Given that a big part of of the problem this legislation is trying to address has to do with the constant conflating of sex and gender, it's disappointing that so many bloggers and journalists chose to use the term "third gender" in their headlines and proceed to really just talk about sex assignment.
What strikes me about so much of this coverage is that it seems to skip over some basics which I am sure remain a mystery to most of us. Among the basics are an answer to a question that I found in many of the comment sections. They aren't always worded in such a nice way, but the essence of the question is a) why are we changing things for one group, and b) doesn't this mean we'll have to keep changing it for others?
It's a common response to any attempt to change systems that have been in place a long time and through which considerable power runs; what's wrong with the way things are? I was on the receiving end of this response after I published my first children's book which tries to change the way we talk about reproduction with young children.
For those of us who are routinely left out, beaten down, and otherwise screwed around by various systems, it can be a galling question. Others ignorance or denial of our suffering can hurt, and itself be a kind of violence. But given how little space there is for honest and open discussions about power and privilege and difference, the question is pretty reasonable.
And whether we like it or not, it's a question we have to answer if we want people to understand why change is necessary.
So, if you're among those who are puzzled by the need for new legislation and new ways of dealing with sex assignment at birth, I thought I'd share just a few of the things that are wrong with the system we currently have of assigning sex at birth. This is by no means comprehensive, it's just a start:
- Currently newborns are classified as male, female, and in some places, some of the time, intersex. This assignment is usually based on looking at a newborns genitals. Medical science and research has established that sex is both more complicated and more diverse than these three terms allow for. While it would require a significant change in multiple systems (legal, medical, governmental, and more) the current system simply doesn't reflect what we know of human bodies and human experience of sexual development.
- Sex is not determined by external genitals alone. Sex is developed and expressed as a result of both external and internal genitals, hormones, and chromosomes. We know that brain development in utero plays some role in all this as well. A visual assessment of genitals isn't enough to determine sex.
- When a doctor or midwife announces the sex of a newborn they are actually doing much more than that. Because we live in a world where sex and gender are routinely confused in practical terms the sex assignment at birth becomes a gender assignment. Just like sex, gender is something more complicated and diverse than two or three categories allow. And just like sex assignment, it is not possible to correctly identify someone's gender by examining their external genitalia.
- What is at stake when a sex assignment is made cannot be under emphasized. It has a total and profound effect on a newborns immediate lives and subsequent experience of the world. It can lead to unnecessary and harmful surgeries performed without truly informed consent of either the parents or, obviously, the infant. The current system is set up based on what is easiest for the medical professionals and not what is best for the people who live with the consequences of medical interventions.
The system we have in place asks us to pretend that people can be meaningfully categorized in two, and sometimes three, groups, and that these groups serve us well in terms of supporting physical and mental health and an individuals ability to participate in society and life. Most people manage to pretend. I would argue that the pretending carries significant costs for everyone. But the costs of speaking the truth is higher, and as such most people don't.
Things are changing and the systems are being challenged because groups of people who can't pretend are speaking up. People who are identified as intersex, people who are trans, people who simply can't, and people who don't want to fit themselves into the binary system of sex are making it harder to pretend for every one. Because these people are presenting a challenge we sometimes group them together. But we would do well to remember that it's not "us" and "them." They are us, and we are them, and while media reporting can make it seem like a neat and tidy difference, placing you, the reader, in the position of deciding whether they, the subjects, are right or wrong in their requests for equal protection under the law, in my experience, most people are able to identify some part of their lives that have been limited by the way we deal with both sex and gender currently. Which is another way of saying that everyone will benefit from new systems that focus more on human experience and diversity and less on bureaucratic convention.
What's happening in Germany isn't a perfect answer, and it addresses a smaller group of people then it needed to (I believe it would have been much better if any and all parents would have the choice of leaving sex indeterminate) but it's a start.
Read More: Spiegel Online - A Step Toward Ending Intersex Discrimination ..................................................................................
Join the conversation!
NEWSLETTER | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
GOOGLE+ | CONNECT
.....................................................................................