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mpottash's picture

Gender Identity

In Katie's interview with Haverford, she says: "I didn't learn about [my AIS] until my identity was already well-formed - when my parents told me, I already knew that I was a happy, healthy teenager."  I found this statement very interesting for its implications in our discussion on sex, gender, and identity.  It would seem that when Callie learned about her DSD, she was also a well formed teenage girl.  But when she learned about the DSD, as opposed to Katie, she decided to change her gender.  This speaks to the question of Nature versus nurture.  From the interview, it seems that for Katie, nurture was what was important.  For Cal however, nature was more important.  How are distinctions between nature and nurture made?  Does the gender identity of people with DSD prove a point about nature vs. nurture, as Dr. Luce says?  I would like to ask Katie her opinion about this. 

I was also interested in Hilda's comment that she never felt pressured to choose a gender, and that "Society pressures you to choose sides just like they pressure mixed race people to decide".  This brings us back to Tuesday's discussion about organizational control. While Cal was going against the control of Dr. Luce and the medical community, perhaps the fact that he chose a gender at all means that he was still under societal control.

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