Lessons from the Intersexed

Author:   Suzanne J. Kessler
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
ISBN:  

9780813525303


Pages:   208
Publication Date:   01 July 1998
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
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Lessons from the Intersexed


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Full Product Details

Author:   Suzanne J. Kessler
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.283kg
ISBN:  

9780813525303


ISBN 10:   0813525306
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   01 July 1998
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  1 Introduction 2 The Medical Construction of Gender 3 Defining and Producing Genitals 4 Evaluating Genital Surgery 5 Questioning Medical Management  6 Rethinking Genital and Gender Notes Glossary Biography Index

Reviews

"Fascinating in what it tells us not only about situations in which sex assignment is uncertain but about the astonishingly weak empirical foundations on which the medical orthodoxies of binary sex and gender are built. A must for anyone interested in the ways widely accepted social beliefs and scientific explanations generate and reinforce each other.--Ruth Hubbard ""author of The Politics of WomenÆs Biology and Exploding the Gene Myth"" Lessons from the Intersexed concerns how modern medicalized Western culture deals with sexual variation. Throughout, Kessler holds that variation is normal . . . and thus sees many treatment modalities for intersexuality as medically questionable, culturally dogmatic, and ethically very dubious. Although Lessons from the Intersexed does record a devilÆs garden of botched surgical and endocrinological interventions, it is neither a hot-headed rant nor a popular book retailing medical horror stories. Instead, Kessler writes with clear ethical purposes for a professional audience to ask what intersexuality is, and what we should do about it, if anything.-- ""Journal of Sex Research"" Lessons from the Intersexed is an incisive look at the fifty-year-old Western medical practice of surgically reconstructing the bodies of infants born with genitals that do not look wholly female or male. . . . KesslerÆs academic publication is the first to expose the medically acceptable range for the genitals of a newborn (0.2 cm to 0.85 cm for an infantÆs æclitoris, Æ 2.5 cm to 4.5 cm for an infantÆs æpenisÆ). We see that, in fact, it is the decision of the attending surgeon that determines whether or not a parent goes home with a little girl or a little boy.-- ""Whole Earth"" This is a brave book. Kessler says things that need to be said, and she says them clearly, concisely, and with respect for the people whose lives are most affected by the questions she confronts. A must read for anyone concerned with intersex issues.--Holly Devor ""author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality and FTM: Female-to-"" While the physician's response to an infant with ambiguous genitalia has been to produce categories like the æsuccessful vaginaÆ and the ægood enough penis, Æ Kessler takes her cues from intersexuals themselves. This book is a brilliant and long overdue call for the reevaluation of gender variability.--Judith Halberstam ""author of Female Masculinity"""


"""Fascinating in what it tells us not only about situation in which sex assignment is uncertain but about the astonishingly weak empirical foundations on which the medical orthodoxies of binary sex and gender are built. A must for anyone interested in the ways widely accepted social beliefs and scientific explanations generate and reinforce each other.""--Ruth Hubbard ""author of The Politics of Women's Biology and Exploding the Gene Myth"" ""This is a brave book. Kessler says things that need to be said, and she says them clearly, concisely, and with respect for the people whose lives are most affected by the questions she confronts. A must read for anyone concerned with intersex issues.""--Holly Devor ""author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in"" ""While the physician's response to an infant with ambiguous genitalia has been to produce categories like the 'successful vagina' and the 'good enough penis, ' Kessler takes her cues from intersexuals themselves. This book is a brilliant and long overdue call for the reevaluation of gender variability.""--Judith Halberstam ""author of Female Masculinity"""


Author Information

SUZANNE J. KESSLER is professor of psychology at Purchase College, SUNY. She is co-author of Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach

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