Sex, gender and pregnant men

[lady_kishiria]

Oh no, here comes the po-mo....



Many of you have no doubt read about Thomas Beatie, the pregnant transman of Oregon:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23482682-401,00.html

First off, yawn. This is old news to the queer-savvy media hound; Matt Rice had a baby years ago. The difference is that Matt and then-spouse Patrick Califia opted not to have their pregnancy in the newspapers. You know, like the rest of us.

Still, there is something that sticks in my craw about Mr. Beatie. I'm a libertarian who is deeply, deeply uncomfortable with female gender roles, and anybody who knows me for about ten minutes can figure that out. Neil Gaiman did a short story about a cancer drug that turned out to have the side effect of changing a person's sex, and the story went on about how it became a recreational. I admit, if there were a drug that would allow me to pick the sex I wanted to be that weekend I'd be a complete pig for it.

Obviously, this gave me a lot to think about on my interminable bus rides home. I finally decided that this was what was bugging me. I have two rules about sex and gender from which I will not budge. Rule number one: There is no difference between men and women outside the biological. Rule number two: Biology is not destiny.

The question that troubles me is, where does biology begin?

That question is largely rhetorical. Thomas Beatie is playing dirty with both rules. He takes testosterone and has had his chest reconstructed, but never had anything done with his female reproductive organs. His reason was "because I wanted to have a child someday".

Now, if you have to bring out *one thing* that defines femininity, having babies is it. Most FTMs have their ovaries and uteroi removed, even if they opt out of phalloplasty. There's a good reason for opting out of it too; it's a crude surgery that leaves one with a phallus that simply doesn't work. Why bother? But leaving everything intact in order to have a baby later is just...well it feels to me like hedging a bet. Matt Rice had to stop the FTM process in the middle because the testosterone was affecting his health adversely and took the opportunity to have a baby. Thomas Beatie's decision feels like cheating.

The idea of changing sex doesn't bother me. However it is a commitment, barring Neil Gaiman's miracle drug. Otherwise it strikes me as being play with gender roles, which is fine, but I think the distinction must be drawn between the two.

I'll say it again. Sex is what is in your pants. Gender is the role you play. I see Thomas Beatie as being of male gender, but he's taken himself out of the running for qualifying as male sex.

Comments

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

My take: sex is what you have in your genes. No matter how much body-work has been done, that Ford is still a Honda. This is just as hollow a show as a so-called beauty pageant.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Except that genes can be very, very wonky and sex is quite often not a yes/no situation. You'll be fishslapped in the face with this when you finally get going on the biology degree. There was a study done that showed that many if not most people who has their sex reassigned had genetic or hormonal variances to start with. Certainly most of the people I've known who had sex reassignment weren't 100% their birth sex to begin with.

[die-uberfrau.livejournal.com]

In the case of an "infamous" association of mine who is an FtM, he had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, so the hormones were off from the beginning. Many of the FtMs and third-genders I know have PCOS or related conditions. I have PCOS and I can tell you that I am not the stereotypical female, I tend to be somewhat butch esp. if I'm just kickin' it around the house. I don't have the desire to change my gender but I don't feel female, either. I often feel like an androgynous alien. (No, not Ziggy Stardust. Or Siggy Stardust. Er, whatever.)

There's also the case of intersex which happens more often than people realize, babies born with both kinds of equipment.

It's a very, very complicated thing.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of that associate of yours, but I am hesitant to give any details about the people with genetic abnormalities who I know out of respect for privacy.

[die-uberfrau.livejournal.com]

Right. Said individual actually has the information publicly on the Internet on their website and is pretty open but note I did not give names here on a public post.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

That's why they stopped doing sex tests (for want of a better name) at big sporting events like the Olympics. There were a surprising number of women who'd been born women, had never questioned their sex, and whose genitalia was quite determinate who turned out to be biologically less than determinate.