Emphasizing the physical

I agree, one thing that bothered me a lot about the book is how often Cal as the narrator "explained away" his attraction to The Object with the fact that he was actually male.  Being male and being attracted to women are two completely different concepts. One line in particular, on page 166, bothered me. "Breasts have the same effect on me as on anyone with my testosterone level." This isn't the only example of Cal using his gender to explain his attraction to women. He emphasizes heteronormativity in a way that I didn't expect from this book.  It was pointed out to me that perhaps he focuses so much on how his being male explained his attraction to women because the narrator, Cal, IS a heterosexual male, and that he speaks for himself when he uses gender to explain sexuality.  I had a hard time telling the difference between Cal's narrator bias or Eugenides's ignorance on the difference between gender and sexual attraction.  Dr. Luce, as a character, also used Callie's alleged attraction to men to diagnose Callie's "real gender," but that may have a lot to do with the fact that Dr. Luce was doing research in the 70's, when gender binaries and heteronormativity still seeped its way into the minds of most people (not that it still doesn't today.)  I don't know. Again, I wasn't sure if the seemingly blatant heteronormative overtones to the narrative was Cal's fault or Eugenides's. 

Cal's bias as a narrator also probably had a lot to do with why we don't seem to really get Callie's feelings.  For example, when Callie suddenly decided that she was male based on a report from the doctor; this seemed so sudden and Callie seemed so sure of her gender based on one doctor's written opinion.  I was surprised that any 14 year old could make a decision that fast on something that big - I can't make a decision about what to eat for lunch that quickly.  Especially since, as said on page 479, Cal "...never felt out of place being a girl."  Callie didn't seem to have much of a sense of anything being very wrong besides the lack of a period and her underdeveloped chest.  However, this sudden decision of Callie's may not have been that sudden - it may have been Cal's narrative making it seem so.  Callie seems to be almost misrepresented by Cal, because looking back at a memory makes seemingly unrelated events seem like "signs" or make an event seem "fated" even though at the time no one thought twice about it.  So, I feel like Cal's retelling of Callie's transformation is probably inaccurate and does not reflect what Callie's real feelings were at the time.  And this is only one example of Callie being "misrepresented" in Cal's tale.