After reading Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article in class it
really opened me to this new reality. Although I had never really thought about
it before, there are people who are born with two genders and either decide
between one or the other or switch around. It’s kind of weird to think of
someone having both sexes and it makes me feel bad for them. They embody the
physical reality of what many have only mentally. They have both sexes and/or
both genders. It really correlated with story about Maria Patina, who is in all
reality a woman, but because she has a y chromosome everyone shunned her.
This article also got me thinking about evolution. I was
wondering what it would be like if somehow through evolution we started to get
a higher rate of hermaphrodites. Already 4% of the population is born this way,
it is possible for numbers to increase if they start reproducing. This was a
bit hard for me to understand, I never got a clear understanding of whether
reproduction is possible for hermaphrodites or not. Either way, if they did
reproduce normally, it is completely possible for the number to increase in the
population. I wonder if then society would be forced to accept this double
gender or genderless group of people (which ever way they decide to identify
themselves). Once its physically impossible would they accept it, or would they
force people to choose a gender as many are now? Or would they remain a secret
to society, because for example, before reading this article I had never
thought of this group of people.
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