Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.69 (762 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0801891558 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-10-11 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
(Kevin Allen Leonard Pacific Historical Review)Bodies in Doubt makes an important contribution to our understanding of early American cultural history. An excellent book that treats its subject matter with care and respect, and which encourages critical thinking about the issues discussed. Bodies in Doubt is an excellent and highly engaging introduction to the medical and cultural history of intersex. For scholars and medical students, this pleasantly written history provides an opportunity to view examples of these unusual problems. (James H. It is recommended to anyone interested in the sociological history of intersex, as one of the very few volumes on the subject. Moreover, her discussion sheds light on th
Elizabeth Reis is an associate professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the History Department at the University of Oregon and author of Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England.
As the history of responses to intersex bodies has shown, doctors are influenced by social concerns about marriage and heterosexuality. What does it mean to be human? To be human is, in part, to be physically sexed and culturally gendered. Yet not all bodies are clearly male or female. Bodies in Doubt traces the changing definitions, perceptions, and medical management of intersex (atypical sex development) in America from the colonial period to the present day. Yet definitions of "correct" in matters of intersex were entangled with shifting ideas and tensions about what was natural and normal, indeed about what constituted personhood or humanity.Reis has examined hundreds of cases of "hermaphroditism" and intersex found in medical and popular literature and argues that medical practice cannot be understood outside of the broader cultural context in which it is embedded. Some nineteenth-century doctors viewed their intersex patients with disrespect and suspicion. Bodies in Doubt considers how Americans have interpreted and handled ambiguous bodies, how the
"inate and cultural arguments for blended gender not new" according to Chuck Furnace. I thought this book would be just about hermaphrodites, but it's scope is the much larger question of societal response to things not well understood. The historical chapters paint a not so pleasant picture of a lack of compassion and acceptance. New medical understanding have soften attitudes, as has American society's melting pot culture.Recently, a woman who had a partial sex change operation into a man has been in the n. "A must for any library of intersex or trans issues" according to Alex G. Holmes. As the title indicates, this book is a research based intellectual exploration of what happens to people in American society when their body or gender identity do not conform to the norms of heterosexual male or female identities. Dr. Reis' book is an essential piece of historical and sociological perspectives on intersex conditions and their place in American medical history. She smartly weaves historical documentation wit. Fantastic History! Adenil This book provides a fantastic history of the Intersex movement. For those who think that Intersex conditions are a modern invention, you will have to prepare to have your world rocked. Reis provides a great analysis of medical documents dating back to early American history. By examining these documents she positions Intersex patients not as abnormal, but as a normal human difference. She examines the cyclical nature of do