Intersexuality and the categories of sex

Hypatia. 2001 Summer;16(3):126-37.

Abstract

Operations on intersexuals indicate that the sex of a person is based on more than biology. Expectations about proper gender activities furnish the frameworks through which certain features and combinations of features are understood to be fundamental to bodies and to comprise their sex. Yet, we can ask whether this interpretation is either coherent or consistent with our fuller conceptions of ourselves. Is there a point to interpreting a person as a sex?

MeSH terms

  • Disorders of Sex Development* / surgery
  • Gender Identity*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Prejudice
  • Sexuality / psychology
  • Transsexualism / psychology