Gender Binaries

There's so many new topics I've been exposed to after taking this class, but what I feel really made the greatest impact was the whole argument of two sexes versus five proposed by Anne Fausto-Sterling. This issue was stressed in another one of my classes, The Body and Politics of Representation, so I got a double dose of this by reading Sexing the Body, Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw, and listening to a transgendered individual first-hand speak out about his own personal experience.

The material has caused me to question what I never thought twice about. Not once did I stop to think about whether or not there was more than two distinct genders. Through Science and Humanities, I was shown the differences in physiology as well as anatomy that have the potential to break the barriers between social and biological sciences that we have always regarded to be autonomous.

The spectrum with degrees of sexuality no doubt needs to be taken into consideration. People argue that the five sex system would lead to inclusion/exclusion and telling people to be a certain way. I agree with this statement and feel we shouldn't categorize people that do not wish to be given a title, but who just want to be. I've learned that gender can be classified in other ways that don't include strictly anatomy/genitals. There are more components that play a role, so I think the best we can do is keep the two female and male and allow people with variations of sexes to identify (or not identify) somewhere between the two, however they choose to do so. Overall, this class has made me more accepting of people and has caused me to consider others' opinions before coming to my personal conclusion.