At the end of "Of Gender and Genitals", Sterling asks, "Should there only be two sexes?" (p. 77). This question really got me thinking because I did not know the answer. It seems like more and more people are blurring the lines between male and female in our modern world, so making other genders could be more helpful in order to specify a person's sex and help others recognize their gender. Yet, I also feel that having more than two genders can cause many social issues and anxieties. For example, who would intersex kids play against on sports teams? Sports teams are divided up due to gender to create a more fair competing ground, so would intersex children only be allowed to play against each other? Would there even be enough of them to have a strictly intersex team? Also, which bathroom would an intersex child use? If intersex children were given their own facilities to use, wouldn't it just be replicating segregation? Would schools be required to admit a certain number of intersex children in order to appear as diverse? How would intersex children's' mental and physical state be different from those of male or female children at the same age? Would doctors treat intersex children any differently? Many social issues would arise if there became more than two politically accepted genders, if instead of just male or female, there were other options.
However, though these social issues may create short-term social turmoil and problems; I think that if people were to consider there to be more than two sexes, it would exemplify the worlds increasing awareness and interaction with intersex children. Yet, I think that since the issue has to do with gender, (which people rely on so much to help define and categorize others,) there won't be any major societal changes towards intersex children; and unfortunately, our society is stuck with this issue of placing intersex or transgender children into male or female categories.
I found Caroline's post to be very interesting and thought-provoking. While reading Fausto-Sterling's chapters I kept thinking about how we judge intersex individuals unfairly and how something needs to be done in our society about this. However, I did not fully think about the extent of integrating intersex individuals into our society. I had not previously thought about issues such as sports teams, bathrooms, etc. for the intersex individuals. I agree with Caroline that while blurring the lines of the sexes might be beneficial for our society that because of the social turmoil, confusion, and segregation that it would cause, no major changes in our society will occur anytime soon.
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