My anthropology lecture today really pissed me off. Not because of Prof Boellstorff's views--he's a great lecturer and more sensitive to these sorts of things than just about anyone I know--but just because of some of the facts brought up.
We were talking about the article we had to read, "Hermaphrodites with Attitude", which talks about some of the horrible things children born with ambiguous genitals go through, and the crap that doctors pull. Performing operations to assign the baby a gender without getting the permission of the parents. Telling the parents that the baby died, but a twin lived, in cases where they said "it's a boy!"(or whatever), then realized it was anomalous and changed the gender. The article talked about a case where a mother, after having given birth, was kept drugged and sedated for three days every time she asked about her child, while the doctors deliberated over what sex the child should be.
This all relates back to an article we read a few weeks ago, dealing with "matter out of place", and the human reaction to it. The article was about the rules on what animals can and cannot be eaten in Leviticus, but the concept permeates all areas of our culture. We don't see clothes as inherently bad, unless they're laying on the floor. A dish can be left on a counter or in the sink for a day or more without much bother, but put it somewhere it isn't supposed to be--on the bed, say--and you can bet it's going to be snatched up and dealt with right away. It's something that oversteps our culture's defined boundaries, and in doing that, it's dangerous. It threatens our culture's notions of what is and isn't. Cultures throughout history have had varying ways of dealing with "matter out of place", from killing it, to worshipping. In America, we chop their genitals off.
Doctors even have "rulers", that they use to measure the genital length of newborns. If it is less than .8cm, it is termed a clitoris. If it greater than 2.5cm, it is termed a penis. But genitals between .8 and 2.5cm are "unacceptable". Because gods forbid a girl have a large clitoris, or a man have a small penis.
There have been articles published in medical journals where doctors have actually claimed that it is better for a child to undergo these surgeries--which are often incredibly painful and take many, many operations, often not stopping until the child is old enough to resist--than to suffer teasing in the locker room, or to not be able to pee standing up, "in a steady, unfluctuating stream".
I am utterly disgusted.
We are mutilating people's genitals, for the sake of appearances. Never mind the fact that they may never find sex satisfying or, if they're men, will never be able to get an erection in their manufactured penis. Never mind the fact that intersexuality only very rarely causes health problems. They have a normal appearance, and that's what the medical field is concerned with. And for the love of the gods, we are doing this to children. Infants. Newborns. We are doing this behind the backs of the parents, often without permission.
I sat in class today, listening to Prof Boellstorff talk about all this, and I thought, "If Erik and I have children, I am making our doctor sign a fucking written contract that no one brings a scalpel anywhere NEAR my child without my express, written permission." They aren't going to with fuck my kid like that. Maybe I'll have an intersex child, and he or she won't be "normal", but by the gods, he/she will be whole and unaltered, at least until he/she's old enough to make the choice for him/herself. I am not going to do that to my child, and I'll tear the throat out of anyone who tries to.
Gods. Gods gods gods gods. I am so upset about this. I just want to track down all the doctors of have performed clitorectomies and clitoridectomies and chop of their dicks, and let them know what it feels like.
Mrowwwwwwwwwwrrrrr.
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