Deconstructing Biological Sex*

Let's talk about deconstructing sex. When I read Riki Wilchins' book Queer Theory, Gender Theory this part was the hardest to actually see. Understanding gender and sexuality as social constructs was much easier, as the first is a behavior and the second is desire based upon any number of variables, many of which are constructs themselves. Sex, though, we are taught is biological, and the biological is pure and pristine and cannot be tampered with by the mind. Right? It simply is what it is? Well, the argument for deconstructing sex says no, it isn't. We are still imposing our self-created categories upon unsuspecting phenomena with no consciousness of its own, what to speak of real agency. Bodies just happen in nature, don't they? And nature gave us two distinct types, right?

There are places where the binary of biological sex breaks down, such as with intersex people, who are born with both "male" and "female" reproductive parts or with indeterminate parts. Yes, indeterminate. The boundary between a small penis and a large clitoris on newborn babies has been arbitrarily set in America at three eighths of an inch to a full inch. If you fall just shy of three eighths, you have a clit and are therefore a girl, through and through, so good luck getting through life without facing gender discrimination. If you are lucky enough to have an organ that is one inch long, congratulations, you have a penis and all the accompanying male privilege. Hurrah for you!

But what about those in-between people? Those little babies with organs that are larger than three eighths of an inch, but not quite a full inch? Typically, the doctors will decide to make them girls, but they don't just assign the gender, they cut the "clitoris" right off the baby. Can't have any large clit females walking around can we? No, the border between male and female must be strictly enforced and very clear, even if it means mutilating babies.**

With all this in mind, it is easy to start grasping the constructed nature of biological sex, in theory, anyhow, since the dividing line between male and female is arbitrarily drawn here. There are other problems with biological sex, though, such as people with chromosomal "abnormalities," those with xxyy, xyy, xxy, xxx or even just a single x chromosome. What the heck are they? Science calls the first three "boys" and the other two "girls." This is due to the other, observable indicators of sex present in each case. So chromosomes are not always what we think they are; they are not an either/or, xx/xy binary. We position them in a male/female binary system based on another factor, namely genitalia, which we have seen can be painfully uncertain.

If you've mad it this far and can see the logic behind a deconstruction of biological sex, than kudos to you! Now, however, comes the hard part. Go out in the world and try to see someone, anyone, as something other than male or female. Or even try to convince yourself that the butch lady on the bus is really a male. See how far you get. We are so habituated to seeing only males and females, men and women, that it can be nearly impossible to see anything else. It takes a strong effort for most people to see something else, to see a person, just a person, not a gender and/or a biological sex. Are you up to the task?



*The information on intersex people in this blog post comes from Riki Wilchins' book Queer Theory, Gender Theory, a link to which can be found at the beginning of this post. For more information on intersex issues, click here.

**Wilchins notes that "male" babies never get accused of having penises that are too large, and consequently, they never get theirs trimmed as "females" might. Also significant is that the mutilation of these baby "girls" does significantly impair their sex life later on - many can never achieve orgasm due to the mutilation at the hands of their supposed care-givers, the doctors.