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"Male" and "Female" are problematic categories
William_Beeman (William_Beeman@BROWN.EDU)
Sat, 13 Apr 1996 21:57:32 GMT
For the interest of the board. If anyone has use for this article for
teaching purposes, as author I grant all rights for reproduction and
distribution for any non-commercial purpose. Please excuse me if this
is a cross-posting, and you have already seen this.
_______________________________
(c) 1996 Baltimore Sun. All rts. reserv.
WHAT ARE YOU: MALE, MERM, HERM, FERM OR FEMALE?
BALTIMORE MORNING SUN (BS) - Sunday March 17, 1996
By: William O. Beeman
Edition: F Section: Perspective Page: 1F
Word Count: 1,054
TEXT:
ARE THE CATEGORIES "man" and "woman" so obviously clear that they need
no
further explanation?
Legislators throughout the nation trying to prevent the recognition
of
"gay marriage" contracted in other states obviously think so. They
have
introduced legislation that would grant official recognition only
to
marriages between "a man and a woman." Legislation embodying this
language
has already passed in South Dakota and Utah and may become law in 17
other
states, including Maryland, in the next few months.
Maryland's bill, introduced by Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., the
founding
pastor of Rising Sun Baptist Church in Woodlawn, says same sex
marriages
are "against the public policy of this State." If enacted, "only a
marriage
between a man and a woman" would be valid in Maryland and
same-sex
marriages that take place in other states or foreign countries would not
be
recognized.
Perhaps Mr. Burns and the other legislators who are pushing these
bills
don't realize it, but their passage would unwittingly nullify or
prevent
millions of supposedly heterosexual marriages.
Why? Because the marriage partners will not meet the medical
definition
of being "a man and a woman." To make matters worse, most of these
couples
will not know that they are illegally married.
Between 3 million and 10 million Americans are neither male nor
female
at birth. Additionally, as adults they may be genetically of the
opposite
gender from that which they and their parents believe them to be.
The medical term for persons of ambiguous gender is
"intersexual."
Estimates of the numbers of persons who may be born intersexual ranges
from
1 percent to 4 percent of all children born today, according to Dr.
Anne
Fausto-Sterling of the Division of Biology and Medicine at
Brown
University.
The difficulty in determining clear-cut specification of gender
arises
because there are at least three ways to define it. Two are biological
and
one is cultural.
The first biological definition defines gender in terms of
chromosomes.
Males have an X and a Y chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes.
The
second biological definition assigns gender in terms of male and
female
genitalia.
In the third, "cultural" definition, males are people who lookand
act
"male," and females are people who look and act "female."
Americans
generally want everyone to fit the third, cultural definition, even
when
people have biological characteristics that are not strictly in accord
with
a two-gender system.
One cause of intersexuality seems to be the posession of an
abnormal
number of chromosomes only one or more than two. A second cause stems
from
the fact that all humans, no matter what their chromosomal makeup, have
the
biological capacity to develop either male or female genitalia
and
secondary sexual characteristics while in the womb. Developmentally,
some
babies are born with male or female chromosomal makeup and with both
male
and female genitalia, or with some of the genitalia of the
opposite
chromosomal sex.
Dr. Fausto-Sterling points out that there is a smooth continuum
between
100 percent biologically male and 100 percent biologically female with
many
possibilities in between. She calls those with both testes and
ovaries
"herms." Those with testes and some female genitalia but no ovaries
are
"merms." Those with ovaries and some male genitalia but no testes
are
"ferms." This gives the possibility of five rough biological
groupings:
male, merm, herm, ferm and female.
Most intersexual Americans are unaware of their true biological
gender
because under current medical practice, physicians reassign the gender
of
intersexual infants at birth. Such infants are surgically altered and
given
hormonal treatments so that they will fit into one of the two
"cultural"
categories male or female. The test is usually not chromosomal, but
rather
based on the "viability" of the genitalia to eventually appear normal.
Often the parents are not fully informed about what is happening
to
their children.
Dr. Fausto-Sterling calls this medical reassignment a
"surgical
shoehorn" designed to force intersexed infants into rigid
cultural
categories that have little to do with biological reality.
As a result, there are perhaps millions of XX males and XY
females
living in the United States today. These are cultural males with
male
genitalia who are genetically female, and cultural females with
female
genitalia who are genetically male. The film star Jamie Lee Curtis is
one
well-known individual who is genetically male, but phenotypically
female.
The current legislative issue in South Dakota, California, and Utah
and
other states has arisen because a current court test of marriage laws
in
Hawaii seems likely to result in recognition of same-sex marriage
at
sometime in the future. Because marriages in one state are generally
held
to be legal in others, the Hawaii action would effectively
legalize
same-sex marriage throughout the nation.
The legislators have obviously not consulted with scientists in
their
zeal to eliminate "gay marriage." Legislation preventing recognition of
any
marriage except between a "man" and a "woman" will clearly have
some
surprising unintended consequences. In states with such laws it may
be
necessary to have a "genetic" test such as is currently performed
on
Olympic athletes before a marriage license can be issued. Even so,
what
does an XX male or an XY female do about marriage? This legislation
might
effectively prevent such people from ever being legally married in
their
state of residence.
Some legislators have also tried to preclude post-operative
transsexuals
from marrying by requiring that marriage partners be "potentially
fertile."
This, of course, would exclude not only the transsexuals, but also
all
intersexual individuals. It would also exclude women who have
undergone
hysterectomies or gone through menopause, and men who became infertile
as a
result of disease, such as having contracted mumps as adults.
This attempt to deny marriage to all but culturally defined males
and
females through legislating science is eventually doomed to failure
because
a two-category male/female system can never encompass the variety of
human
gender construction. A large number of destructive and expensive
court
cases will arise if such restrictive and ill-conceived marriage laws
are
passed. It would seem far more reasonable to allow any two persons
wishing
to ratify a personal relationship to do so without having to
satisfy a
standard that has little relationship to reality.
William O. Beeman is an associate professor of anthropology at
Brown
University.
Pub Date: 3/17/96
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