{"id":926,"date":"2013-07-29T20:17:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T20:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monochromist.com\/2013\/07\/29\/what-makes-a-person-male-or-female-or-a\/"},"modified":"2013-07-29T20:17:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T20:17:38","slug":"what-makes-a-person-male-or-female-or-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2013\/07\/29\/what-makes-a-person-male-or-female-or-a\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

What makes a person male or female or a hermaphrodite?.. Today my own students, college students in history classes, sometimes in exasperation ask these questions of me at the end of a discussion of the history of sex as if I am hiding the \u201creal\u201d answer from them. \u2018What really is the key to being male, female, or other?\u201d But\u2026 the answer necessarily changes with time, with place, with technology, and with the many serious implications \u2013 theoretical and practical, scientific and political \u2013 of any given answer. The answer is, in a critical sense, historical \u2013 specific to time and place. There is no \u2018back of the book\u2019 final answer to what must count for humans as \u2018truly\u2019 male, female, or hermaphroditic, even though the decisions we make about such boundaries have important implications. \u2026 [T]he development of new [scientific] tools doesn\u2019t get us closer and closer to some final, definite answer of what it is to be \u2018truly\u2019 male, female, or hermaphroditic. Instead it only alters the parameters of possible answers\u2026 What is means to be a male, a female, or a hermaphrodite \u2013 and how you know you are a male, female or hermaphrodite, and what will happen to you if you are identified as a male, a female, or a hermaphrodite \u2013 is specific to time and place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alice Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes a person male or female or a hermaphrodite?.. Today my own students, college students in history classes, sometimes in exasperation ask these questions of me at the end of a discussion of the history of sex as if I am hiding the \u201creal\u201d answer from them. \u2018What really is the key to being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-video_graphics","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5sGHy-eW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3597,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2011\/03\/18\/g-spot-was-inappropriate-to-be-used-as-a-shops\/","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":0},"title":"\u2018G-Spot\u2019 was inappropriate to be\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"March 18, 2011","format":"quote","excerpt":"\u2018G-Spot\u2019 was inappropriate to be used as a shop\u2019s name and that it referred to the sexual organs of a male or female, according to SunFM. She also said that the name was inappropriate for viewing by women and children. State Attorney Aishath Seeza\u00a0\u00a0\u2018G-Spot\u2019 doesn\u2019t exist, contends shop owner in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "motion"","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4564,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2011\/01\/20\/i-heart-fandiyaaru-kakuni-the-need-for-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":1},"title":"I Heart Fan’diyaaru Kakuni: The Need for a Gender-Neutral Pronoun","author":"monochromist","date":"January 20, 2011","format":"link","excerpt":"I Heart Fan'diyaaru Kakuni: The Need for a Gender-Neutral Pronounfandiyaarukakuni: What is a gender-neutral pronoun? What does English need a new pronoun for, anyway? Many people have expressed the need for a singular gender-neutral third-person pronoun: that is, a pronoun to use when someone\u2019s gender is unknown or when the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "motion"","block_context":{"text":"motion","link":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/category\/video_graphics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5463,"url":"https:\/\/monochromist.com\/notes\/2017\/05\/11\/ia-ai\/","url_meta":{"origin":926,"position":2},"title":"Or examining, analysing, deconstructing and\u2026","author":"monochromist","date":"May 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Or examining, analysing, deconstructing and processing the interconnections between:\u00a0 < messenger\/s> \u00a0\u00a0 The medium is the message \u00a0 Genesis 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.