Out of the 2 chapters for today, I was really intrigued by "Dueling Dualism".
As an athlete, I was very surprised that I did not know more about Patino's conflict as an woman Olympic athlete. The fact that she had no idea that she was anything but a female is shocking to say the least. From one simple test her life fell apart. "Spanish officials stripped her of past titles and barred her from further competition. HEr boyfriend deserted her. She was evicted from the national athletic residence, her scholarship was revoked, and suddenly she had to struggle to make a living. After giving her life up to sports, she lost everything. This fact makes me very conscious of what I have. I have given up 16 years to ice hockey, and have been out for almost an entire season due to injury. Sometimes I wonder why I stay committed and find myself having negative emotions about the entire situation, but now I know that I have been blessed in some ways because it could be so much worse. The only thing that I have lost is the time to get in shape and improve myself as a hockey player. Before things were resolved, Patino had lost everything, and the permanent damage is that Patino is now treated differently because of the conflict of her sex/gender.
I found myself reading these 2 chapters out to my roommates as some stuff really surprised me. I thought it was interesting to learn that until 1968, "many female Olympic competitors were often asked to parade naked in front of a board of examiners. Breasts and a vagina were all one needed to certify one's femininity". I found this to be somewhat inappropriate for them to have to parade around naked, but because they banned this, chromosome tests began to replace them, and that is how Patino had a life altering experience.
I also found John Money and Anke Ehrhardt's idea to be fascinating. I never have pinpointed the differences between gender and sex until i read their argument. Sex refers to physical attributes and gender refers to a psychological transformation of the self. many people use these terms interchangeably, but now that so many issues have arisen with sex and gender, it is empirical that these two terms are defined individually.
I also read these shocking part aloud to my friends! Though I think the previous practice was degrading for sure, I think that the current practice is also problematic for the very reasons Sterling enumerated. Physicians need to widen their options instead of a simple check box for "male" or "female."
ReplyDeleteI also wondered if men were subjected to these tests!
Thanks for sharing your reflection on Sterling's text from an athlete's point of view. I enjoyed reading it.