Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Two Sexes Are Not Enough (2000) reflects on an earlier piece she wrote (1993) in which she suggested that the traditional binary sex system be replaced with a more sensible 5 sex system. This idea caused outrage among conservatives but also opened up an arena for intersexuals to have a voice. One conservative critic stated, “…every sane person knows there are but two sexes, both of which are rooted in nature.” This is an odd statement that implies other sexes are not rooted in nature and therefore are not natural. Hmmm… being born a certain way seems as natural as you can get. Even Native American tribes had and celebrated people with multiple gender roles and identities.
I find it amazing that even today physicians and parents will decide the sex of a baby and perform surgery to make a child one of the society-approved sexes. As Fausto-Sterling says, physicians should not perform surgery but set up long term counseling for the family and child.
I think that a major problem that needs to be addressed is that of “natural biology” and “learned gender” being mixed up and interchanged as one. These two are distinct from each other: being one sex does not mean being a certain gender. If gender identity and roles were not interchanged with biology, people may be able to accept the idea of more sexes. But as long as society thinks of gender and sex as one only a 2 sex system may exist.
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