Beyond the Binary: Sex & Gender
In several of your readings this week. you read about how trans and intersex people often must interact with medical system and how that effects their health and wellbeing. For this week’s activity, you’re going to dig a little deeper and reflect on the implications of the medicalization of sex and gender identity.
Prompt
Step 1: Select two of the following readings from this week. Note: At least one of your chosen readings must be Feinberg, Preves, or Wentling.
Feinberg, “We Are All Works in Progress”
Preves, “Intersex Narratives: Gender, Medicine, and Identity”
Kleeman, “We Don’t Know If Your Baby is a Boy or a Girl”
Wentling, “Am I Obsessed?”
Russo “Where Transgender is No Longer a Diagnosis”
Step 2: Write a 250+ word analysis critically examining what your chosen reading demonstrates about sex and/or gender beyond the binary. Use specific arguments and examples from your chosen reading to support your analysis.
Use the following questions to guide your analysis.
What does the reading say about how our bodies do gender?
What does the reading say about the social regulation of bodies?
Why is society so invested in regulating sex, when the determinants of sex (in this case, genitals) are covered up from the public eye?
What does this suggest about the relationship between sex and gender?
What are the implications of medicalizing sex and gender-related outcomes for those who live beyond the binary?
Guidelines
Write 250+ words
Critically analyze two of the readings listed above
Uses the posed questions to guide analysis
Uses specific examples and evidence from the reading to support analysis
Cite page numbers
Direct quotes are used sparingly (no longer than 1 sentence)
Thoughtfully organized with few-to-no errors in spelling or grammar
