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Hermaphrodites


            
             Article: "Queer Cut Bodies" By Morgan Holmes.
             Intersexuality can be understood as people who were born with both male and female organs. "Queer Cut Bodies" explains that intersexed bodies are actually "clear cut bodies", because these medico cultures have literally "cut" these bodies in order to make them "fit" in the society of Western culture. Holmes" main argument is that hermaphrodites should not be considered as "abnormal beings". "bodies [that] are neither male nor female make them clearly intersexed rather than confused or incomprehensible." However, throughout the article, (s)he repetitively shows us that this is exactly how society perceives them to be. .
             His/her first argument was that the discovery of hormones created the assumption of intersexed bodies as "irregular". "Hormones produce a phenotype which indicates, if it is an inappropriate phenotype, that an individual is intersexual." Upon discovering these "Queer Cut Bodies", it was very difficult sexually to understand the desires of a hermaphrodite. So physicians then developed a goal: to only view these desires from a male or female perspective. So they came up with a way of controlling this "deformity", which was to surgically control their sex. Although they claim it was to comfort the parents of these children, I really don't think it would be, as they explained, the "best cosmetic effect". .
             The second argument is that "the treatments to which intersexed children are subjected constitute a violent imposition of cultural norms and restrictions on their bodies and behaviours". Culture views these intersexual bodies as "sick" or "diseased". They did not care that it deprived them of sexual abilities but instead saw it as something that needed to be repaired or corrected. Their mentality of this indicates to me that it is not the individual that is "diseased" but the culture that surrounds that is. .
             His/her final point was that surgery creates a sexual abnormality in a dominant heterosexual society.


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