“One can only attempt to imagine the anguish of the parents. That a newborn should have a deformity… (affecting) so fundamental an issue as the very sex of the child… is a tragic event which immediately conjures up visions of a hopeless psychological misfit doomed to live always as a sexual freak in loneliness and frustration (Fausto-sterling 47).” This quote I feel really sums up what Anne Fausto-Sterling is talking about in the third and fourth chapters of her book. She describes really how traumatic it is for the parents of intersex kids and what a difficult decision they face. It’s sad that this quote is probably what most Americans think about intersex babies, but the truth is that is what Americans think. Parents have the option of immediate surgery, prenatal fix, or therapy later in life for the child. Each choice has its negative and positive affects and how really knows what the right choice. If we didn’t live in the society we live in now, were there are only two genders, it would not be addressed. The kid would grow up and be a regular person. However this is not the society we live in. Today there are such clear lines when it comes to gender, your either male or female, no in between. So parents have to make a choice. Most choose surgery but what about the risks to the babies health, and what if later in life the child doesn’t identify with that sex and they have to go through another painful surgery to become what they feel like. I can’t even imagine being put in that situation I hate to say it but I would probably get the surgery for my kid and probably not tell him/her. How do you go about telling a child they were born different? And knowing kids today and how hard it is to grow up I wouldn’t want my kid going through having to identify with a sex later on life. People are cruel today and to society there is no room for intersex people. Fausto in the book warns people about this choice giving many examples of kids who resent their parents for getting the surgery and not telling them. There’s even a group for it. Now I understand what they are talking about and think there right I would not follow them. If it was me I don’t think I could handle my parents telling me I was a different sex, I would want them to keep it from. That’s just added stress that no one needs. I understand it’s a lie but no other option seems good enough for me. I can’t believe society has shaped me this much, because I don’t mind intersex people I just wouldn’t want their life and all the stigma it comes with. Anne is right American culture needs to adopt a third gender so that these people don’t feel so alienated and so that parents don’t have to be so devastated if they have an intersex child. And she is also right in regards to becoming closer, Gays now are not always super feminine, and lesbians today aren’t all really butch, we are started to blur the line between male and female.
No comments:
Post a Comment