Gender Identity

Intersex individuals (hermaphrodites) do not neatly fit into either the male or female physiological categorization of sex. Truly ambiguous genitalia are a rare condition, but there is a range of variability in all of the physical characteristics that are considered sexual. Historically, the study of intersex individuals has made unique contributions to the understanding of physiological influences on sex differences and gender identity (Money 1997). Some medical historians (Dreger 1998) and biologically trained feminists (Fausto-Sterling 2000) have critically reevaluated the two-sex social categorization system. These theorists present the idea that sex is a socially constructed categorization system, developed particularly with the collusion of medical practitioners. They see the two-sex system as an expression of gender politics, rather than the simple labeling of facts of nature. They raise questions about the conceptualization of gender identity based upon only two sexes, male or female.

Intersex individuals are still raised as either male or female in most societies, and this seems unlikely to change. However, these individuals are challenging medical thinking that they should be surgically or hormonally assigned to one sexual category or the other, particularly during infancy or childhood before they have consolidated their gender identity (Intersex Society of North America). In most societies, intersex individuals do end up living in one gender role or the other and have either a male or a female gender identity.

In a few societies there is a distinct social sex role for some intersex individuals. Two examples of this are the turnim man in New Guinea and the guevodoces in the Dominican Republic. Newborns with these syndromes (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia) may look like girls or boys at birth. However, in some cases the midwives recognize them as intersex, and they are raised in an intersex role. These children masculinize at puberty. They are not marriageable as females and often assume a male role after puberty. The hijra caste in India includes intersex individuals who may be placed there for raising from childhood, although the hijras are predominantly composed of non-intersex males.