Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

In speaking about Descartes in class I have really been opening my eyes to how our world is so obsessed with being Cartesian, even if we don't even realize it. The fact that I feel the need to organize everything in my life into certain areas in my calender, sort out my things into separate compartments, ect. makes me question whether this is instilled in me or whether I have been taught to look at everything with such a 'black & white' mentality. Perception is a strong tool and if used correctly it can alter the way you look at anything- so who is to say something in life is only to be or exist in one kind of way? I love how Anne Fausto-Sterling tries to make us see that there is a gray area indeed, especially in her writiings about gender and intersexuality. This intrigued me and made me open my eyes to the fact that there needs to be a more opened minded and made me believe that there needs to be less urgency to label, label, label in fear of the unknown.

There is a quote on page 93 of Sexing the Body which really made me think about the idea of only male and only female, the Cartesian part in all of us which is displayed from the moment a child is born; It reads, "Should," he wondered, "this patient be allowed to grow up as male... even if[surgery] shows the gonads to be female?" This quote really displays how human perception is so altered by the notion of something only being one way or the other, how Cartesian viewpoints can so strongly influence ideas on the way life should be. I believe being Cartesian does allow us to function better as a society in most aspects of life- keeping peace and order in giving us a way to feel safe and comfortable with labels and the idea that we have control over this thing that we call our body. However, as my title points out, everything can never be seen as one way or the other. Some people believe a glass is half empty while another person may be gun-ho on the notion that it's half full. I believe we can never unCartesian, it's a quality that we've all possessed for such a long time, especially when speaking about gender. But I do believe we can and should push ourselves to try and except other way of looking at life and our surroundings. I think we can be more aware of our perception of things and use that to realize that there could possibly be more than 2 genders, and that there is nothing wrong with that. We need to learn to not fear what we do not know, but instead embrace these uncertainties and with patience and time try to understand all possibilities considering subjects such as gender.