as a boy or a girl there must be no indication that their gender is anything but that which it is assigned. Those in their immediate social sphere are told to encourage gender-appropriate play and at no time is the child (or adult) to be told of their genital ...